Dear Families,

Experimenting with Force

What a great week in 4W as we found ourselves beginning new units of study and welcoming multiple guests into our classroom.  For starters, we were thrilled to have Mr. Conroy, the 5^th grade field and science teacher, join us for a hands on experiment with force and gravity.  We kicked off our new unit by researching the results of force on an object and learning about potential and kinetic energy.  Students were able to further their new learning through an experiment involving ramps, balls, and measuring distance and speed.  Our students were extremely engaged and as you can see in our picture, having a blast!  Another guest we were lucky to have present in our room was author Monica Tesler.  Monica is the author of Bounders, our current read aloud, and yesterday we thoroughly enjoyed learning about her writing process! It was great for the class to see that their current narrative writing has a purpose outside of school.  She was fantastic! 

China Study Begins!

In other content areas, the 4^th grade class began their study on CHINA this week!  Students dove into their jigsaw groups to begin researching about the culture, lifestyles, history, pastimes, landforms, and other important themes of study.  Our class was fascinated about their new learning, and we look forward to continuing with this topic for the remainder of the year. In math, students are working on unit 7.  This unit heavily focuses on fractions and students are starting to become more comfortable with multiplying, adding, and converting fractions from improper to mixed numbers. We completed an open response this week that required students to reflect on fractions tools that they could utilize to create fruit-salad recipes.  This two day lesson involved working with partners and viewing student samples to revise our own work.  The class gave productive feedback to their peers and collaborated very well!

Monica Tesler Presents!

 Another new topic in 4W is our current novel study, Shiloh.  On Monday, we began reading in our novel groups and we will be reading this story until April vacation.  That means students will not have spelling or an anthology, so the homework will be supplemented! As we end the week, we began brainstorming sensory details for our Chinese poetry which correlates with china trade as well as April being poetry month.  These poems will be based around the theme of nature, and they will be published in our end of the unit China Trade Poetry book.

As a reminder, Wednesday April 5^th will be an early release and the week of April 17^th is our spring vacation.  Next month is a busy month, so be sure to mark those calendars! Thank you so much for reading, and enjoy the weekend. Below are questions for classroom conversation!

Best,

Ms. Wentworth :)

Questions for conversation:

1. What can you tell me about the food, people, and traditions in ancient China?

2. Name two different landforms found in China. (Gobi Desert and Mt. Everest)

3. Can you walk me through the steps for multiplying a whole number by a fraction?

4. What did you learn from our guests this week? Both Monica and Mr. Conroy.

5. What Genre is Shiloh? Who are your main characters?

Revising our work!

Studying about Force

Hello Families,

Our Jigsaw Biographies

Happy Friday!  It sure doesn’t feel like spring yet, but we’re sending positive vibes from 4W in the hopes that the warm weather comes soon.  We have had a fantastic day as we begin our Friday with a Buzz Assembly this morning.  Students will also be coming home with report cards today, and I know they have been anxiously waiting to open them at home.  Please note, as the year progresses and our math material gets more challenging, students have been required to put in additional stamina with the harder content.  The best part about our math curriculum is that it spirals throughout the year, meaning if they experience difficulty with a unit this term, they will revisit the same content next term and even next year! I cannot say enough wonderful things about our students and as I’ve said before, it’s a pleasure working each day with your child.  Thank you! 

Working with our "home groups"

This week in our classroom, we have implemented a newer strategy into our reading instruction called the Jigsaw.  Students were organized into home groups, and expert groups.  Our anthology story this week was a biography about Sacajawea.  With this theme, students were grouped into their expert groups and were assigned a specific book/biography about a new person of study.  These included texts about Laura Ingalls Wilder, John Powell, Lewis and Clark, and Chief Washakie.  As students read, they pulled facts from the text that they would then bring to their home groups.  These new groups consisted of students who all had knowledge about the other biographies read!  That way, they were able to come together, share their new information, and learn from their classmates.  This technique really holds students accountable for learning about their content area, and collaborating with their peers.  As you can see from pictures, students worked very well and even used this strategy as we learned about Social Studies!   In the Midwest region, students are now studying the economy, climate, land forms, and culture found in this area.  They were assessed on their understanding of the states, capitals, and nicknames this Tuesday and will continue working with this region next week.  In Science, students had class time to plan, construct, and finish designing their instrument with Ms. Natale.  The creativity is impressive and as you can see in our picture, they are

Playing with our instruments during recess

forming bands! Such a fun hands-on project.

