It's a girl...and a boy...and a girl...and a ??? Yes, that's right! Monarch season is here! Our monarch pupa began eclosing this week (the biologically correct word for coming out of their chysalis). As I type this I'm distracted every few seconds to see if our 4th butterfly has arrived. It happens fast, ask your child about the silent excitement of "KJ" and "BJ"'s eclosing. Unfortunately, the students will miss #3 and #4 eclosing, so attached is a picture of their progress as of right now...
Our Monarch Palace will be set up in the garden as a holding area for our adult monarchs (along with the other 30-40 being fostered throughout other classrooms in the school) until they can be tagged and released. Yes, that's right, tagged! Watch for more information regarding Monarch tagging if that is a Citizen Science project your family might enjoy being a part of! Feel free to stop by the Palace to see these amazing creatures before they set flight to Mexico for the winter.
In
reading this week we extended our study of heritage by reading a wider variety
of genres. We have read realistic
fiction, historical fiction, narrative nonfiction selections, and an
informational article that all share the themes of “family” and “home”. The students compared and contrasted specific
traits of different homes families can have.
In Language Arts we practiced the skills of revising and editing. I gave the students a sample paragraph about
one of my ancestors to give them a frame of reference when working on their
project. We revised the paragraph by identifying
which details were informative and which were unrelated or too vague. The paragraph also contained mistakes in
punctuation, capitalization, and spelling that were purposely included for the
students to “catch”. They did a good job
of finding many of the errors and also acknowledged which mistakes were easy to
miss. We will be working on the skills
of revising and editing throughout the year.
In social studies we practiced
locating the continents and oceans on a blank map and by playing an online
geography game. Most of the students can
name all of these major land and water regions.
We also practiced using cardinal and intermediate directions to describe
the relative locations of two places.
This was a lot more challenging for the students. We extended our practice by playing a “Guess
Who?” game in which students had to use direction words to describe the
location of a mystery person in the room.
This helped the students become more comfortable using direction words
in conversation, but some still struggle making accurate statements with
direction words.
In math, we focused on the different forms of expressing large numbers (word form, standard or numeral form and expanded form). This foundation to place value will be invaluable when we get into our multiplication and division of large numbers. Students also got to work independently at 3 work stations this week, while I met with small math groups. Many of our students demonstrated fine leadership skills, as they naturally took the lead in reading, explaining and helping their peers. It is my hope that these stations help build collaborative relationships between the students, so that they realize teachers are not just the adults in their lives.
In science, students built their background knowledge of inherited v. learned traits in order to strengthen their persuasive paragraphs for their "Have I got a Pet For You!" project that will be completed next week.
The students are excited to start a new month of fourth grade. A new month means new classroom employees and new seats! Thank you to all of our wonderful August employees. Your services will continue to be needed as experts of your career fields.
