Busy weeks ahead for 4B!

Next Tuesday is our Grandfriend's hour from 9:30 - 10:30.  Students are encouraged to invite their grandfriends or friends who ARE grand, to join us in 4B!  We will be completing a STEM challenge this morning that is sure to be great fun!

Next up is DECEMBER (can you believe it?)  December brings lots of great activities to our classroom.  First up, is the Hour of Code.  I have included a short video to give you a little information as to what this is.  It takes place during Computer Science Week.  It is an exciting program aimed at introducing our students to the concepts of computer coding and computer science.  The hope is to interest young minds that may one day chose a computer science field.  I participated last year and this year my class will be reaching out to other classes throughout the school as mentors.  Parents are invited to join us during 4B's Hour of Code on Monday, Dec. 8th and 9am.  Please let me know if you would like to come so I can make sure to have enough devices available.

Later, fourth grade will be having our first Innovation Day on Friday, Dec. 19th.  More information will be coming on this.  We are going to organize this a bit differently than in the past (engineering focus!)

The final days before the holidays will find us celebrating, crafting, exchanging gifts and reading great books (of course!)

Now, I need to ask for a few things from families. While you are out to eat during the next few weeks, if you could pick up take-out menus and send those in, I would really appreciate it.  We are going to use them for our multi-digit multiplication math unit.  Also, store flyers and catalogs too!

Finally, thank you to all who took the time to meet for conferences.  It was great to talk to you about your wonderful children.  I feel so fortunate to have the opportunity to teach, learn and grow with them each day. 

Have a fantastic Thanksgiving and enjoy your family time!

~Lisa

ps.  If you are looking for some holiday gift suggestions, I have included the link here of a great site suggesting the "best toys for building stem skills.  

October is a WONDERful month!

RJ Palacio visits Exeter and 4B was there!

How WONDERful it was to start the month off with a visit from author RJ Palacio.  So many 4B and former 4B students were able to take the time to listen to Mrs. Palacio speak and some even got a chance to get a book signed.  She was great and shared how she got the idea for writing such an amazing book that we all have come to LOVE!  If you still haven't had a chance to read it, please try to find the time.  It has such an incredible message and was a special way to kick off our year in 4th grade together.


During this month we also continued to work on "Paragraph of the Week" and have now started our unit on narrative writing.  We are using our own small moments to help spark fictional stories.

We are closing in on the end of first quarter and the end of our first book challenge.  Each student picked a challenge number of books they were going to read during the quarter.  We have kept track of both our home and school reading.  Some of us fell short while others underestimated ourselves.  Some of us chose l-o-n-g books, while others selected smaller ones.  It is all part of the process of self-reflection and building reading stamina.  In addition, we are continuing to work on comprehension strategies in small groups and just introduced Reader's Theater to improve our fluency.

Currently we are working on our weather unit and building weather instruments for our weather stations.  We will be wrapping up our NH settlements/geography unit following our trip to Strawbery Banke this week (Yes, we are going in the rain!)

Unit 2 in math is under our belt and we are moving on to Unit 3 Measurement and elapsed time.

Coming up:  Book Character Day is next Tuesday.  Students should dress as their favorite character and try to bring in a copy of the book that day.  Orange and Black Day is next Friday, Oct. 31st.



Thank you to everyone who join us on our trip to Mt. Major.  What a beautiful day!

I look forward to seeing everyone soon as parent conferences are just around the corner.  I am sending a link to our sign-ups for Nov.

Stay dry during the upcoming week!

~Lisa

4B learning extends beyond our classroom walls

Science doesn't get much better than when you get outside and put it into action.

Currently, 2R and 4B are working collaboratively on a science project called, Square of Life.  This is an internet-based project where students observe their local environment and then share that information with students from across the country.


At this time, our classrooms have gone out and staked out 1 square meter areas for observations.  Yesterday we were able to get outside and work together to document what we had found in each of our spots.  Future meetings will involve students organizing data, sharing, creating, and posting.  There has been a lot of great teamwork and learning going on!

In math, we are hard at work on our unit on place value.  The most challenging concept at this time is the relationship between each place value as 10 times the value of the place to the right.  An example of this would be to understand and demonstrate that the 3 in 300 is 10 times the 3 in 30.  Keep practicing those basic math facts at home.

