Post #10

Just another week of innovating, creating, collaborating, and problem solving. The girls had a blast working with Mrs. Houston's first graders during Innovation Day. They designed and constructed a house that could withstand the huffing and puffing of the Big Bad Wolf (aka a hair dryer). I loved how gentle and encouraging the girls were with the first graders. Be sure to check out all of the pictures taken by our class photographers.

We are definitely gearing up for Halloween and Wordly Wise Dress-Up day on Monday! Halloween was part of just about everything we did in math.The girls worked with problem solving and logic scenarios. They located scary places throughout the United States and worked with map scales and computed population differences. We chanted to Ghost Busters during a Musical Moment. Their accuracy is getting stronger with each and every calculation they perform. They problem solved with a hotdog eating contest. Gross and fun at the same time:) Many are seeing the benefits of using the Singaporean bar model method of problem solving especially as the difficulty increases. The girls successfully completed their Unit Two math test. Remember that every math test has a listening and writing component which takes some out of their comfort zone. The girls are rising to the challenge. Speaking of math challenges.... keep encouraging your daughter to work on the weekly challenges. Math chicks are adding up!

The next math unit works with order of operations, factors, multiples, and of course lots of problem solving.

The girls completed their presidential research by creating a magazine cover that featured their president. They focused on using capitalization correctly and were very creative in the process. The covers look authentic and were fun to make and this got the girls talking about extending the project. Ibby's idea was to create a magazine cover about their weekly partner. What a great idea! Next week's writing lab will include Ibby's awesome suggestion.

 We continue to work with parts of speech (especially verb tense) and attention to detail in the editing process. Their Halloween stories are on display for all to read. The girls LOVE sharing their work and added their 3WT (Three Word Thursday) writing to a shared slideshow. We had a few oops along the way but problem solved ways to improve the next time. 

A few notes:

* Wordly Wise Dress up Day is Monday!!!!!

* Special Week Sign-up Elizabeth is the Special Week girl next week

* Homework is posted for the week for family planning. (There is a tiny assignment on Halloween.)

* Carpool Helper Calendar- Meg will represent our class next week.

* The St. Catherine's Day service is at St. Stephen's on Friday. The girls should wear a skirt, dress, or nice slacks.

* Field Trip to Mount Vernon on 11/9 (more on this next week).

* The girls love seeing themselves in the Wordly Wise quizzes. So if you have a chance send a pic or two of your weekend activity and I'll add it to our quizzes. Nothing like a little relevance to perk up student interest.

Girls- Your mystery blog question...... Why did you read about cereal in a Newsela article? Here's a hint:

 Post your answer here.

Post #9

I enjoyed meeting with everyone during our conferences. I am so blessed to be a part of this incredibly energetic, creative, mathemagical class! Never a dull moment in Room M02! 

Our class chapel was the highlight of my week. I reminded the girls that chapel is chapel and plays are plays and we were not providing a performance but rather sharing a homily. We talked about the message that we wanted to deliver to the Lower School- Trick-or-Treating for UNICEF and how this program helps thousands of children all over the world. The girls were articulate and poised. I am so very proud of them. The class received MANY compliments about their chapel. The only negative was the absence of Ibby:( We hope she is on the mend and back in action on Monday.

We used the Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF website for math problem solving. Sometimes we need a reminder about how truly fortunate we all are (myself included). And keeping with the Halloween theme, the girls problem solved with candy alternatives. Bet you can't watch this without cracking a smile. Matific is all the rage! The girls are working through assigned modules and earning adorable monsters along the way.  Math was moved outdoors today to celebrate the end of a summer like week. They went on a scavenger hunt around our beautiful campus, solved riddles, and scanned QR codes for some team problem solving and calculating.

The girls are in the process of a very fun writing lab. They morphed their faces in Photo Booth and will explain how a witch was able to cast a spell on them. The focus is using strong verbs and adjectives and most importantly self-editing (not an easy task for fourth graders). Wordly Wise assessments will be getting a little tougher. A few girls were discouraged  with their grades. I assured them that there is always a learning curve. Below is a special message for the girls about Wordly Wise Dress-Up Day which coincidentally is on Halloween:

Do you dream about a special WW word? Do you get happy when you see a WW word in a book you are reading or hear a WW word in a song?  Do you answer questions and deliberately try to use WW words in your responses? If you have answered yes to any of these questions then you officially have WW Fever! No need to be worried. It happens to most Fourthies and it’s a cause for celebration. We will celebrate WW Fever on 10/31/16. Start thinking about a word that tickles your fancy. How could you dress to represent or explain the word? What clever outfit could you create? Each Fourthie is encouraged to come dressed as a WW word ((from lists 1–5) on 10/31/16. We’ll take pictures and create our very own picture dictionary. So, develop an idea but don’t utter a word to anyone. You may be eager to share your ideas with your peers. Resist the temptation to disclose your outfit to friends. We want everyone to be surprised. I can’t wait to applaud your creativity. 

Innovation Day is next Thursday from 1:00-2:30. Our class is paired up with Ms. Houston's class. The design challenge is:

Little Pig, Little Pig, Let Me In!  

Design and build a freestanding house that will withstand the force of wind created by a blow dryer for 30 seconds and is not taller, wider, or deeper than 12 inches. 

The girls may start bringing in materials on Tuesday. Some suggestions: sugar cubes, Easter grass, popsicle sticks, spaghetti, marshmallows, cotton balls, straws, construction paper strips, recycled paper, toothpicks, Styrofoam peanuts, small sticks, disposable plates, cups, fabric swatches, etc. Possible materials for connecting pieces: paper clips, rubber bands, string or thread (no ropes, bricks or rocks). I know their creativity will be off the charts!

