Rainy Monday and a Field Trip

Welcome back to our rainy, rainy Monday.  Luckily the sun finally came out this afternoon so we weren't going so stir crazy inside all day!

Today we started working on our first school-wide writing prompt.  As a school we have decided to focus on writing this year, especially for our fourth grade students so that we not only become better writers for our future, but also become better writers for our MSP this spring.  We are focusing on informational writing this year since that tends to be the one that students struggle with the most - explaining and supporting details with reasoning.  It's a great help to practice this at home and use that all important word... BECAUSE!!  I stress this every day with students that for every answer they give, they should say "because" so that I know that have some kind of reason why they believe what they do.  Write this secret word on their planner for bonus points tonight!  :)

Today we also got a field trip form home for our field trip on October 4th (sheesh, that's next Friday already!).  We are asking that you return the field trip form with the required $5 by this Friday.  If you need a scholarship for this field trip, please email me or send me a note so that can be arranged.  We are so excited to be going to the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery and it should be a lot of fun so if you're able to chaperone, please fill out the attached form and send that back as well - this is new this year.

Dictado Quiz Tomorrow

Just a couple of quick announcements for tonight:

1. Tomorrow we have our first dictado quiz and students have one last practice for homework tonight - I hope they do well!
2. Book fair is next week!  We will be stopping by on Tuesday to take a peek as a class and I greatly encourage you to support our classroom through buying books - kids LOVE new books, especially when they have donated them!
3. Instrumental music applications went home today.  This year instrumental music will be sometime on Monday afternoon and students are expected to make up any missed work in class.  They will be expected to practice at home, bring their instrument every Monday, and bring their music book on Monday as well.
4. Curriculum night is next Wednesday, September 18th already!  The night will go from 6:15 from 8:00 and I hope to see everyone there!  :)

Enjoy your evenings and I will see you Friday!  :)

Dictado - Week 1

This year in fourth grade, we have decided as a team to not do spelling with fourth graders - for a variety of reasons and experiences in the past showed us that a traditional spelling list just turned into memorization of spelling words which were quickly forgotten soon after the spelling test was given.  Obviously, we want to be adjusting our practice so that students are actually learning from the time we are spending on spelling and writing.  Additionally, the expectation is that students are using their grammar and spelling learned in their actual daily writing. 

SO, we have decided to take a page from this amazing teacher blog Apples of Your Eye and change our spelling program to a dictation-based program.   Each week on Monday, students will be given the pre-test to see what their current writing abilities are.  Then, students will be shown the correct way to write the paragraph and are expected to edit their own writing.  Tuesday and Thursday, students will be given the dictado paragraph to practice at home.  On Wednesday, students will have time in class to practice with a partner.  Then, on Friday, students will be given the full dictado paragraph as their "spelling test".  Points will be given for EACH word spelled correctly, paragraphs indented, and any punctuation placed correctly where it should go. 

Thus far, the students seem REALLY excited to have something other than the dreaded "list"and I am hoping to see great results.  This week our paragraph is:

Fourth Grade

When you’re in fourth grade, the expectations are high.  You’re expected to complete your work on your own, with partners, and in groups. Mrs. Lippert also expects you to do your best in everything.

It will be a lot of help to practice dictating this sentence to your student nightly, so that they can practice a lot - more practice will lead to better results!  :)

 

Since we just started this week, our homework schedule is a little off and students DO have their dictado homework tonight and the expectation is that students are writing correctly, at least once.  Thanks for supporting their work at home!