Our focus for this year will be on integrated Language Arts. We are beginning our first unit with a novel study of Roald Dahl's Danny, the Champion of the World. In addition to more advanced expectations for reading comprehension, students will be developing stronger writing skills with a focus on high quality written responses. Students are enjoying listening to the chapters being read on Audible, especially because of the reader's British accent!
I must offer you my sincerest apologies! When the snow came in January and February and we missed many school days, I also missed updating this blog. Once I got out of my routine, I neglected to update this site in March and April as well. I am very sorry if you've been checking for updates and seeing no new posts. Rather than try to go back in time to tell you what we've been studying, I will just begin with April. Again, I apologize for the lack of communication.
In April, fourth graders who come during computer lab spent time learning about and playing a variety of "brain games" which are intended to promote creative and critical thinking, perseverance, and problem solving. These have included Albert's Insomnia, SET, and Animalogic. These games can be purchased from places such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc. Most recently, student have been solving rebus puzzles in pairs or small groups. The vocabulary group has completed several units including Invertebrates and Adaptations. We have also worked with Hink Pinks, Synonym Strings, and some activities to identify very unusual words among lists of made-up words. The focus has been on exposing students to new words which they have never heard or seen. This week there were three students who still had not finished their book trailers, so those students finished this week. The other students worked on a fact find called "Best Pizza." We read a story which included some true and some false information. Students used online tools to answer questions and determine the facts. They concluded by writing a paragraph to synthesize their thoughts and the information they had gathered.
Ms. Smith’s vocabulary group began a unit using words related to adaptations this week. After being introduced to the words, they sorted them into groups according to whether the words were new or unfamiliar to them. Then they matched terms and definitions. They also complete a set of activities including analogies and a crossword puzzle for additional practice. It has been quite awhile since Ms. Smith's students have been able to work on their book trailers due to a meeting for me, missing the Friday of Thanksgiving week, a school-wide assembly, and then last week's Hour of Code. However, we are hopeful that the book trailers will be finished by the end of this week when I see students on Friday. I will also begin working with some of Ms. Smith's students two days each week to enrich and extend their study of vocabulary.
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Mrs. GregoryMrs. Gregory has been a teacher for 25 years. She lives in Montpelier with her husband, two daughters, and two dogs. Archives
January 2017
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