Writing and Reading Workshops are in full swing.  The workshop model consists of a brief mini-lesson, followed by practice or work, and concludes with a share, a debrief, and reteaching time.  We are currently working on "Paragraph of the Week" during writing and using our social studies topic of New Hampshire to focus on guided reading activities.  These reading passages are building our background knowledge for two of our upcoming field trips; one to Mt. Major and the other to Strawbery Banke.  Both trips are scheduled for Oct. and as soon as plans are finalized, forms will come out.

We are continuing with our read aloud of Wonder, by RJ Palacio.  So many great conversations have come from this book.  I highly recommend this read.  It has so much to teach us all!

Again, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me at lbrown@sau16.org

Enjoy the day!

~ Lisa

Welcome to 4B!

Hello and Welcome 4B Parents!

I wanted to blog this evening to welcome you to 4B and to remind you that our Open House evening is this Wednesday at 6pm.  We will be meeting in the gym where Mr. Kew will address the group and introduce all the teachers there that evening.  Following this meeting, we will all be heading down to the classrooms where you will get the opportunity to see our room and learn more about the upcoming year in fourth grade.

See you on Wednesday.

~ Lisa Brown

The Countdown to Summer has begun!

It is hard to believe that the end of the year is already here.  This year has gone by so quickly. 

 I wanted to just touch base one more time to let everyone know what exciting things will be going on in 4B (We keep working right to the bitter end!)

First, I would like to start with thanking everyone for making Tacky Tourist Day a great success!

The kids loved sharing their foods with one another.  Everything was so delicious.  Look for their cookbooks to come home tomorrow.

Now, we are off on our journey across the Oregon Trail.  Students are traveling the trail with fellow pioneers in wagon trains.  Journals are being kept and STEM activities include designing wagons and creating rafts for those wagons to cross the river.  Quilts will be created and lots of reading is being done.  Oregon Trail day will be next Friday, June 6th.  Students will dress up again and spend the entire day outside on the trail.  Westward Ho!

In math, we have just completed Unit 12.  We will continue to focus on angles with measurement beginning tomorrow.  Students will be learning how to use protractors to measure angles.  Then, we will end the year with word problems and review of long division and multi-digit multiplication.

Our last science unit returns us to plants.  We will be looking at seed dispersal and parts of the plant and leaves.

Social studies will end with NH Survivor.  We team up and play a friendly game of Survivor for the remaining days of school.  This game requires us to use all our knowledge of NH to compete against one another in games both mental and physical.

4th grade will head to Camp Lincoln on Thurs. June 12th, have Innovation Day on June 13th, travel to UNH on Monday, June 16th, and say goodbye for the summer on Tuesday, June 17th.

Wow!  How much can you pack into 14 days?  4th graders are master packers and we plan to "Do it all!"  

(Cross your fingers that the weather improves for our trip to Concord on Friday.)

Sleepless at Swasey,

~Lisa

Tacky Tourist Day and 4B's American Grub

Here in 4B we are in STATE Overdrive.  Students have just completed their US tests and are now working to complete their state reports and Microsoft Publisher pages for our class cookbook, 4B's American Grub.  

BUT WE NEED YOUR HELP!  Students need to pick a recipe (one that they can make and share with the class next Tuesday) and one that has a main ingredient that grows in their state.  An example would be Apples for Rhode Island.  Apples are RI's number one food crop.  My recipe might be apple fritters. 

I believe that the students should have a good understanding of the agriculture of their state and should be able to share that information with you.  However, they need your help picking a recipe that you feel comfortable making with them and sharing.

I am asking that students check and confirm their ideas as soon as possible (Friday at the latest).  They each have an editable recipe card in their Google Drive that they need to use to write down the recipe and directions.  They will then share this back with me so that I can print them off for our cookbook.  Cookbooks will be organized and distributed to all families on Tuesday afternoon.

Tuesday is Tacky Tourist Day in 4B!  Your children are to dress like those crazy tourist we all see when we are on vacation.  Socks and sandals, mismatched clothes, hats, ...the works.  Then, at 2:30 that day, parents are invited to join us for a tasting of all the "4B American Grub."  However, parents will not be allowed through our doors unless they too are dressed as tacky tourists.  It is so much fun!

Parents may send their child's food to school on Tuesday morning or bring it with them when they come at 2:30.

 I thank you in advance for all your help with this project.

~Lisa

MFA lunch forms

Buying a lunch for the MFA!

