October!

Wow! We have been busy in Room 2! Today we were able to enjoy our "extra free minutes" of time that we earned from following directions and working hard. As a class we are earning minutes  when we get teacher compliments and work together as a class. Next week we will be celebrating Halloween with Pumpkin Math. Thank you for the ongoing pumpkin donations. I will be sending an additional email to confirm parent helpers for our day. If your child wishes to dress up, please make sure that the costume is "student friendly"! 

In Reader's Workshop, we are continuing to read  Flora and Ulysses while focusing on reading strategies of CROP- QV. Next week we will be specifically discussing point of view and elements of fiction. We were able to dig deep into several chapters with using our close reading strategies. Close reading helps us to really digest the text on a different level. 

In Writer's Workshop, we are revising our realistic fiction stories. I am so impressed with the quality of stories and the ability to add scenes into our writing. We have been working to become our characters by using dialogue and descriptive actions. Next week, we will be revising our stories by using a writer's checklist and focusing on our leads. 

This week in math it has been all about place value with numbers up to a hundred million. We have been working with both Engage NY lessons and the Sadlier text. Students must know the word form, expanded form, and standard form of a number. Using these skills has helped us begin to start rounding numbers. Another grade 4 standard that focuses on place value is that students must recognize that a digit in one place represents ten times what it represents in the place to its right. For many students this is a challenging skill. I have found LearnZillion to be a great resource if you are looking for additional tools to use with your student. 

Upcoming: 

Please make sure to sign up for a parent conference if you have not already done so. This greatly helps with planning purposes. 

Homework: 

We have discussed as a class, the importance of nightly homework and the quality of work that homework should be returned in. Most nightly assignments will receive a grade of a +, good, check, or minus. This month's book project is due on November 3rd. Feel free to email me papers ahead of time if you would like me to look at them with your child. 

Thank you for your continued support. We have been off to a great start!

Ms. DiPesa