In math, we began our new unit on measurement and multiplying a fraction by a whole number.  Students are applying their understanding of this skill to real word problems involving cooking and recipes.  Next time you’re working in the kitchen, have your child work with fractions and help you with your measurements. I think you’d be surprised with just how informative they are!

In final news, we have implemented another mindfulness technique in our classroom called calm classroom.  Very similar to yoga for the classroom, but another fantastic tool that we implemented throughout our days to refresh ourselves and prepare our minds for learning.  One final note from our week I would like to mention was our MCAS practice on Monday.  Our students did a FANTASTIC job applying their best effort and working on the chromebooks while taking the test.  Again, this was just a practice but a very beneficial one as this is the first year it will be done on computers.  As a reminder, our MCAS will be April 25, 26, 27^th.   Thank you so much for staying informed and have a wonderful weekend! Below are questions for conversation.

Best,

Ms. Wentworth :)

Questions for conversation:

1. Please draw the “G” in math to help you with liquid conversions.

2. Who was your person of study from the biography jigsaw.  What did you learn?

3. Tell me about the practice MCAS.  What was easy/hard?

4. Name a landform found in the Midwest.

5. What is the book Bounders about!

Hello Families,

Top of the Morning to ya! South School was a sea of green today as we began St. Patrick’s Day at our Irish Step Performance.  Thank you so much to the PTO for arranging this fantastic assembly.  It was nice to bring some Irish history into the day.  It’s hard to believe there was a snow day Tuesday because we have completed so much in 4W.  In math, students were assessed on unit 6, and completed a cumulative which helps us to maintain skills that had been taught since September.  On Monday, we will begin unit 7 which focuses on multiplication of a fraction by a whole number, and measurement.  Students will use their knowledge of fractions to solve problems in real-world scenarios!  

Yesterday, our class discussed our upcoming MCAS practice test on Monday, March 20^th.  This assessment will be done on the chromebooks, and students will get a glimpse into the actual ELA MCAS testing.   This will consist of responding to reading in written form, composing a narrative, and answering text based comprehension questions.  We have been working on these skills all year, I know they will do wonderful.  On Monday, our lunch will be moved to a later time, so we are strongly encouraging students to eat a big breakfast and treat this day like a dress rehearsal.  Thank you for helping us prepare our fourth graders.  In writing this week, students were given a prompt and composed a narrative using google documents.  This allows students to type online, and email their work to me!  Using this feature, I can comment and type in notes on their work.  What a great tool! I was very impressed with the creativity in their writing and we will continue to work on these. 

Our ELA anthology this week was titled Harvesting Hope, and students read a biography about Ceasar Chavez and his fight for the rights of migrant farm workers in California.  We paired this story with another biography this week about Louis Braille, and students analyzed the two readings, pulling facts from the non-fiction texts!  In other news, the instrument project began in class this week and we are having a blast! You can see an example of a beautiful banjo that is in the works of being made and we cannot wait to see the final products.  In Social Studies, students will be quizzed on their Midwest Region Map on Tuesday, March 21^st, and we will continue to learn about the geography, culture, and economy of this region.  Thank you so much for reading about our 4W happenings, and I wish you a fantastic weekend! Below are some questions for conversation.

Best,

Ms. Wentworth :)

Questions for conversation

1. What struggles did Ceasar Chavez experience?

2. How were Ceasar and Louis Braille similar?

3. What was your narrative about? What hook was included?

4. What are your thoughts about the MCAS practice? How do you feel on the computer?

Our RACE sentence starters

Hello Families,

I hope you’re all doing well!  This week in 4W has been FANTASTIC.  We were all extremely motivated by our theme in literature this week which was Greek Mythology, and we engaged in multiple stories about various myths.  Our anthology story this week was titled Hercules’ Quest, and students analyzed the text to understand character traits.  With these character traits, students pulled evidence from the text to support their answers, and composed a well written RACE to further explain specific traits that made our character Hercules memorable.  I was so proud of the class, they have really come a long way in working independently with this skill.   Students also read a Greek Mythology fable, which we used to compare the different genres and author’s purpose. 