If you would like to purchase a lunch from the school for our upcoming trip to the MFA, please visit my homework site and print out a lunch form.  Please return this form on Monday, April 28th so that we can make sure all lunches are ready for our early morning departure.

If you are packing a lunch from home, I suggest packing a little extra.  We will eat before going in the museum and then once again as we get back on the bus.

Thank you in advance,

Lisa

4B and Random Acts of Kindness

My Daily Positive!

Just yesterday I signed up to receive daily emails from a blog called The Daily Positive.  Today's email contained a video about random acts of kindness (here is the link if you are interested in watching LINK).  I was moved by the video, choked up a little, but by then my morning took off and quickly became my afternoon.  

It was during this afternoon that Mrs. Woodward and I had a chance to talk.  We discussed the lessons ahead, work that needed to be accomplished and then she said she had something to share.  

I listened closely as she told me of friends of her family that were struggling with a "parents worse nightmare," a desperately sick child.  Their son Mason, a one year old little boy, is suffering with leukemia.  He is currently in the hospital and the community he lives in, is rallying around his family.  She began to explain how they were looking for donations of orange paper to begin folding…

I stopped her right there.  I knew where this was going.  They wanted to fold cranes; 1,000 paper cranes, just like Sadako.  But WE already had folded.  Our room was just filled with HOPE.

Mrs. Woodward, shared a very simple story of Mason with 4B.  She explained what people were trying to do.  We asked them if they would be willing to share their cranes with Mason and his family so that they would know that there were others who were thinking of them.  Before we were even finished with our question, the class was answering, "YES!"

Mrs. Woodward let the family know what would be coming to them from the children of 4B.  A picture of our cranes was quickly posted on the MASON STRONG Facebook page with the annoucement of what we planned to do.  (You may want to check out his page if you can.)

So…tomorrow the cranes will be taken down carefully, compressed, stacked, clipped and packaged for travel.  They will arrive on Sunday to Mason and his family.  They will be hung up and serve a greater purpose.

On Monday, the children will return to school and enter a classroom that will seem less colorful and empty.  However, I told them that this will be a good thing.  Every time we enter our room, and recognize what we are missing, we will think of Mason.  I think that is pretty wonderful.

Through tear-filled eyes I think back to this morning and I am amazed at how that simple video message came true through the acts of my students.

Your children are amazing!  They are doing something for someone else and expecting nothing in return.

Sometimes the lessons we learn in school ARE greater than we can ever imagine!

~ Lisa

Pencil Shortage!

Please Help!

Believe it or not 4B is in desperate need of…pencils.

We have used up our supply for the year and I just can't seem to keep enough in class.  

If you could send in a pack with your child for their use for the remainder of the year, I would be very grateful.

Thank you in advance for your help with this strange shortage!

~Lisa

A Busy Time of Year!

It is that time of year again!  Report cards will be coming home on Tuesday, April 1st.  Conferences will be on Weds. April 2nd and Weds. April 16th.  I have included a link to VolunteerSpot on Monday's homework (on our class website) as well as here. Conference Link to VolunteerSpot   I look forward to seeing everyone again to discuss how the year has been going and my plans for your child for the remainder of the year.  

4B has been so busy since we returned from our Feb. vacation.  We continue to work on essay writing, reading closely, and our science unit on rocks and minerals.  We were involved in our first 4th grade Innovation Day as well as our first Pi Day Celebration.  FRACTIONS have been the focus of the past month of math.  It is a difficult unit with so many new concepts and multi-stepped problem solving.  We are wrapping up this week as we finish with decimals and move on to measurement.

Our next social studies unit is a big one; US Regions/States and Capitals.  We will begin by focusing on each region: the states that are included, land features, imports and exports, famous locals, etc.  In addition, students will practice the states/capitals for that region.  Before moving on, we will take a map test for each region.  This continues for the entire country and we finish up with a US map test with states and capitals included.  I always suggest that students start working with the map early and practice a little each night.  The culmination of this unit will find students selecting a specific state to research.  We share our research and some tasty "eats" on Tacky Tourist Day later in April.  More to come on this.

We are beginning our focus on mysteries in reading.  Students will be selecting a mystery reading challenge to complete during this time.  They will also try their hand at writing a mystery.  When visiting the library, you may wish to suggest a good mystery for them to read.

