We are nearing the end of another school year! Our class has been busy finishing up state reports, writing opinion essays, going on field trips, learning about fractions, and working in book clubs. It is an exciting time of year! To help keep students focused and engaged in class activities I've hung up a Balloon Pop Countdown. Each day students have the chance to earn a balloon pop. If they have earned it we will pop the balloon at the end of the day to reveal a reward. Be on the lookout for blast emails describing our rewards!
Our first reward is an in-class reading campout! Students have been asking me all year if they can just have a whole day to READ! How can I say no to that. So, students are invited to bring in pillows, sleeping bags, and books for a campout in our classroom! Spring Playground Cleanup - Operation Sand Removal!
In May we helped Mr. Westkott clean up the blacktop! Once all the snow melted, our blacktop was left covered with sand. Students kept slipping at recess causing countless scrapes and skinned knees. Together we worked to make our playground a safer place!
Our Project O Trip!
Our trip to Project O was a HUGE success! Students had a great time dragging the net and picking out all the little critters from the bottom of Long Island Sound. We kissed the buoy for good luck, dropped the net, and used our muscles to pull it up. Students also used binoculars to check out the harbor seals hanging out on the rocks. We counted how many we saw to help track their movements in the Sound.
In math, students have been working on decomposing fractions using tape diagrams. Then students write number sentences based on the tape diagrams they draw. Check out the educreations video below to see our thought process in action!
In reading we have been working in Book Clubs! There are 4 Clubs in our classroom, each reading their own novel. Students are responsible for completing the required reading each day and preparing for their Book Club Meetings on Friday (think Oprah's Book Club in a classroom). The goal is for students to use the skills taught throughout the year to conduct their own discussions about the books. We are practicing our speaking and listening skills in these student-led groups. There are 5 different Book Club jobs and students take turns rotating through the jobs each week. The "Literary Leader" is in charge of leading the group meeting on Friday and making sure that their group remains on task.
Hope you're all enjoying this beautiful weather!! 8 days to go!!
~ Mrs. D
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A LOT has been happening in here in 4th grade! First off, we had a great visit from Project Oceanology. Students worked in groups to complete the Davy Jones Locker experiment. By varying water temperature and salinity students were able to create a zone in the center of their tubes where objects would hang instead of sinking to the bottom or floating to the top. We have also been working hard to ROCK the SBAC tests! The class put a lot of effort into this strenuous test and I am so proud of their work. To help balance out these stressful testing weeks, students have been involved in a high-interest, engaging literacy project. We have been completing a literary analysis of Big Hero 6!! Students were introduced to new story elements and vocabulary (protagonist, antagonist, conflict, and climax to name a few). Just check out all these notes covering our board! In math we just finished up a quick unit on area and perimeter. Students put their multiplication skills to the test when they designed their own zoo's and needed to determine the area and perimeter for each animal's enclosure. The final products were great and are hanging proudly in the hall outside our room! We have also been using a new program in math class, Accelerated Reader. This is an added part of our STAR assessment software. Students are given practice assignments to complete that are tailored to fit their academic needs. The best part is that this program can be accessed from home! This would be great way for your child to practice important math skills over vacation :-) Students use the same login information that they use for the STAR assessments at school. Remember way back when.... At the Hartford Wolf Pack game last fall we all signed the Kindness Pledge. I, _________ pledge to be respectful and kind to all people I interact with on a daily basis, both in person and online. I promise to be considerate of other people's feelings when talking to them. If I see a person being treated inappropriately in any way including but not limited to being bullied or harassed, I will help them and alert a supervisor, if necessary. Everyone who signed the pledge had their names put on a specialty jersey that the Wolf Pack wore on March 27th and my son and I were there to see them! I tried to get some good pictures of the jerseys to share with you. Can you see your name? :-) What's coming up after break? So much to do and so little time left! Here's a run down of some of the things on our agenda for the remainder of the year:
Hope you all have a SUPER spring vacation! Thanks for coming out to conferences and I'll see you all in a week!
- Mrs. D We've reached that time of the year again where state testing is right around the corner... We are doing all that we can in the classroom to make sure your children are prepared to take the new SBAC (Smarter Balanced) assessment at the end of the month. Click on the buttons below to learn more about the SBAC test and take a practice test! Parents - I highly recommend you check out the practice test to see what your child will be expected to do! So, how are we preparing for testing? In math, students are utilizing a new component of our STAR testing site! Students work daily on Accelerated Math 2.0 (AM 2.0) to practice a variety of math skills. These skills may be different from the direct instruction they are receiving in class, however each student is working on skills specific to their needs. AM 2.0 uses each student's STAR testing data to put together a list of skills they need to practice to be successful. It also provides students with videos and worked examples to help them solve the problem. The best part, AM 2.0 even suggests peers to go to for help! You might have noticed that the math homework sent home yesterday was personalized for each student. This homework comes directly from AM 2.0 to help students further practice the selected math skills. We have also created more how-to math videos! Students have learned a lot by narrating each step as they solve problems. Check out our latest videos on multi-digit multiplication using partial products and place value methods: In literacy we are continuing to work on our written responses. Students are doing a much better job of finding evidence from the text to support their answers. We've been working in the classroom to read and compare different texts on the same topic. Below are some great resources to help students practice skills necessary to succeed: Thanks for your continued support!
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Have a great weekend! ~ Mrs. D :-) | P.S. - Check back throughout the week for some classroom updates and how-to lesson videos for math and ELA! |
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Mrs. Stacie Dempsey
Fields Memorial School
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