Friday, February 3, 2012

Dear Parents of 4Mc,

It was wonderful to see many of you at our immigration museum!  I have displayed photos of the students in character below.  We have some video that we will burn on a DVD and let students “sign out” to share with families at home.  Here are a few highlights of the week as well as a preview for next week:

Writing:  Students have begun writing a new personal narrative about an adventure.  We have been focusing on producing detailed writing trails that will help us with our narrative parts.  Students use a checklist to independently attend to writing tricks (adjectives, adverbs, show not tell sentences, simile, dialogue, etc.)

Reading:  We have been practicing MCAS multiple choice and open response writing.  In fourth grade open response writing, students need to find evidence to support their answer as well as provide an inference (so what?) as to why the evidence is relevant.  We have been practicing this skill in whole and small groups.  Next week in reading we will start literature circle reading groups that reinforce reciprocal teaching strategies: predicting, questioning, clarifying, and summarizing.

Social Studies:  Students are learning about themes of geography starting with a review of the continents, followed by longitude and latitude.

Math:  Students practiced multiplying one-digit by two-digit numbers using a rectangle model and then moved into the more abstract computation.  This skill was practiced within the context of word problems in the DICE format.  Students are demonstrating progress in their problem solving strategies and skills.  In addition, students practiced geometry concepts on IXL.

Spelling:  We conducted our classroom spelling bee.  Congratulations to Paige (winner) and Emily (runner up)!  The words were challenging and everyone did a great job!

Kate McCormick / Jen McHugh

kate_mccormick@mvyps.org

Share Schedule for Mrs. McCormick’s 4^th Grade

Each week students will have an opportunity to share at Morning Meeting.  Each child has a designated share day.  Please post this at home as a reminder of your child’s share day. 

Our Special Schedule

Monday - Library

Tuesday - Computer and Spanish

Wednesday - Art

Thursday - Gym and Music

Friday - Music and Gym