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Weekly Updates!
I
will try to update this page as often as possible throughout the
school year with what we've been doing/learning in school.
- 9/2/08 What a fantastic start to our new school year! Today
was spent mostly getting to know each other and the logistics of
our classroom. Over the next few weeks, we'll be taking things slow
until we eventually build our routine. Last night, yellow cards
(emergency contact folder), student handbooks, etc. came home for
parents to look over and sign. Please get these back to school asap.
On Thursday, the students will be giving their first District math
test. This test is for me to get a baseline of where the students
are currently at in their math skills. More to come......
- 9/3/08 Another great day! The kids came in this morning
and had their binders out ready for me to check. Thank you parents
for taking the time to review the explanation sheet in order to
better help your child manage his/her binder.
Math: Starting next week, we'll be working on two math programs
in Mr. Brown's room. The first being the regular 4th grade math
book and the second being a program called "Excel Math."
We'll be switching between the two quite often. Excel Math covers
many math concepts at a rather fast pace..concepts that we may not
hit in the math book until much later in the year. I've discovered
over the years that this is benecifical in many ways. The students
are exposed to a concept in Excel Math and then when we arrive at
that concept in the math book, they already have a basic understanding
of it. Basically, the math book covers concepts in great detail
while Excel Math introduces students to them. We'll be doing the
first few Excel Math sheets together here at school and then when
lesson 3 comes home, they'll be an explanation to parents on it
so you know what to expect and how to help your child with it. More
to come......
- 9/10/08 Thanks again for coming to our schoo's parent night
yesterday. It was nice meeting you all. We did our very first Excel
Math Lesson today. The students have a fairly good understanding
of it already, but they may need some help. Next week, I'll be sending
home an explanation sheet which describes it in more detail. If
you ever have any questions, please don't hesitate to call, stop
by or e-mail me. My door is always open! In Social Studies, we're
learning about Washington State History. We've talked about landforms
and reviewed map skills (legends, scales, compass rose, etc..) More
to come.....
- 9/19/08 We've been having a lot of fun this week. The students
have been focusing on number sense in math (writing numbers in expanded
form, word form, rounding...and a strong emphasis on place value.
In social studies, we've covered the 6 regions within Washington
State and talked about a "rain shadow" and the differences
between climate on the west and east sides of the state. In computer
lab, our main focus has been on Microsoft Word and the various elements
of that software. In writing, most of the students have completed
their buddy interviews and have started the writing process (4 paragraph).
We'll have information out to families soon on our AMAZING field
trip we'll be going on (May 14th). More to come........
- 9/25/08 Today, we took our first Excel Math Quiz! Every
5th Excel Math or so, the students take a quiz that covers what
they learned on those previous 5 lessons. I don't grade daily work
(other than for effort/completion). These assessments tell me whether
or not the students grasp the concepts we've covered. In reading,
we continue to focus on non-fiction/social studies books. We'll
also be starting in our first National Geographic for Kids tomorrow.
Later next month, we'll begin working on fiction with chapter book
literature circles. Many of the students are beginning to finish
up their Buddy Bios in Writer's Workshop. Next, we'll be working
on narrative stories/paragraph writing. I'm impressed with what
I've seen so far! Everyone should be done with their Buddy Bios
no later than October 10th. As part of Writer's Workshop and computer
lab, the students will be learning to use a digital camera today..more
specifically, how to transfer a picture to Microsoft Word, edit
it, print it, and use it in their Buddy Bio stories. More to come.......
- 10/3/08 In computer lab this morning, we learned how to
save information to the desktop, a floppy disk and a usb flash drive.
The students are all pretty comfortable using MS Word now as well.
We'll be starting Powerpoint next week. In math, we're finishing
up chapter 3 on multiplication, division and fact families. We'll
be working on expressions (algebra) soon. In Social Studies, we
took a short break from the book, to work in our National Geographic
for Kids magazines. The next chapter we'll be looking at deals with
pioneers/settlers to WA. Science kids have arrived! Next week in
science, we'll be learning all about the human body (bones, muscles)
and how it works. If you ever have any specific questions about
what we're doing, don't hesitate to e-mail me. We move at a fairly
fast pace, and sometimes I get ahead of myself. I sent conference
forms home yesterday. Please be sure to get those filled out asap
so that I can assign your family a time. If they don't come back,
I'll just assign a time. Looking forward to meeting all of you!
More to come.........
"If you promise not to believe everything your child says
happens at school, I'll promise to believe only half of what they
say happens at home." -British Schoolmaster
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