Working with supplementary angles

In math this week, we wrapped up unit 6 in math.  This unit focused on 4 main concept areas.  Students continued to work with strategies for division and partial quotients, expressed and interpreted remainders, measured angles and gained confidence with protractors, and solved number stories with fractions.  WOW!  In class, we approached angles in a variety of fun and engaging ways.  We worked with angles in a carousel (ask your child to explain this), we played angle tangle, and collaborated with partners to draw and estimate angles.  We will have a math review on Monday, and students will be assessed on material on Tuesday.  

Using the chromebooks for angle practice!

In Science, students were introduced to an end of the unit project in sound.  Students will create an instrument in class and be able to demonstrate their understanding of pitch of volume.  We are reminding our class to bring materials in from home by Tuesday, 3/14, so they can start designing their instruments! These will be worked on and presented in the following weeks.  In other content areas, we are continuing with the Midwest Region in Social Studies and have completed our map in class.  Next week, we will fill out a practice map for homework and be quizzed on this Friday 3/17.  Please keep your eye out for another completed map coming home on Monday.  

Looking ahead in the month, our 4^th grade class will have their practice MCAS on 3/20 in school on the computers.  We have been implementing practice tests in class throughout our TRI times, so students will have a chance for a “mock MCAS.” Our ELA dates for this test will be April 25^th, 26^th, and the 27^th.  Wishing you all a fantastic weekend and thank you for reading!

Best,

Ms. Wentworth :)

Questions for Conversation

1. What is the difference between a complementary and supplementary angle?

2. How do I multiply a fraction?

3. What are some character traits displayed by Hercules? Cite Evidence.

4. What was the difference in the genre between your two stories?

Learning to annotate our RACE

Angle Carousel 

Hello Families,

Protractors made to measure angles!

I hope you all had a wonderful February break.  Now as we’re in the month of March, it is full steam ahead until the end of the year!  This week “Read Across America week” was recognized at South School with themed days and a beehive reading one of the many fantastic Dr. Seuss books.  It’s always a wonderful way to have children collaborate across grade levels to discuss literature and engage in a good book! Prior to our vacation week, our students of 4W earned their 15^th marble and brought in games for a game day.  We have been working hard to refill our jar and just today, we earned three!  As you can see, we ended our week on a great note.

Creating Adverb mad libs with our teams!

In math this week, we continued to work on our division strategy, partial quotients.  Students also learned how to interpret remainders in number stories.  If you are looking for additional support with how to work with your child on this skill at home, I have linked a youtube tutorial on how to compute using this method.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nvn3pUdyr_g Today, students made their own protractors and learned the beginning stages of how to measure angles.  We used prior knowledge of classifying angles to help identify measurements.  We will continue with this into next week! 

In ELA, students worked in their anthologies with the Narrative Nonfiction story titled The Right Dog for the Job. We compared this text with a Nonfiction we had previously read and looked for differences in the theme, and the facts/details. We also focused on adverbs and integrated these into our writing.  Next week, we will begin our new writing piece which will be persuasive.  We have many talented writers in this class, it will be nice to incorporate this genre into our daily

Collaborating with our groups in ELA

work. 

In Social Studies, students began a new region to study, the Midwest!  We began our unit with a brief overview of the states, capitals, and abbreviations.  Students also took notes as they watched an introductory video and learned about the culture, economy, and landforms found here.  Next week, we will dive deeper into learning more about this region of our country.   Thank you for reading and staying involved with our classroom happenings, more to come! Below are questions for conversation, have a wonderful weekend.

Best,

Ms. Wentworth :-)

Questions for Conversation

1.       What are the steps when using a protractor?

2.      What is a protractor used for?

3.      Name the states found in the Midwest region.

4.      In the sentence, identify the adverb: The child quickly rode his bike to school.

Celebrating our 15th marble with Game Day!