A few notes:

* Special Week Sign-up Ibby is the Special Week girl next week

* Homework is posted for the week for family planning. 

* Carpool Helper Calendar- Powell will represent our class next week.

* Please remind your daughter to bring her recorder to music class. Several forgot last week and were disappointed in themselves.

Girls- Your mystery blog question...... Who said creativity is intelligence having fun? Post your answer here.

Post #8

Tuesday was the perfect day for the International Day of the Girl Mile run. The girls were so excited and truly embraced the activity. I hope you saw the video posted on our school website.

It's two weeks before Halloween and it is the fourth grade so...... it only makes sense to speak to the "Mighty Doughnut Head" in math class. The girls worked with function machines and kicked it up a notch using two step rules. They extended the activity by creating their own doughnut function machine. Once again they impressed me with their creativity. Our math lessons continued to reinforce working with data and graphs. Problem solving involved adorable creatures and included a powerful message about being true to one's self. The girls are striving for accuracy in large digit addition and subtraction. The mantra- "Attention to Details" is repeated often in class. The unit two assessment will be on 10/26/16. The next unit involves multiplication and division and so as an introduction/review they watched Lou Costello getting it totally wrong. The girls wrote gentle notes to Mr. Costello explaining his errors and redirecting him to the correct solution. The weekly fact checks are bringing smiles to the girls' faces. They are seeing their pace and accuracy increase. It's all about personal bests and improving from week to week.

This week's writing lab reinforced parts of speech and using imagery. We used piclits.com for this activity. The girls love to read their writing aloud and they take pride in their work. Unfortunately time is not always on our side so to give the girls a chance to have a broader audience they will begin to post writing in a collaborative space. They added their favorite piclits to a shared Google slideshow. Another creative writing assignment involved using Wordly Wise words in a comic strip created in Google Slides. The girls listened carefully to the directions presented in a video and independently worked on the project. We talked about different learning styles and some tricks to use if you need to hear directions repeated. I love the way the girls are taking ownership of their learning.

Presidential research will be wrapping up next week. We will move into a study of our election process. Newsela will be a great tool for this.

A few notes:

Class chapel is on Friday, October 21st @ 8:15 in the Lower School Assembly Room

* Special Week Sign-up Molly is the Special Week girl next week

* Homework is posted for the week for family planning. Please take a few minutes to review the week's homework and ask your daughter what her plans are for upcoming quizzes. 

* Carpool Helper Calendar- Grace will represent our class next week.

* Please remind your daughter to bring her recorder to music class.

* Daisy Days Committee sent home the Holiday Sales packet. I found several several around the room when I was tidying up. Please email me if you didn't receive one:)

On the horizon........

Field trip to Mt. Vernon is on Wednesday, November 9th

Girls- When is your next math test? Add your answer here.

Post #7

"Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much." --Helen Keller

This week was all about teamwork and bringing your best self to collaborative activities. The girls worked with their weekly partners on math and writing activities. They reflected on their role during partner tasks and were very insightful. They understand what good teamwork looks like and their personal responsibility. 

It was a packed week:

We enjoyed the Compliment Celebration on Wednesday. Tablecloths were spread, slippers were donned, corn was popped, and all relaxed to some Halloween movie fun. I LOVE when we get to celebrate as a class! Animals were blessed on Monday- a special shout-out to Molly and Leslie for their part in this chapel. All Fourthies will have an opportunity to read during a Lower School Chapel.  The girls were treated to an "Author Talk" on Thursday. CeCe Bell shared her personal struggles and inspiration for her books. Powell did a wonderful job introducing this Newberry Award winning author.

The girls finished their first book report by creating a book trailer using Animoto. They chose themes, images, and music to represent the book they read. The girls will present their trailers next week but you can take a peek here. The next book report will be historical fiction. The books were checked out last week and should be finished by 10/31/16. 

Presidential research is ongoing. The next phase of this project will be the creation of a magazine cover featuring the president, his accomplishments, and the story of his life. 

The picture below represents just a bit of math this week. The girls made ballpark estimates, solved LOTS of mental math, completed name collection boxes (ways to represent numbers using equations), played spinners (partner addition and fact practice), and problem solved while learning about candy corn. They worked with data collection and even dabbled with spreadsheets using Google Sheets.

A few notes:

* Parents Technology Night-Tuesday, October 11th @6:30 in the Lower School Library (A second session is being offered on Wednesday, October 12th @ 8:05 am in our classroom- M02)   

* International Day of the Girl- Flyers went home this week. Here it is in case you missed it. The girls can come in work-out clothes but can't wear skimpy gym shorts. 

* Fall Conference Sign-up- I'm looking forward to meeting with everyone in the next couple of weeks:)

* Special Week Sign-up Molly is our next Special Week girl (week of 10/17)

* Homework is posted for the week for family planning. Please take a few minutes to review the week's homework and ask your daughter what her plans are for upcoming quizzes. 

* Carpool Helper Calendar- Madigan will represent our class next week.

* Please remind your daughter to bring her recorder to music class.

On the horizon........

Class chapel is on Friday, October 21st @ 8:15 in the Lower School Assembly Room

Field trip to Mt. Vernon is on Wednesday, November 9th

Girls- Your mystery question is........ Where is Belarus? Ask an adult. Not sure, take a guess. Add your answer here.