December 16, 2013

I can't believe it's only one more week until Christmas break! This month has definitely been flying by. We've been learning about what makes somebody a scientist with Ms. Lynn and Ms. Sophie, who brought in chocolate chip cookies today to help students make scientific claims about the number of chocolate chips. We've been discussing different text features in non-fiction, and in math we've been making different types of graphs. One of my favorite activities this month has been the Jesse tree. The students have been doing a great job of sharing the stories of people from Noah to Abraham, Ruth to Solomon, and now we're hearing about Jesus' immediate family!

We do have two tests this week: social studies on Thursday and English on Friday. If you are helping your child to study at home, please make sure they are reviewing the difference between plural and possessive nouns, as many students get these confused. We also have our normal vocabulary test this week on Friday. We will not be doing a times tables test this week.

Students will be receiving a Christmas break packet on Friday, which has some pages to practice their multiplication and division facts and a reading log. I expect this to be turned in the Monday after break. They are also going to be bringing home a survey from me today for you to fill out. It's a chance for me to get feedback on how you feel the year is going so far. Feel free to fill this out anonymously, or if there's something specific you'd like me to know regarding your child, to put your name on it. The more specific you can be, especially in areas that you believe could be improved, the more it helps me to form goals for my own teaching in this new year. Thank you in advance for your feedback!

Christmas Concert 2013 St. Sylvester School

Christmas Concert

The students did a wonderful job performing at yesterday's Christmas concert! Here are some photos and videos I took of them.

Adding Fractions

Here is a video that some of our fourth graders made about adding fractions. Enjoy!

December 2, 2013

Our school is very lucky to be working again this year with the Notebaert Nature Museum. This month, our class will be completing a Science on the Go unit, where I will collaborate with the Nature Museum staff to teach on what it means to be a scientist. We had our first lesson with Ms. Sophie today, on making observations and inferences. Students practiced by observing live beetles she brought in! She'll be back the next two Mondays as well.

Yesterday marked the beginning of Advent. To celebrate this time, we'll be going to weekly school-wide prayer services and creating a Jesse Tree in the classroom. Each student has a story to share with the class. They need to summarize the Bible verses I gave them and create a symbol for their story. Everybody's is due on a different day, since we'll be sharing 1-2 stories each day. Gabriel and Jeremiah shared the stories of creation and Adam and Eve today, and they did a great job!

We are winding down our unit on fractions, and our test will be next week on Monday. I am passing out a study guide today, which has examples of all the types of problems that will be on the test. It also has an answer key, so students can check their work. Please have your child work on this early so if he or she has any questions, he or she will have plenty of time to ask! Students will be allowed to use their fraction strips during the test.

We're also almost done reading How to Eat Fried Worms! There will be a test on Friday. The best preparation for this is to make sure your child has read the book and understands it. The sequence worm that I assigned at the beginning of the unit is also due on Friday. This needs to have six circles, the first which has the title, author, and their name. The next five circles should have five events from the book and include pictures and transition words. This week, students will work on creating new book covers for their books and practice plays from the book, which they'll perform next week on Monday.

Don't forget about our school Christmas concert on Sunday! It starts at 4:00, and students should be there at 3:45. Due to the concert practices, we will not have a spelling test this week.

Progress reports are being sent home on Friday. If you'd like to meet with me, please just indicate that on the form!