First post of the year!

Happy new year! I hope you have all had a wonderful time with your families during this nice winter break. My husband and I were able to spend some quality time with our families. Although I enjoyed the time of rest and relaxation, I sure did miss school! I am excited for us to start back up tomorrow. Here is an overview of our week.

Peek at the Week

• Math- As a class, we will be starting a new unit in math. This unit is Unit 6: Division; Map Reference Frames; Measures of Angles. This week we will be focusing on division strategies. Since we have a good handle on multiplication, division will hopefully feel like a walk in the park. Some of the division strategies may look a little different, but I will try my best to share some great resources with you as the week goes along. 
• Science- We are also starting a new unit in science this week! This unit will focus on water, specifically the characteristics of water. Through the week, we will be taking part in very hands on experiments. I can't wait to watch use work together as we explore the characteristics and properties of water. 
• Social Studies- Through the reading of biographies, we are able to learn about important figures who have changed history. 
• Reading- This week we are diving into a new genre of literature. We are going to be focusing on biographies. During our class time, we will focus on summarizing a biography of Martin Luther King Jr. as a class, and will also spend time in literature circles reading another biography. All of the biographies being read are part of the "Who Was..." biography series. This is an excellent series, and I have already seen some of our students diving into these books! 
• Writing- This week we will be moving into a new style of writing, compare and contrast. We will spend the beginning of the week learning about compare and contrast writing, and working through it as a class. At the very end of the week, we will start this style of writing in groups. 
• Word Study- In word study this week, we will be focusing on the r-influenced a in accented syllables
• Grammar- This week, we will be focusing our time on the past progressive verb tense, a review from before break. We will then shift our focus on the present progressive verb tense. 

Need to Knows

• This week, we will have library  on Thursday. Please remember to bring your books.
• With a new year, we also are at the time where we benchmark our students. That means that throughout the week we will have some assessments. The assessments that we will be taking this week include the MCOMP, MCAP, Spelling Inventory, and STAR testing for reading. 
• Tuesday we will be starting a new routine. We have teamed up with 1st grade to do some buddy reading. This consists of having time each week where we work with a 1st grade class. We will spend time reading to each other, growing new friendships in the school, and occasionally completing short projects with them. I am so excited for this opportunity to get to know more students in our school. It also allows our 4th graders to really be a positive influence for some of our younger buddies in the school. 

Terrific Tidbits

• In math this week, we will have some time with Partial-Quotients Division Algorithms.I will post again later this week, but here is a great video link that explains how this strategy works. Partial-Quotients Division Algorithm
• We will start back up on spelling lists this week. If you need the website again for practice, you can click here: Spelling City

If you have any questions this week, please let me know! I can't wait to get back into the swing of things!

~Mrs. B :)