Finally, we are going to be taking part in the Smarter Balanced pilot testing in April.  This is a great opportunity for our students to get to work with the new testing system as it is very different than NECAP and is taken completely on computers.  Our science NECAP testing will take place in May.  I will let you know of those dates as we get closer.

Cross your fingers that springtime weather finally comes to NH.  I can't take much more of this cold!

~Lisa

Togas and Valentines

Next week we will be celebrating Valentines Day and the culmination of our mini unit on mythological allusions.  What this means is that we are going to have a day full of fun, food and ... more food!

The day will begin with breakfast cooked by me.  I will be making the class my favorite pancakes with strawberries, whip cream, syrup, and sausage.  During breakfast, students can pass out their valentines and enjoy opening their notes.  Parents do not need to send in anything for this.  The only thing I ask is that if your child is planning on sharing valentines that they bring one for each student in class.  I will put a list of all the names of students on our homework site tonight.

In addition, on this day, Friday the 14th, we are also going to celebrate in true Greek style.  We ask that students bring in a sheet that they can fashion into a togo for the day.  The entire 4th grade will be wearing them and getting together in the afternoon to enjoy some Greek treats and view a myth or two as we celebrate our learning.

STEM Happenings

(Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math)

STEM night is coming up next Weds.  This is sure to be a great night for the whole family.  Mr. Kew sent home a flyer last week and information can be found on our website.

4th grade will have it's first Innovation Day of the year.  Students will be brainstorming concepts and ideas they are interested in learning more about.  Then, they get an entire day to research, investigate, and create.  More information about this exciting day to come before vacation.

And then...on March 14th (3/14) ... it is Pi Day in 4B!  This day is all about celebrating circles, circumference, diameters, mathematical formulas and irrational numbers.  Students can start preparing for the day (if they wish) by working on memorizing the digits of Pi.  We will work on it in class and have a fun contest as we look for the students who can memorize the most digits of Pi.  Believe it or not the past two years 4B has had students who memorized more than 100 digits!  And what kind of Pi Day would it be without...pie!  I will ask parents to donate pies on this day for students to sample.

Please cross your fingers that they are SO WRONG about this snowstorm (and possibly Sunday's!)

~Lisa

We are halfway through 4th grade!

Can it be true?  Halfway through 4th grade?

It is hard to believe but we really have just completed the first half of the year.  It is going by so fast!

We have had a bit of a bumpy start to the New Year with the 2 additional days added to our winter vacation and then a teacher without a voice for several days!  However, I'm back and we are ready for a great third quarter.

Coming up within the next four weeks (until our February vacation) we will be working on: more fraction work (addition, subtraction, improper, and mixed numbers), rocks and minerals, mythological allusions ( a mini-unit that introduces students to common mythological references that they may come across in their reading), our first Innovation Day of the year and essay writing.

In addition, coming home on Wednesday is your child's second quarter report card.  As I have reflected on a great deal of their work and completed their reports, I realize that it is important to address the movement of grades from first quarter to second.  First quarter begins with much review of skills from the previous year.  There is a lot of routine being built into the day as well as getting to know one another and returning to the roll of student.  Second quarter brings many new concepts, and in fourth grade that often means multi-stepped processes and the application of new knowledge in different ways.  With that said, you may notice that your child's grades have dropped a bit due to the fact that they were faced with more challenges.  An A to a B represents that a child went from consistently demonstrating, understanding and applying skills, to frequently doing those things.  And that all makes sense.  When we learn new concepts, we often don't do them consistently at first.   Please keep this in mind as you review your child's report card.

One thing that I have been discussing with all the children is that as we move forward into our second half of the year (and begin heading towards their lives as fifth graders) that the QUALITY of their work needs to become more important.  Neatness does count.  Capital letters are important.  The way their work "looks" represents a part of them as a student and this needs to become more a priority.  I am asking for your help with this one.  As your child completes nightly homework, reminding them of quality, neatness and accuracy can really help us strengthen our focus.  Please note, this is all part of maturing into "a student" but I think that if we work together, a united front helps to support their efforts.  Thank you in advance!

Finally, our classroom is in need of tissues and wipes.  Any donations would be greatly appreciated.  Also,  please check with your children to see how their own supplies are holding out.  Many dry erase markers are running out and they may need a few more pencils and correcting pens.

Sorry for so much.  Being unable to talk for a week has left me with much to say!  Take care,

~ Lisa