Potter's Portable

Parents thank you for attending our first parent-teacher conferences! I truly appreciate your support and suggestions to better help your child. I also enjoyed getting to know you and your families a bit more.  All my students have made a good start in fourth grade.  However, we do need to continue to routinely read at home, complete and turn in homework, remember to label math solutions, show our thinking in math, turn on our inner voice when reading, use fix-up reading strategies, and write meaningful essays.  

Before winter break, there are many things to learn. In math, we will finish statistics and start learning how to find area and perimeter. We will also start Rocket math to practice multiplication facts. In reading, we will finish questioning as a reading strategy and start learning about inferring. In writing, we will finish an essay about a special memory and hopefully start a narrative essay.  

Over the next three weeks, students will have an opportunity  to watch the Polar Express movie by reading 3 hours by the Friday before winter break. Please look for a letter to be sent home regarding this challenge.

After winter break,  I plan to individualize homework for some students in order to get a bit more fluency practice in. This will not be additional homework, but replace 15 minutes of reading at home. In math, we will start geometry. In writing, students will learn to elaborate in their essays. In reading, we will continue to work on inferring and supporting our thinking with evidence from texts we read. Our next science kit will be about water.

Some final thoughts- Every school day is important, there is always something students will learn, practice, and or work on.  Parents, you are always welcome to visit or help out in the classroom.

On Tuesday the entire fourth grade enjoyed an afternoon at the Fox theatre, downtown Spokane, listening and learning about the symphony. My class was awesome! 

In math, we’ve been working on statistics and probability. Specifically, students are learning how to find the range, mode, and  median from a set of data. We’ve also been creating bar graphs and line plots. Next week, students will practice finding the probability of common events. Recently, we finished elapsed time.

In writing, we worked on introductions and conclusions for essays. To improve sentences we discussed dead verbs also known as helping verbs, which can make sentences predictable and less descriptive. Instead, we used thesauruses to find exciting verbs to convey meaning beyond simply the action in the verb. For example, we talked about walk doesn’t create an image, but pranced certainly does! I am eager to share the results for their all day write essays. I plan to teach students how to set goals to improve writing conventions.

In reading, we finished work on identifying text features in nonfiction texts. We are now learning how to use questions as a reading strategy. As students interact with the text, students should be questioning the text. We are also going to compare different levels of questions, and identify questions that  lead to deeper thinking.  

In science, we are now learning about the muscular system. Students built thumb models with tendons that can actually flex!

Questions to Ask Your Children:

1. Can you show me your muscles? Ask him or her to explain the muscle pairs and lengthening and shortening muscles.

2. What is a dead verb? – Why do we need to limit their use in our writing?

3. What novel are you reading?

Changes in School Calendar:

Principal Pride November 16th at 10:45 a.m.

Picture retakes November 18th.

Early release (12:18) on Thursday, November 19th and Monday, November 23rd.

No school November 24-27.

Book Fair open November 19th and 20th and November 23rd and 24th.