First week back!

What a great week to return to school!  Everyone was ready to go, students, teachers, everyone.  As I saw many of you over this week, you expressed congratulations and welcome, and I would like to thank you for those sentiments.  It really meant a lot that I could stay home with my family as long as I did, and the support I felt in doing so was terrific.  So, thanks again!  Now on with news from fourth grade. 

The first week back from vacation can sometimes be tricky, but in this case it was as smooth as glass!  All students were ready to go as we came back, and as I got back in the groove, so did they!  Over the week we worked hard in all academic areas, and I will highlight a few of those here. 

In Math we continue to work on mastering facts.  In our class students are either working on mastering subtraction, or mastering multiplication.  When we talk about mastering these facts we mean able to answer any fact in these families (up to 10 x10, and any 2-digit subtraction fact) in two to three seconds.  We are working so students automatically recall these facts, rather than figure them out every time they are presented with them.  And in this undertaking for mastery, we need your help!  Every evening (or perhaps 5 out of 7) please take some time to practice some math facts with your students.  This practice can be done orally, with games, or with some practice provided from me.  For oral practice, just ask them some facts and give them about 3 seconds to answer, it is always a good idea to warm up the math thinking with some review...many of the students are strong with "make ten" facts and this can be a good place to warm up.  A make-ten fact is anything that originates or culminates with a ten: 10-6 = 4, 7 +___ = 10, 2 + 8 = 10, these can be in any order and moving between operations, addition and subtraction, will help build mastery.  Games you can play are a quick game of sums where each player flips a card, and the first to say the correct sum of the two cards wins the hand!  Another game is one of make-ten, this is where one player flips one card, and the first player to say what that card need to make ten wins the hand (i.e. if a 7 is flipped, the first player to say 3 wins the hand, as 7 + 3 = 10).  Fact practice is a part of homework each night, and if you would like some more formal practice for your student, let me know and I can arrange it!

We are also pressing on in other endeavors.  We are working on pieces of persuasive writing, trying to ease our readers into our writing, and them slap them in the face with our opinions at the end.  Students are writing about everything from the benefits of having dogs as pets, to end elephant poaching.  In these pieces of writing were are backing up our arguments with evidence, and this week we practiced cutting and pasting our writing, as to rearrange our arguments to see which order was most effective!  We also continue CLOSE reading, as we search for evidence and the "gist" of what is happening in our books.

I hope you all have a restful and refreshing weekend.

-Dave 

Baby Rose!

Hey everyone, as you know, our daughter was born on February 14th, at 9:15 p.m.! Things are fantastic, she is eating, and sleeping, and pooing, and dping everything babies do! I am a bit sad to miss our expert fair tonight, but am really excited to be hanging out with Steph and Rose instead. Everyone at school has rallied to fill in in my absence this week and things are running smoothly. My leave will go until April 28, and Marybeth Langevin will be in for me starting in March.

I hope all is well with you, and if you need me, email and I will respond as promptly as possible.

Thanks,

Dave

"Like my hat? It makes me feel outdoorsy!"

 

A snowy chilly week!

Throughout this week we have increased our work load in many areas.  We continue to work on our choice topic research, press forward using multiplication, practice word work, and reading closely.

All of the students have different topics they are researching.  These topics are the basis for some books that will be published next week!  The topics in our class span a great range from Beluga whales to sisters!  The effort students are putting into these books is tremendous, as many students are working at home, and during their academic choice time.  These books will be on display the evening of February 19, 2014 during our school wide expert fair.  Please join us that evening for some fun and sharing!

We are working with large multiplication expressions in math.  Students are learning and formulating different strategies to solve expression similar to 21 x 19 = ___.  We have worked with multiples of ten, and will be working toward building automaticity with multiplication facts.  We are also using some new materials, and the way students are using cuisenaire rods to show their understanding is amazing. 

As always, I hope you and your family have a restful and relaxing weekend!

Dave

Another great week, and report cards!

What a week, as usual we had a lot of things happening and the week went quickly.  We are really hitting our stride, and students take so much pride in their work, and their time at school.

We are beginning to work on division in math.  We are working with division as the inverse of multiplication, and continue to use cuisenaire rods to increase our understanding.  Students are working with multi-digit multiplication, and searching for the patterns and similarities they find between this and multiplication.

We have published a non-fiction book, and are working on others.  Students are currently researching a topic of their choice, and are working to plan out and add which non-fiction text features they wish to add to their writing.  Many students are really putting a significant amount of effort into this research as many of them come in with pages of research they are doing at home.

We are also continuing our work on reading comprehension and fluency.  We are learning and deploying different strategies to increase students fluency, as well as to increase the amount of information they are pulling from their reading.

