Here's a quick look at some of the things I have planned for November. Some things have already begun, while some are still to come!
Words their Way
In our classroom, students have been pre-tested (using the Words their Way diagnostic assessment) and placed into groups based on their readiness. Students receive weekly, differentiated instruction in small groups in order to learn the spelling patterns, affixes, and definitions of each word in their weekly sort. After their small group instruction, all students play games on Spelling City in order to improve their spelling & vocabulary skills with those words. Finally, students take a post-test in spelling and vocabulary to see what they learned and what they didn't. If you're interested, check out the work they're doing on spellingcity.com!
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History Alive
The kiddos continue to work through the 4th grade social studies curriculum - we currently are finishing up our unit on Native Americans before we begin learning about explorers in the next unit. I personally LOVE History Alive because each lesson contains content-area reading that is appropriate for students at this level, there is a FUN hands-on component to each lesson, and the assessments are quick and straight-forward, focusing on the Big Ideas, rather than minute details and unimportant facts. History Alive quizzes are entered onto our Classroom Calendar one week before they happen, and students are writing them in their Assignment Notebooks a few days prior to the quiz as well. Link: paulsolarz.weebly.com/calendar
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Math in Focus
This month, students are finishing up a unit on Multiplication and Division of large numbers. We are doing traditional long multiplication and long division (if you'd like to help them at home). Students are allowed & encouraged (but not required) to bring home their math packet from each unit which contains a RETEACH, EXTRA PRACTICE, and ENRICHMENT section. This is what you can work on with your child at home if you are looking for opportunities to improve their math skills. I also strongly encourage practicing math facts with flash cards or any other method (especially multiplication and division facts). Finally, all students are now signed up for IXL (a letter was sent home with their sign-on information last week). Please encourage your child to work on the "Recommended" skills, the "Diagnostic" area, or the assigned skills from class (in RtI Time).
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IXL - Differentiated Instruction in Math and ELA
All students have now been signed up for IXL (a letter was sent home with their sign-on information last week). Please encourage your child to work on the "Recommended" skills, the "Diagnostic" area, or the assigned skills from class (in RtI Time). These are not assigned for homework, but the more they complete, the faster they will improve their skills in math and ELA. Students can also work on this during Homework Club before school and during Lunch Recess (see the weekly schedule for days that Homework Club needs to be cancelled due to meetings: paulsolarz.weebly.com/our-weekly-schedule).
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Thank you!
Thanks to everyone who contributed to our whole-school fund-raising effort! We exceeded our goal and the students earned a Silly String party as a Thank You! Lots of smiling faces!!!
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Reading
Students continue to choose books that they'd like to read, and spend some of our reading time reading aloud, having discussions, and completing tasks from class. Schoolwide Mini-Lessons are taught each day, highlighting comprehension strategies, story elements, and text features of non-fiction, fiction, and poetry. In addition, we have read two whole-class novels: Fish in a Tree and Wishtree (I see a pattern). The kids LOVED these books, so please ask them about them at home! Next week, students will get to virtually meet the author of Wishtree in a Skype session where some students will get to ask the author questions!
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Science - Our Geosphere
We're just about to wrap up the first science unit of the school year on geology. Students have learned about rocks, erosion, weathering, deposition, mountain-building, volcanism, continental drift, and more! Some of it was quite complicated, but students are doing a nice job of trying their best to learn everything they can. Students are also participating in many hands-on activities and paying attention during demonstrations. Our next science unit will be on ENERGY and is a unit that I've taught before (hurray!), so I have tons of really fun activities planned including a HUGE Energy Debate! I haven't hyped it up with the kids yet, but they will soon be talking about it at home! :)
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Science (Continued)
Had some fun with Coach K making flash flood rivers and watching how water meanders around obstacles, erodes land that is soft or brittle, and accumulates at the lowest point. I took suggestions from the students to improve our water tables and students were encouraged to use any materials they could think of. Got some great video of the demonstration and some nice pictures of our experience!
