Announcements:
We're back from Thanksgiving break and still going strong. I'm super proud of the kids and all the work that they are doing. Christmas Celebration: I am still looking for volunteers to help with the Christmas Celebration. I like that one to be pretty relaxed and fun, with a focus on crafts and games. It will be on the last half day before Christmas break. If you are interested in coordinating that, please let me know! Ideally, I'd like to have one volunteer in charge of coordinating the party. Once I have a coordinator, I'll send a note home asking for volunteers to be in charge of crafts, games, and breakfast and direct parents to email the coordinator. Parent who don't want to volunteer are still welcome to come and join the fun on the day of the party. Reading: We finished up the last of our 7 reading strategies this week with synthesizing. Synthesizing is the act of growing our thoughts, adding information to our brains. The entire goal of education is synthesizing, and they did a great job with it this week. Next week we move from reading strategies to comprehension strategies, where we will use what we have learned to start better picking apart and understanding what we read. Writing: The class is learning how to write dialogue and quotes. We are in the process of transcribing a comic strip and turning it into paragraph from. Math: What has three eyes and scares the daylights out of fourth graders? Division! We've been dividing this week, and the kids are off to a good start. We haven't yet started the dreaded long division, but the kids are working very hard and I'm confident that they'll hit it at full speed and have an easy time learning it. Science: Last week we made electromagnets, and this week we turned those into working telegraphs. The kids learned about sending long distance signals and even practiced sending codes to each other over a long distance. Social Studies: The class is studying movement in social studies right now, looking at things like push and pull factors as well as examining the reasons people moved historically to where they live today. Announcements:
Next week is a very short week! We will not have new spelling words for the two day week. Instead, the kids will continue doing activities with this week's spelling words and they will have new ones for the Monday after break. Christmas Celebration: I am looking for volunteers to help with the Christmas Celebration. I like that one to be pretty relaxed and fun, with a focus on crafts and games. It will be on the last half day before Christmas break. If you are interested in coordinating that, please let me know! Ideally, I'd like to have one volunteer in charge of coordinating the party. Once I have a coordinator, I'll send a note home asking for volunteers to be in charge of crafts, games, and breakfast and direct parents to email the coordinator. Parent who don't want to volunteer are still welcome to come and join the fun on the day of the party. Reading: This week our reading strategy was visualizing. Good readers have a movie playing in their head, and they are always keeping track of details and visualizing the story they are reading. It is the most fundamental skill, because without a good understanding of the story and what is happening, all our other strategies fall apart. Writing: The class has finished their first story! We have been reading them in class and will continue next week. Math: Word problems were our focus this week, and we did a big focus on multi-step word problems. We were able to use a lot of our reading strategies to help take these problems apart and make sense of them. We have a math test on Monday. The kids should have been bringing home a study guide each night this week with a few problems to work on. The test is exactly like the study guide, so they should be ready. Science: The mad geniuses in my class were making electromagnets this week. They learned how they work and did an experiment testing their strength as they are changed. It was fun, ask them what they learned! Social Studies: We spent this week studying famous US landmarks, both natural and man-made. The kids put together presentations and showed them to the class. You can see them too, just ask your student to show you on their laptop. Announcements:
We had a good solid week with very few distractions! However, I am putting off the test on landform in social studies again. I'm sorry, I know a lot of people studied! The veteran's assembly ran longer than I thought and I had to shuffle time so that I don't have to do Friday Folders on Monday again. Reading: This week our reading strategy was determining importance. When we read, we take in a lot of information, and one of the most vital skills is being able to determine what is important to remember and what is not. This skill will be useful throughout the year and in all of our subjects, and the kids did a great job learning and practicing it! Writing: This week we learned to format writing correctly on the computer in order to make our stories look professional. Math: Double digit multiplication is here! It's always an uphill climb, but everyone is really starting to get the hang of it! Keep practicing those times tables! Science: The kids did an extended experiment looking at measuring, recording, and predicting magnetic force this week. Social Studies: Last week was all about natural landforms, and this week the class has been researching man-made landmarks. Each student has been finding information about a famous American landmark and they presented them today. Announcements:
Veteran's Day activities will be next Friday, there is a note going home in the Friday Folder. Thanks to all the parents who came to our Halloween celebration! The kids had a great time and I sure appreciate the extra hands. Because of the half day, I am postponing our social studies landforms vocab test until next Friday. Reading: This week our reading strategy was questioning. The kids learned not only how to ask questions, but what kind of questions are good to have. They should be able to tell you what a good question is and what a bad one is! Writing: We are in the process of editing our rough drafts to form complete sentences without run-ons or fragments. Math: The class has finally mastered 4x1 multiplication, and they are ready to move on to the next step, 2x2! It will be a difficult start to the week, but once they start getting practice, they'll do just fine. Science: The kids spent another week playing with magnets. This time around they learned about magnetic fields and how they interact with each other. Social Studies: We've been talking about our country's very diverse land formations this week! The kids have been able to see famous examples on Google Earth and even looked for them in famous songs like This Land is Your Land and America the Beautiful. |
Old Newsletters
June 2023
Non-Discrimination Statement
In compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Education amendments of 1972, Section 504 of Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Age Discrimination Act of 1975, Title II of the Americans with Disability Act of 1990, and Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act of 1977, it is the policy of the Richmond Community School District that no person shall, on the basis of race, color, religion, military status, national origin or ancestry, sex (including sexual orientation), disability, age (except as authorized by law), height, weight, or marital status be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to, discrimination during any program, activity, service or employment. Inquiries related to any nondiscrimination policies should be directed to the Superintendent, 35276 Division Road, Richmond, MI 48062, (586) 727-3565. |