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This week in social studies, the 4th graders have learned all seven continents and all five oceans. They can find them on a world map, and they can even sing them all in order from largest to smallest!

We also reviewed cardinal and intermediate directions. Students have labeled them on a compass rose, and today we practiced navigating with them.

If you came to Parent Night on Tuesday night, you might’ve seen your child’s “I am from…” poem on display. They wrote the poems in class on Monday using an outline which encouraged them to write about family traditions, special foods and more. On Tuesday we typed and printed them.

We also kicked off our first class novel, Newbery-honor winner, Charlotte’s Web. The students were amazed to learn that the book was written back in 1952, so it qualifies as ‘traditional literature’ and a ‘fantasy’ book. Throughout the week, we read three chapters – two aloud together and one at home. In class, I read the narration and the kids assume the character parts, reading dialogue aloud.

One skill we are working on this quarter is summarizing. We learned an efficient way to summarize any book, movie, chapter, etc. We use the ‘Somebody Wanted But So’ method. Students to identify who the main character is in the chapter, what the character wanted to do, what the obstacles were, and what the end result was. They have written their brief summaries in their Reader’s Notebooks.

The Reader’s Notebook is one of my favorite tools. Students keep track of all the books they read and they record the genre. They write down books they plan to read, ones they hear about from classmates, teachers, or Patchwork guests. They use it as a place to write about their reading, and it holds their weekly reading log.

In morphology this week, we reviewed the suffix -s or -es and when to use each one.

In Morning Meeting this week, we enjoyed games of Elevens, the middle name greeting, Two Arms/One Arm/No Arms, and Agreeable Corners. We also shared our goals for the year which helped us create our classroom expectations.

This week, all students in K-7 had school pictures made, and today we gathered for a group photo of the entire grade.

We were all excited to gather in Brown Gym today for the captains’ speeches. Nine 8th graders were nominated by their peers, and all students in Grades 4-8 cast votes. Congrats to all nominees, including Benjamin Hudson, Luke Jones, Evan Clardy, Claire Schneider, and the winners, Dalton Weprin, Hayes Hampton, Jaxon Hopkins and Betsy Blair.

We are enjoying all kinds of games on the playground and all the sunny weather!

This week, 4th graders were excited to learn about Dictionary Digs. This is one way we will learn new vocabulary words which are pulled from our class novels. We make it exciting by racing through the dictionary to see who can find the word first.

On Thursday and Friday, students were tasked with crafting a letter to their teacher. Inspired by the picture book we read on Wednesday, students received a letter from me, reviewed the parts of a letter, and wrote to me about themselves. They had already generated a list of ten character traits as a part of their summer work, so we used that to get started.

In addition, we made our way through two pretests, one in geography and the other in morphology, to see what the students already know. Finally, we completed a comprehension check about their summer read, Because of Winn-Dixie.

In Morning Meetings, we enjoyed the butterfly handshake, finding things in common with a partner, and a game of Back-to-bBack. I also read aloud The Legend of Rock, Paper, Scissors. Afterwards, my homeroom engaged in big game with Will coming out on top. When we play ‘entourage-style’, kids play Rock, Paper, Scissors against one opponent, and then winners find new opponents. It’s what the other kids do that is so important. They turn into the ‘entourage’ for the person who beat them and cheer them on to victory. That’s exactly the kind of resilience, teamwork, and sportsmanship we want to see in our classroom.

Students were excited to be able to browse our classroom library and check out books today. They also had a little bit of time to read independently.

We took a tour of the servery yesterday before our first lunch. With a new food service company in place, some changes have been made to the set-up.

We also had a good time learning things about Miss Earhart in a game called Take a Guess About Your Teacher!

The 4th graders were excited to come to the classroom today. They found their lockers and desks and busied themselves with a word search while waiting on their classmates to arrive.

In our Morning Meeting today we practiced greeting one another with eye contact and a firm handshake. The students wished one another “Good morning” by name. They all shared about one fun thing they did over the summer, and we played a game of ‘Quiz, Quiz, Trade.” This got everyone up and moving, as well as interacting with one another.

We also went over our schedule, practiced a few procedures and enjoyed a read-aloud. Then the class was off to Mr. Mogle! When 4-M arrived, we learned a bit about the classroom, and then we played the same game and read the same book. A Letter from Your Teacher will lead into a writing assignment later in the week.

All 4th graders enjoyed a brief recess together and a school-wide assembly in Brown. Mr. Stabler introduced new faculty & students and set some expectations for the year. It was a great day – short & sweet!