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Soap Science
As a 4th grade, we all participated in a three day investigation of the properties of Ivory Soap, including the sink or float test, radiation test, and gravity test. Although all the students were together in the Commons for these lessons, they were perfectly behaved and attentive! I think they enjoyed the activities and learned a lot about OBSERVATION skills and recording those observations in our science notebooks!
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Writing
Students are finishing up our second writing unit of the year on Narrative Writing. They are currently writing their final piece and getting regular feedback from me on it. Although the interface that we used was a bit clunky, students were flexible and willing to try out the new technology, allowing me to give valuable feedback to WritingCity. For the next writing unit, I will go back to the way I have been doing it for the past couple years using Google Docs and Google Classroom. This will make feedback a much smoother & immediate process. I will include a copy of their formal writing piece in the upcoming report card. Please know that some students missed some lessons due to absence or pullout, while others got a large amount of feedback from me, making their story more of a collaborative assignment!
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Reflecting on the First Trimester
A few weeks ago, the students completed a reflection of some of the skills we value in our classroom. They determined if they were doing well with each skill or if they needed to improve. Based on their self-assessments and my own observations, I will be writing some goals for each student that will go into this report card. Students will be asked to try their best to improve each of these skills, make a plan for doing so, and monitor their progress (citing evidence along the way). Please keep an eye out for these goals in the report card envelope, and help your child achieve these goals if you are able! Thanks!
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Cardboard Challenge!
Boy, did the kids have fun planning out their cardboard creations, gathering their supplies, building their contraptions, and making improvements along the way! Lots of creativity, problem-solving, and compromising went on during this activity! Students were prepared that they would not be allowed to take their creations home, so we spent some time taking pictures and videos of our creations. These were all uploaded and can be viewed here: www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLc1S5r8u7b-kLU3QAa8jprCM-cPYnxvb
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WIN Time (RtI Groups)
WIN Time (also known as RtI Time in our classroom) is well under way. Although the other classrooms are swapping kids, I've decided to keep everyone so we can be a little more flexible with time and in order to implement multiple groups for some students. All students have been assessed and a personalized education plan has been assigned to each student. Some will attend daily math re-teach/pre-teach while others will work independently on enrichment activities. Some will meet their needs through IXL online, while others will work with me at the center table. All students will receive small group instruction from me on Words their Way each week and students are always welcome to get additional support during Homework Club before school and during lunch recess. So far, I'm seeing a HUGE impact on students and look forward to watching everyone progress throughout the year!
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Passion Time
During our RtI Time, students are all given 60 minutes per week to work on Passion Time projects. Passion Time is an opportunity for students to explore personal interests, lingering curiosities, and improve on individual strengths. There is a process for each round of Passion Time that requires the students to document their journey. All experiences will culminate with a video explaining their learning and showing off any products that were created. I encourage you to comment in the blog post that your child creates by giving them compliments (and feedback if you're interested). The goal will be to improve our executive function skills (planning, meeting deadlines, managing time, etc.), discover new interests, and solidify our research skills. Please provide your child with any support you can, but please remind them that Passion Time is lowest on the totem pole of educational responsibilities - If they are behind in any assignments, they need to do those first! Thanks! :)
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Global Perspectives
This past month, we learned about the 17 Global Sustainable Development Goals created by the United Nations. We learned about each goal, sorted cards based on our opinions of what is most important, and tweeted out our thoughts. We will be doing more with this throughout the year, but the students demonstrated tremendous amounts of empathy for those around the world who are struggling are experiencing some sort of inequality. This was a tough lesson and should be explored further at home if anyone is willing to do so!
The 3-day lesson plan can be viewed here: paulsolarz.weebly.com/short-term-projects/the-uns-sustainable-development-goals |
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Content Area Reading
I try hard to integrate subjects in order to get the most out of the time we have together! One way I do this is by incorporating lots of science and social studies reading and writing into the curriculum. Because non-fiction is different from fiction, students sometimes struggle to pull meaning from the text. By practicing with partners and the teacher, students improve their skills and transfer their learning to new situations. Please encourage your child to do non-fiction reading at home whenever possible. There are so many great topics that kids would enjoy reading about!
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