Greetings to our families of Room 117! How did we get to the last week before our Winter Break already?! It has been important for us to keep very busy in class to stay focused on our work - we have been successful most of the time! This past week we have been wrapping up our Unit 4 in math, with the unit test on Monday. Please see the review sheets in Take Home Folders to go over some of the items later this weekend to refresh memories.
We will complete our latest Holiday Spelling List early in the week with our final test on Tuesday. The students got in a fun, extra writing project by putting those words into original stories, and all seemed to enjoy it, even our most reluctant writers. We are also completing our last lessons in Essay Writing. This emphasis is new ground for almost all 4th graders, and I feel good about our first experiences with thesis statements, topic sentences, and descriptive evidence and reasoning.
In Reader's Workshop, we have been digging into a very wide variety of books to identify the clever and different ways authors grab our attention with the 'leads' to their stories. This has led many of our kids to find new books they want to add to their book boxes. We have even written our own leads, and I have typed them all into a collection for each student to include in their writing folders. Now they will have some fun new ideas for more writing projects.
Social Studies has us researching the glacial landforms that shaped Wisconsin 10,000 years ago. We have found some awesome examples online, and we have spent a couple sessions huddled in front of our Smartboard, oohing and aahing over the pictures of glaciers, moraines, eskers, and drumlins still found in Wisconsin and around the world. The Ice Age Trail is right in our own backyards, and the Ice Age Trail Alliance has short videos about the Trail in Wisconsin that have been really interesting. There is an office right in Cross Plains!
Next week we are looking forward to some special events. On Monday we have a secret project planned - (you will see the results perhaps under the Christmas tree). On Tuesday, we will welcome Emma's 'editor' father to our classroom to speak with us about writing and editing. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and first hand experience with us! On Friday afternoon we will wrap up our December in school with a Holiday celebration including some games and special treats.
I wish you all a warm and wonderful time with your family during our Break (we return to school on January 2nd). I am looking forward to having all three of our daughters home at the same time for a few days myself! Happy Holidays to you all. Melanie
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