RACE response

Hello Families,

Can you believe we're already in the month of November?  I always love this time in the school year because our classroom environment is established, we're working as a team, and we're progressing nicely through our 4th grade year.  The early release this past Wednesday allowed me to meet with some of you!  It was such a pleasure speaking with you all and I thank you for coming in.  Today, our class was able to re-take our whole class photo, which allowed myself and Ms. B to join in as well!  You can expect this pictures to arrive within the month.  As we look ahead in November, we have a short week next week due to Veterans day, and our Thanksgiving break begins with an early release 11/23.  Mark those calendars!

Finding Equivalent Fractions

In math this week, students worked with fractions and focused on finding equivalent fractions.  We used a hands on approach to this skill and had visuals to help model how fractions can be equal to one another.  As you can see in the picture, students model how 2/4 is equivalent to 1/2.  We also used number lines to reinforce this concept! In ELA, our story this week was a realistic fiction titled Me and Uncle Romie.  Students worked on the skill of analyzing character traits to understand how characters change throughout the text.  In order to assist in comprehension, students used their "tracking sheets" to think beyond the text to make inferences, opinions, predictions, and to ask questions.  If you ever find your child needing assistance in comprehension at home, ask them to explain "tracking" to you!  In addition to analyzing our story, students also worked on a RACE which required them to go back into the text to pull out evidence to support why the main character changed throughout the story.  You will see an example of this response to the right.  We are beginning to get the hang of this! In writing, students are also continuing with their spooky Halloween narrative and should be typing their final draft by the end of next week.  Please watch out for these coming home soon!  

I always love providing questions in our classroom blog to help prompt some conversation at home about school. Recently, a colleague showed me a quote she found and I had to share it with all of you.  It says: "A teacher/parent is not a person who gives the right answers, but one who asks the right questions."  The questions we choose to ask our children encourages deeper reflection and better learning processes.  This weekend, see what your child's responses are to the questions below and as always, thank you for reading!

Best,

Ms. Wentworth:)

Questions for Conversation 

1. How can I determine if 2/8 is equal to 1/4?

2. What two strategies did you use for finding equivalent fractions?

3.  How did James' opinion about this uncle change in the story?

4. What are some natural resources found in the Northeast region?

5. How do you learn best in the classroom?  In a group, partners, individually?

Exploring the NE region