Today we began the day, unsurprisingly, with talk of what we are thankful for and how each of us will spend our Thanksgiving this year.  This group of students seems to take nothing for granted: not family, not siblings, not food and shelter and not vacation!  They really are thankful for what they have.  I too am utterly grateful to be working with these students in this school for this year.  This important work is challenging and rewarding.  I appreciate the opportunities I have with students and colleagues  this year.  I also appreciate the community support here within the school and from you, the parents of these students.

Over vacation please take a look at some of  the work your child has done so far this year.  There are a couple of ways online that you can do this.  In addition to Kidblog, students are doing work in Google Classroom.  This week we have been learning more about the genetic code and specifically inherited and acquired traits.  Have your child show you how they documented evidence for their learning on these topics.  In Kidblog you will be able to read about famous author Jeff Kinney’s visit. Follow this link if you would like to see the presentation he gave at another school.

Math:

In fourth grade math we have been discovering the connections between multiplication and division.  Students have worked hard to understand what it means when a quotient has a remainder.  We have read about this, built models of division problems and made conjectures about what exactly a remainder is.  Our current definition of a remainder is:  When the divisor is not a factor of the total, you will have a remainder.  Julia H. made this conjecture and it has been widely proven and accepted.  You can see there is great mathematical thinking going on!  We have also been studying the analogue clock and elapsed time.  On Friday, we had the Unit 2 Assessment.

Literacy and Science:

We have taken a bit of a break from our realistic story writing to do some science writing and to reflect on Jeff Kinney’s visit.  His presentation was accessible and far reaching, as you will see when  you read the student posts!  Most compelling was his sharing of his writing process and the fact that it took years and years of hard work and perseverance before he was actually discovered and later published.  He was both open and humble with this very large audience (the whole school).  We offer many thanks to Karen Hennig, our school librarian for working hard to organize this event.  We are also grateful to The Flying Pig bookstore in Shelburne for sponsoring author visit!

Part of our reading instruction this week has been in connection with the Science program mentioned above called Seeds of Science, Roots of Reading. We have been working on recognizing and using the features of nonfiction texts (captions, headings, titles, subtitles, illustrations) to further our understanding.  We have discussed the differences between observations and inferences as we learn about genes, heredity and so on.  Students have been working in partnerships throughout this unit. They have been engaged and productive!  The integrated approach is a vibrant part of both our literacy and our science learning menu.

We have been reading a variety of books this week.  Our Principal, Mrs. Parks, shared a book about the engineering process with our class yesterday.  We have also read Weird Sea Creatures, a new book gifted to us from the Book Fair. We appreciate each of our new books and information cards! I hope you will have time to read with your children over the break.

I wish you all a cozy and satisfying Thanksgiving week!