Busy At Work

We have been very busy here in the classroom lately. The students transitioned well back into school after Spring Break. The first of the week was a bit rough on all of us, but we're back into the routine again.

In MATH, we have continued to work on specific skills in preparation for the state assessments coming up in a few weeks. The students have been working on input/outbox boxes, also known as function boxes. This is very basic algebraic thinking for fourth grade. This is a difficult concept for several of the kids to do, so please check their papers and see what you can help them with at home. Next week, we will begin measurement skills as well as geometry. We only have two more weeks to prepare for the big test, so if there is anything your child is struggling with, please let me know so I can help them to better understand the concept.

In READING and LANGUAGE ARTS, we have taken a break from the textbook and are doing an exciting descriptive writing activity. Early in the week we talked about vivid verbs and adjectives and did several activities looking at author's writing. We read different parts of books and tried to create a movie in our head of what we were reading. I then asked them what author's do in order to make their reading fun and exciting for us to read. We underlined the adjectives and verbs the author's used and talked about how different the book would be without these words. Then, I introduced their assignment...to pretend they were an astronaut on a solo mission and have landed on an undiscovered planet. Their job is to describe this planet to me using words that would help me picture this planet in my mind. We are on step two of the writing process which is their rough draft. Tomorrow we will begin revising and peer editing. We will finish these up next week and illustrate our stories before sharing them with the class.

In SCIENCE, Miss Burns has finished up her unit on the Human Body. Students will be tested tomorrow, so they all have their study guides with them tonight. After finishing up the Human Body, Miss Burns will begin teaching social studies. The students will be learning about the states in the Western part of the United States.
Please make sure they continue to work on the names of all the states as we will be testing these as well.

I hope all of you had a wonderful spring break with your children. I can't believe we only have seven weeks of school left! Time flies when you're having fun!