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| Line up: Am I dreaming, or does my teacher have an awesome beard? |
Off to a great start, we began our first day with a selfie in line-up. Yes, a selfie. It has become somewhat of a tradition here in 4th grade. After we learned about where to put our backpacks, lunches, and snacks, we learned about Morning Mania! Captivated and energized, students set to using all their senses to create and imagine new possibilities with just a black "V-shaped" mark on a piece of paper. Tomorrow, we will learn how writing can be about everything and nothing, as we write a response to a prompt. Later this week, we will learn about our daily Stumper, or prompts that challenge our math brains to stretch, bend, and think in new ways. Yes, this is Morning Mania!
Of course, Morning Mania would not be complete without a Community Meeting, or gathering on the carpet in a circle. Here, the Owl of the Week, leads the community as we greet each other in a fun way, read the student-written morning message, share our general thoughts, add to our Vivacious Vocabulary wall with "juicy" words that we may have read the night before, and end with a quick, fun activity to get our bodies and brains energized for the day's learning and fun.
Great communities are built on mutual trust and respect, which is exactly what we are working on as a 4th grade team. Today, we created name tag signs that will go above our hallway cubbies that represent us. We will share those tomorrow during morning meeting. We also went to the Multiple-Purpose Room (MPR) and played three fun "Getting to Know You" activities with Ms. Tina's class.
No day is complete without a little math, so we dove right into our first Math Investigations unit called Mathematical Thinking in Grade 4. This unit focuses on general math concepts, including place value, geometry, algebra, and operations, as well as guiding students to learn a variety of ways of communicating their thinking - such as using words, numbers, pictures, and "arguing" different solutions as we share each other's work. Learning is a deep process and not just the end result. To that end, we began sharing and building on our ideas as we discussed estimating. What is it? Why is it important? How can it be used in the real-world? What strategies can we use to help us estimate objects, such as our cube creations?
During our Gallery Walk, we roamed the room and examined each other's work. We estimated the number of cubes used and then checked the actual answer. Many of our estimates were close in value to the actual number! Does this mean estimating can be useful to us? Time will tell. Pretty awesome math creating and thinking for the first day of school!
We also began our read aloud, Be a Perfect Person in just... Three Days! Yes, it is true. We are learning how to be perfect people, or are we? I guess we will just have to read the book to find out if we will become perfect. Stay tuned and ask your child about being a perfect person. What might they say? How might their thinking change?
Finally, we created our basegroups, or table groups. Students chose people to sit with as long as they had at least two different native home countries represented. Each month, students choose different basegroups based on different criteria. Today, they named their basegroups and created a small poster that represented not just each member of their group, but they also included one Learner Attribute that the group represents. Creative, curious, and committed students compromised, "argued", and used different ways to communicate their ideas and thoughts. I am impressed with the patience, listening, and care each student showed towards his/her basegroup - a true sign of a great community! Later this week, students will create a Tableau, or frozen scene, within their basegroups that represents their Learner Attribute. Stay tuned for some pretty hilarious scenes!
As we packed up for the day, students were given their homework and homework folder. Please check this homework folder daily. Homework is given Monday through Thursday, and each night students are expected to read at least 20 minutes. Today, we learned that if a 4th grader reads books at his/her level each night for 20 minutes, his/her vocabulary will increase by 2 MILLION words! We all were impressed and have challenged ourselves to create a habit of reading each night to meet our goal. Please continue to support them with this and ensure they read each night.
Finally, this blog. It is a communication tool between home and school. It will always have the week's homework, give you an update on our learning, and include photographs for you to view, so you can share in all our fun. I will send a weekly email with the blog link updated. I hope you enjoy reading it each week. If you should have any questions, please email me. It is the best way to contact me and get a response within 24 hours. Other ways to contact me are by appointment, or I am usually outside at the end of the day during dismissal as well.
Enjoy the week and welcome to new school year, full of wonderment and change!
Homework:
Along with reading 20 minutes each night, please complete the following and return it to school the following day in your homework folder.
Tuesday: Information About Me – one side only!
Wednesday: Hopes and Dreams Thinking and Recording Activity
Thursday: Mystery Object: Bring it in your bag tomorrow.
Friday: Have a great weekend - go out and play! Eat an apple, too!
Please enjoy these pictures from the first day of school!
Imagination station... student created and student led.
1, 2, 3, POP! Our morning meeting activity.
Name tags... Fake smile and then celebrity pose. Which one is which?
Community building with all of 4th grade in the MPR.
"Hi! I think I found my best friends!"
"Ahhh, Mr. Mike! I cut my finger! Just kidding it is red marker!"
Learning math by doing and creating.
Math Gallery Walk: Our brains at work and finding strategies to estimate the number cubes.
All of 4th grade just after lunch. We are a little sweaty.
Read aloud with Ms. Tina's class.
Finally, basegroups. Wow! What a fantastic first day. So much creativity, thinking, change, fun, and new things all at once!
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