Projects In Our Classroom

Math:   We began our New Math Team Ability Teaching Concept this week.  Because of the ever changing State/National Standards and Curriculum expectations, limited time for completing all benchmarks, and the onslaught of formal testing, the 4th grade teachers have designed a streamlined program where all our children will be pre-tested before each Math unit and then assigned to groups according to their ability level.  Because Math is not like any other subject, a child who is not well suited for computation skills, may indeed excel at Geometry or Graphing!  This will allow teachers to specialize their talents specifically to the ability levels/needs of their children.  At the conclusion of each unit, the children will, once again, be pre-tested for the next unit and the process begins anew.  This allows not only for specialized teaching techniques for each State Grade Level Content Expectation (GLCE) for the MEAP, but allows each child to experience a variety of group interactions and teaching styles suited specifically to them.  We tested this system last spring and experienced some very fine results.  We have high hopes!!!  By the way, the next unit is addition/subtraction review and estimation techniques.  Congratulations to Cole, Jacob D., and Sarah who correctly solved the Problem of the Week.  Our next Problem of the Week is titled "Strawberry Ice Cream".  Correctly solving the POW is good for an extra credit "A" in Math and a classroom treat on Friday.  Make sure that your child does the work please. 

 Spelling:  Spelling tests are ALWAYS FRIDAY.  Your child is welcome (and encouraged) to bring home their spelling list each week to study.  You may also check out our Spelling page to print the weekly list at your convenience. ALSO, WE BEGAN WEEKLY PRETEST POP QUIZZES ON THURSDAYS.  ANY STUDENT RECEIVING 100% ON THIS IS NOT REQUIRED TO TEST EACH FRIDAY.  IN FACT, THEY RECEIVE ANOTHER 100% ON THIS!!!  WHAT A DEAL! 

Science:  We will begin our look into Magnetism and its properties during the next couple of weeks. 

Social Studies:   We are beginning our unit on "Thinking Like An Economist."  This week will concentrate on the basics of Economic Theory, including how products are produced, how they are marketed, and how this affects the economy in Michigan as well as where our products are sold.  We will look specifically at the Forestry/Timber market in Michigan.   

Penmanship:  We have finished our review of the cursive alphabet.  Penmanship grades will now be selected randomly through the remainder of the calendar year.  Beginning after the holidays in January...ALL WORK IS TO BE DONE IN CURSIVE.  NO EXCEPTIONS.

Language Arts:  

We utilize the Open Court Reading Series.  This is quite different from what we have used in the past and I found it benefited many of our students of every level.  Each story lesson takes a week to complete and combines, Spelling, Vocabulary, Comprehension skills in a manner that effectively teaches each of the Language Arts concepts.  As such, journaling plays a very big part during our school year.  Each child will be responsible each Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday to complete journal pages from their readings honing their skills in Prereading, Skimming, Scanning, Characterization, Setting, Plot, Inference, Conflict, and Resolution.  They will also identify and define new words learned in each selection and later will identify metaphors and similes.  This may seem like an awful lot, but believe me this is a fine series that produces excellent results.  We begin our first Unit titled "Risk & Consequence".  Our next selection is titled "Daedalus & Icarus".

This is probably the most comprehensive program in all of 4th grade.  We utilize the Open Court Series of Language Arts.  All of our Spelling, Grammar, Reading, and Comprehension work is based on this series.  We work hard with reading comprehension skills, phonics work, decoding,  vocabulary, and writing projects within this series about 2 1/2 hours each day.  

I ALSO UTILIZE SUSTAINED SILENT READING (SSR) AND JOURNALING 3 TIMES WEEKLY.  THE CHILDREN READ ANYTHING THEY WISH AS LONG AS IT IS NON-FICTION FOR 15 MINUTES.  THEY THEN JOURNAL AS MUCH AS THEY CAN REMEMBER.  STUDIES HAVE SHOWN THIS TO BE VERY EFFECTIVE. 

Six Trait Writing:  This is a wonderful series that we have used for several years now.  We teach each trait (Ideas, Organization, Voice, Word Choice, Sentence Fluency, and Conventions) as a separate unit concentrating of one trait at a time over 3-4 weeks.  Each unit finishes with a fun project that the the children always love!  Writing Sample scores from our school have increased each year for the past 3 years. 

Accelerated Reader is a mandatory program our class takes part in each year.   I will continue to challenge each child's reading level throughout the year in order to improve their skills.  Remember, outside reading is mandatory in our class.  20% of each child's reading grade depends solely on the Accelerated Reader Program.  Ask your child to show you their assigned book some evening. The current selection for each child depends on their current level at this point.   Depending on the results of each child's test scores after completion, I will assign them the next appropriate reading selection to strengthen their skills.  You can now download or view the entire Accelerated Reader Catalog when you are helping your child pick out a suitable grade level book! Click on our Main Page and select from the menu.

I place a lot of weight on the learning of reading.  My classes have ALWAYS scored in the top 22% of Accelerated Readers in our building and are the defending champions for Cherry Street!