Quarter Two is underway - which means conferences are on the horizon. I will have the students write down your date and time in their planners next week.

Math: We reviewed the unit one assessment in class today. They have a parent report coming home today in the math section of their binders. There are three percentages - just 3rd grade, just 4th grade content (what is assessed), and the total. Collectively we did outstanding on this assessment! The average was 83% for the entire assessment - every single item, on-grade and challenge. In general, our class scores were a bit higher than their quiz averages which indicates their understanding is peaking...this is how it is supposed to be.

We took the pre-assessment today and made some decisions regarding switches for this next unit on measurement. Your student will explain this to you on Monday if it impacts he/she.

Language Arts: We began working with informational text by identifying the main idea of a TFK article. This sounds simple - but the challenge is understanding the relationship between details - not locating details in isolation. Furthermore, we are examining the main idea through clearly stated means (titles, captions, and heading) and inferential means (paragraphs, photographs, and passages).

Field Trip chaperones: If you volunteered to be a chaperone (6 of you), your child has a note in their planner confirming your participation next Tuesday. Thank you for helping out!

Unit One is DONE! Every assessment has been graded and the numbers look good...be on the lookout for a parent report in the next week.

Unfortunately, the assessment ran into our Language Arts time today so reading was a bit haphazard to say the least. In addition, Mrs. Holman and I have a training tomorrow morning so we wanted to finish the assessment today, rather than carry it over into Halloween morning with a substitute.

The Unit One Math Assessment is Tomorrow! 8 weeks of content knowledge will be on display in room 9...parent reports will be sent home sometime next week (depends on how quickly the data is entered into the computer).

Math: We reviewed last week's quiz, clarified some challenge data analysis, and worked in partners on a review packet. In addition to the partner review, I worked with some students on creating scales when completing bar graphs.

Homework:

Everyone should teach their parent what they got incorrect on last week's quiz. One of the best ways to strengthen your understanding of a concept is to teach it someone else.

Language Arts: Each group met today but worked on much different things...

Cricket in Times Square

They finished reading the story and answered some comprehension questions using the chapter 15 text. The purpose was to identify and locate explicit (right there) information and record it in complete sentences. We shared our answers in group and discussed how their ability to pull information directly from the text to support their thinking is precisely what good readers do.

Ramona Quimby, Age 8

We read chapter 8 aloud and began answering some questions in our RRJs.

Junie B. DONE

That's right - the book has been closed on this frustrating read! We did read two different stories in group today. We discussed some comprehension questions in each while taking some informal running records as they read River Raft Fun.

Homework:

None. Spend some extra time on math in preparation for tomorrow's unit assessment.

FYI - a permission slip and schedule for our Walking Field Trip is coming home today. We are looking for 5 parent chaperones to walk with each class so if you can help, please jot a note at the bottom of the form.