Week 8

Hello 4J families,

What a fantastic week!!  The weather was nice, warm with some rain, and kids performed wonderfully at the swim meet.  There were lots of personal bests.  I had a great time at Mystic Mountain in Nagarkot but was sorry to have missed the swimming.  I look forward to the next meet.

I hope that your children have shared the Unit 1 test and were able to explain what they did well, and areas that need reinforcement.  I conferred with each one of them to review concepts that were a bit challenging.  They are to be signed and returned by Wednesday.  This week your kids started off with an open response using multiplicative reasoning to make predictions or conjectures based on information provided, and then supporting their conjectures with an argument. They will also convert units of time to smaller units of time as well as solve number stories involving time.  They will also create and interpret statements and equations for multiplicative comparisons, and solve number stories as well.

In Reading & Writing Workshop your children continue to work on their fictional stories and deepening their reading lives.  In writing, your children are busy revising their fictional stories.  They have relooked at their leads, used mentor texts to study dialogue as well as other expert craft, and will now take a look at powerful endings.  Mrs. Bijaya or I have checked their first drafts using a checklist that your kids were given and will confer once again on the revisions. They are working diligently on the stories!!!!  In reading, your kids continue to create theories about their characters, as well as respond to important events and plot developments in their reading.  They will pay particular attention to finding complications about their characters, and support their theories with evidence from the text.

Your children take a break from social studies for the next few weeks and delve back into science.  This week, they continue their study of erosion by looking at five types of weathering. They will participate in several investigations about how each type of weathering affects the earth. They will act like scientists and engineers as they attempt to solve some problems of weathering and erosion.

That about covers this week.  The following is an updated calendar of events:

     Sept. 29:         Welcome Back BBQ

     Oct. 3:             Early dismissal (11:50-no lunch)

     Oct. 5:             ParentTeacher Conferences

     Oct. 15-19:      Dashain Holiday

     Oct. 22-26:      Spirit Week

     Oct. 23-26:      MAP Testing

     Oct. 25-27:      SAISA

     Oct. 30:           Start of MAP Testing

As I was looking for some quotes this week, I came across a statement by Theodore Roosevelt. He once said, “Believe you can and you’re halfway there.”  And, it made me realize how important it is that I support the dreams and strengths of each of my students, as well as help them overcome any challenges so that they can believe in themselves and move forward into the second half of their journeys.

Have an awesome week!

Mr. J