Finally check you student's Friday folder for their report card!  If you have any questions or want anything clarified please let me know and I will fill you in!

Below is some information "decoding" standards based report cards:

January 2014

Dear  EMES Parents:

You will notice some interim revisions in the reporting system this quarter.  As we continue to craft a consistent curriculum in the Washington Central Supervisory Union, we are shifting our reporting to reflect standards-based grading.   This means that your child earns proficiency scores between 1 and 4.  We will not make major changes  in the report card until our curriculum documents are completed.    

·         A Proficiency Level 1 indicates that the learning is not secure and/or

 incomplete.  More time and opportunities to learn are needed.

·         A Proficiency Level 2 indicates progress toward mastery of the

 standard. Please note that the time frame in which a child learns and

 demonstrates mastery is very individual and can take place at any time

 during the school year. 

·         Once a student demonstrates a thorough understanding of the

 standard, characterized by the ability to apply the skills and or under

 standing with accuracy and quality, s/he would reach a Proficiency

 Level 3.

·         When a child consistently demonstrates thorough knowledge of the

 standard and is able to apply in-depth and or extended conceptual

 knowledge, including higher level thinking skills (critique, connections,

 analysis, etc.), a Proficiency Level 4  score would result. 

If you ever need to check with me on anything please let me know!

-Thanks, 

Dave

Can-Struction!

We will be participating in a can-struction effort in our school next Thursday. This effort will use canned food products to create a structure.  Each class will collect canned items and subsequently create a structure from all they have collected!  This will act as a food drive, and all canned goods collected will be donated!  We will be collecting cans Monday through Thursday, and will be making our creation on Thursday.

We also will be working to publish our books on VT history today.  Students have put an incredible amount of work into these books, and are feeling proud of the work they have done.  These books will be formally published by us, by hand, and will be presented to the public on Wednesday February 19, 2014 here at EMES during our celebration of learning in the evening.  Later today a student will be asked to take photos of our publishing work, and these will be posted a bit later on today.

Throughout this short week we have also been focused on building our understanding of math facts.  We are working with one-digit multiplication expressions to build automaticity, and are working on the impact of changing one of the factors in an expression into a multiple of ten.

Also, a long-term sub has been hired for my paternity leave!  It will be....drum-roll...MaryBeth Langevin!  She is an incredibly experienced long term sub who taught in our school just this fall.  As a licensed teacher she brings expertise and pizzazz.  We are looking forward to a visit with her (she will visit our class before my leave starts), and to a productive time while she is here.  My leave is scheduled to be between the February and April breaks.  While I am looking forward to my time at home with Stephanie and "Gizmo," I am also pleased to be returning for the end of the year.

I hope this finds you well, and you have a restful and relaxing weekend.

Dave

What a week!

 I apologize for the "photos only" post on Friday.  I honestly got sidetracked, and am just getting back to the blog now.  We have been plowing forward working in our class.  So much is happening, it is difficult to summarize.  We are working on creating some typed versions of VT history books, working on the tricky concept of division, learning to research and take notes, and so much more. 

Creating non-fiction text on Google Docs is very exciting.  This will be our first type-written published piece.  We are working on creating the text, with photos, now, and will be learning from Mrs. Knoedler how to bind our work into books suitable for presentation and heirloom-ness.  We will be using this new found skill later in the year as we will be creating expert books on subjects of our choice.

 In math we are working on division, this can be a tricky skill to learn, and we are treading lightly into it.  We are working currently with division problems that can be solved using multiplication strategies.  We are investigating what happens to numbers when they are split into groups of different sizes.

We also have started work on researching some choice topics.  These range from hamsters to sisters!  We will be working with some online research tools and practicing taking notes!  Again I apologize for the light-amount of posting, and resolve to increase posts in the future!

-Dave

Welcome Back!

Hey what a great short week to return to school on! We jumped right back into things we had focused on previous to our break. We continued work on our writing abiut Vermont History, reviewed our skills in multiplication, practiced some of our old routines, and learned some new ones.
Upon our return we found our school in a much different state than we left it. Our entrance is new, our gym-cafe-tori-nasium is different, even our classroom rug was new! As is to be exoected our class took all if these changes in stride as we quickly adapted to our new surroundings and the new routines that match them.
After out incredible field trip to the Vermont History museum the week before break, we have lots of informational writing to do! We are beginning the process of creating pieces of writing using Google Docs, and will eventually be publishing our work with embedded pictures from our trip.

Speaking of our trip, I realized i failed to post any pictures, here is one!

The tower was really cool, perhaps a bit slippery, but fun.

We also continued our work in math. We have been working with multiplication and all students successfully solved the expression 18 x 7! Check with your student to see how they solved it.
I hope you all have a restful and refreshing weekend, and let me know if you need anything from me!
-Dave