Language Arts Updates

It's been a busy few weeks in the Webb. In fourth grade language arts we just wrapped up chapter 3 of our vocabulary (word study) unit. We tested over the words on Friday, October 28th. I have several students who have been given the option to correct and return. I placed the word study assessments in their data binders and graphed their score. Please make sure your child shows you their data binder weekly. If they choose, they may correct their assessment and return it for an averaged grade. Our new list includes the roots anim, san, and spir.  We will also focus on the prefix in- and the suffix -ary.

We are wrapping up Unit 2 of Benchmarks, and will begin Unit 4 soon. Our focus in Unit 4 will be making inferences and visualizing as we read and/or listen to new text. This is one of my favorite units to teach! 

Just a reminder-- if you haven't filled out the heart with your child's name on it, please do so as soon as possible and send it back into school. We are creating a project using the heart as the center. If you lost your paper heart, please make a new one and send it in as soon as possible. It should have messages from the family, to your child, written on it. Thanks!

Language Arts Update

We hope everyone had a wonderful Fall Break, but your kiddos were missed and we are so grateful to have them back at school.

In language arts, we have been heavily focused and working on persuasive writing this week. Prior to Fall Break, we closely read about Marian Wright Edelman (first African American woman to become a lawyer) and Cesar Chavez (workers' rights activist). This week we have been focused on Marian Wright Edelman's father's quote, "Don't ever let anything get in the way of your education," and formed an opinion about this quote. Students wrote five paragraph opinion papers, giving three reasons why they agree or disagree with the above quote. We focused on conventions (punctuation, capitalization) and organization (strong beginning, three reasons in the middle, and a strong closing). Next week we will continue this genre of writing.

TWO SPECIAL NOTES:

*The library computers used for checkout have not been working this week. The technology department has been working on a fix, but we are still unable to check-in/check-out books. The students are so bummed! This has given them more time to read and stick with the books they already checked out and for those that passed their quizzes, they've been able to borrow from my classroom library.

*The vocabulary test has been moved to NEXT FRIDAY (October 28th) since we've not had as much time this week to practice our vocabulary words.

Language Arts Updates

We are wrapping up Unit 1 in language arts where we identified main idea and details, learned how to focus on asking and answering questions as we read, and analyzed biographies.

We've started a new Greek and Latin roots list. The test will not be until the Friday AFTER Fall Break, so Friday, October 21st. Students received their study guides on Monday and should have them on the outside back clear pocket of their yellow take home folder. The roots this unit are loc, poli, and urb. The words we will focus on are: urban, suburban, police, policy, political, metropolis, location, relocate, local, locale, and dislocate. We have taken the last two vocab assessments using Google Forms (which the students loved) but I am having difficulty finding a way to print the tests afterwards for you to see without using TONS of paper, which defeats the purpose of taking it online. So, I think I am going to revert to the paper/pencil format to make it easier for parents/guardians to SEE how their child answered questions and did on the assessment. If your child has internet access they can show you Google Classroom and their vocabulary assessment that way, as well.

We will begin Unit 2 after Fall Break and will be focused on sequence of events, making connections with what we read, and visualizing to help better comprehend what we read and hear.

Don't forget about STUDENT-LED parent teacher conferences tomorrow night (Thursday) from 3:00-8:00. Your child will need to attend and will be walking you through their data binder, showing you some things on the computer, and sharing goals with you. Mrs. David and I will be checking in during each conference and answering questions. We hope to see you all there! Thanks for all of your support.