First full week!

September 21, 2009 | Posted in: Class Updates

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Our first full week of school was a lot of fun, and a lot of work.  The kids spent many days working on a collaborative reading comprehension activity relating to our first story: The Gardener.  I divided the students into four groups, and each group worked on a different area of comprehension: timeline, inferences, narrative elements, and character analysis.  They were able to combine their different pieces of work into a single display that tied in with the theme of The Gardner.  I was impressed by how well the kids worked together and how much thought they put into their tasks.  Definitely a growth from third grade thinking!

We’re now in our second set of words for the spelling pre-pre-tests (the test that comes BEFORE the pre-tests).  Once we finish, each student will have a unique list of words that he or she can practice in lieu of weekly spelling words that he or she gets correct during the weekly pre-tests.  (The weekly pre-tests for the typical Gr. 4 spelling words WON’T begin until we have finished the pre-pre-tests.)

We’re wrapping up the first math unit this week. We have spent the last three weeks learning about different areas of geometry, including how to use a straightedge (and why a tape measure makes a bad straightedge, as the photo shows); the differences between lines, line segments, and rays;  the differences between parallel, intersecting, and perpendicular figures; properties of different polgyons; and (most exciting for the kids) how to use compasses to draw circles.  Math test tomorrow!

All students have finished their first draft of their summer item expository writing pieces.  About half of the kids have conferenced with me or with Mrs. Colbert (not the same as Miss Colbert).  The students are typing their final copies in the computer lab.

In case you didn’t hear, allow me to make a modest announcement on behalf of our class…

WE HAD A 100% RETURN RATE

FOR SUMMER READING LOGS!!!

If I could have put that in glowing text with little marquee lights dancing around it, I would have!  We were one of several classes that had each and every student, including those new to Avon, return a reading log!  How impressive!  We started our celebration last week at the spirit day (also Ms. Grainsky’s birthday), and the kids were excited to learn that as the co-winners of the reading rally, they will get to partake in an ice cream party that Mrs. McCabe is throwing!

As a whole class, we read 315 books over the summer.  Before I shared that number with the kids, I had them predict how many books they thought the whole group read over the summer.  We spent a few days working with the data by finding out the mean (average), median (see photo), mode, range, etc.  Next week: Standard deviation and variance! (Just kidding!)  We graphed the data by making a bar graph that is now hanging in the hallway (in case you’re in the building and want to see what the kids put together!)