 It's hard to believe that by the end of this week it will be November. We have wrapped up first quarter and are really getting into the meat of things in 4th grade. Students were introduced to our new virtual classroom, Edmodo. Edmodo is a wonderful way for students to connect with each other, their teacher and even other students and teachers. This is completely moderated by me and is safe for students. We will be using Edmodo as a way for students to publish their writing and get feedback from each other. Parents can even join our group and give feedback as well. As part of our introduction, I used this to discuss the importance of safety online. Students will have access to technology (i.e, cell phones, tablets, video games, computers, etc) all of the time. It's important for students to understand how they present themselves online. Students asked lots of questions about what they can do on Edmodo. Here are our guidelines for Edmodo.
This past week, students have been able to access several sites online. They have been given usernames and passwords to access their math books. This is such a great tool for kids. Ask them to show you how to do this at home. You can click on the link on right side of this page to get started! We have been using Class Dojo as a way to keep track of behavior. This is an excellent tool for me and for the kids. Students can earn points and use these points to redeem for fun rewards. They have a username and password for this as well. I will be sending home parent log-ins this week so you can see thier progress too. There are a few glitches such as they can't see how many points they have unless I log in and show them. However, they can still see how they are doing and that's what's important! You can also access this by clicking on the monster to the right. Finally, I am trying to keep this site updated with quality links for math, reading and other subjects. Students certainly can play these games at home to help build math fluency, reading excitment and word knowledge. Strategy games have been a big hit! These help build skills such as visual discrimination and problem solving.  Summer has officially come to an end, yet, we are starting the fourth week of school already! We are wrapping up our first chapter in Math. I will be assessing chapter one this week. You can find links to practice place value, rounding and basic facts on the Math page. Students will also be working on mastering 4th grade high frequency words in spelling and reveiwing short vowel sounds in more complex words. Students should be reading at least 20 minutes each evening. We are averaging about 25 minutes, uninterupted, in the classroom. We are working on thinking about reading and "talking to the text". The picture below is a great visual to remind us all why reading every night, including weekends, is so important. 
We are officially in the full swing of learning. We had a wonderful first week! We got organized, learned about each other, and even did some team-building. The class helped organize the classroom library by dividing books into different categories. They learned about the different genres and how books can be categorized  Welcome back to school and to 4th grade! It's hard to beleive today is the first day. I am so excited you are here! While it may be hard to get back into the swing of things, think about these fun facts: ~Number of weeks students in Japan have for summer vacation, which always involves homework: 6 ~Hours per day children in China typically spend at school, including a two-hour lunch break: 9 1/2 ~62% of school-age children who consider swimming their favorite summer pastime. I look forward to learning more about each of you as the week goes on. Be prepared for a fabulous year! Welcome!06/24/2013 This is my new and improved website. It's still under construction and will be updated throughout the summer. It takes a long time to get a site going and make it what you want. If there is something that should be added or a link isn't working, please let me know. I want this site to be helpful for parents as well as my students. Happy summer! | 
Access Class Dojo here!
Connect for access to math help.
XtraMath for fact practice
V.P. Elementary Library: Destiny Quest
Look up the books you want to read and check out! ArchivesDecember 2013  |
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