Visualizing

Wow! Tomorrow is October 1st! Where did September go?!

Tonight's post will be short and sweet since it's nearly midnight, but I wanted to post this info quickly. Tomorrow morning we will begin working on VISUALIZING in reading workshop. This skill is one of the most important reading skills for your student to master!!! Please click on the photo shown below to enlarge the image...then read!!! As your son or daughter reads at home each night, take a few minutes to have them read aloud for you, then prompt them to share with you what images are created in their mind as they read. Ask them to back up those images with evidence from the text, and while they are locating that evidence challenge them to verify that the image they have created in their mind matches what the author is describing. Many images are influenced by our prior knowledge, and good readers are constantly reading closely to make sure that they are picturing the author's intended message.

Thanks to Jen Jones of the Hello Literacy blog for this great resource. If you ever want to know more about reading strategies and instruction, she is amazing!!!

Little Rock Nine

FPS Staff welcomed Dr. Terrance Roberts, one of the infamous Little Rock Nine (9 African American students who were the first to bravely integrate an all-white high school in a tensely segregated community with the support of Judge Davies, who is from ND and who Fargo's newest high school is named after). What an honor to hear him speak! The quote that currently resonates with me most is, "Teaching is really modeling learning." Even though I am no longer a novice teacher, throughout my 10 years in the classroom I have pursued new strategies, training, and skills to continually improve my effectiveness and increase student engagement. A new curriculum and the implementation of Common Core, however, brings this to an all new level! I already have several professional books on hand to read or reread, including Growing Readers, Mosaic of Thought, The Cafe Book, Igniting a Passion for Reading...and I have these coming from Amazon: Notice and Note and The Common Core Lesson Book. Once the last two arrive I'll have to take a quick pix of my pile so you can see! Apparently I'm sending myself back to college (never mind that I graduate from both under grad and grad with honors)...good thing I like challenges!!!

Water Festival

Would you drink that?

Highlight of the trip? Being in the front row for Steve Stark's (aka: Mr. History) presentation!

Look what we're doing!

Getting up close and personal with macro invertebrates!

"Window" into our Classroom

You may have noticed at Back to School night that many of the walls in our classroom were "not decorated." No, that wasn't because I forgot or ran out of time, but I do consider our walls to be the location where we document and post resources of and for our learning. Anything that goes up is either created by students or with students as the foundation for a lesson, and is usually referenced many more times. Many of these pieces I call "anchor charts" because they do just that, anchor our learning. So, without students, I didn't have any charts to display for BTS Night. The same is not true today!!! Check these out!!!

In the first few days of school we devoted much of our time to building community and establishing our classroom routines, procedures, and expectations. We explored what it means to work collaboratively and even set mission and vision statements for our class. Here are a few snapshots of those:

Classroom Rules:

Mission & Vision

Read to Self Routines & Expectations:

Our goals for 4th grade:

Some of our first anchor charts from class:

(Yes, that really does say "Peopling" of the U.S. --- ask your child what that means!)

Thank you for your patience with the blog as we begin our year. I am absolutely loving working with fourth graders and "pushing them" to work diligently and think at higher levels. In the past I've tried to post 2-3 times each week, but with taking on all new curriculum, figuring out the ins and outs of a new district and school, and missing quite a bit of school due to a sick kiddo and meetings I just haven't been able to prioritize. Rest assured that, once again, I'm not being lazy, I'm simply spending all my time reading materials, researching resources, and planning instruction to engage and challenge my students. Over the next few weeks watch for our online classroom presence to increase pretty significantly. I can't wait to show you more!!!

(continue to ignore "ABCs of Grade 3" and avoid clicking on "email me")

Blog Maintenance

As you've probably noticed the menu bar says "ABCs of Grade 3." I have already loaded our 4TH GRADE handbook here, so even though the title is incorrect the content is not. I hired a designer to create my site and still need to have her adjust the jpeg file to reflect my new grade. Also, please do not click on the "email me" link on the blog. It's still sending email to my West Fargo account, which no longer exists. To contact me via email use: clareyl@fargo.k12.nd.us.

Thanks!!!

First days of 4th Grade!

Here are a few highlights from our first 7 days!

First project was our contour line names. I love how the names really pop when you add color!

Goal Setting - We each set 3 goals: 1 academic, 1 social / behavioral, & 1 of choice. I can't wait to see these come to fruition!

In Unit 1 of Everyday Math we are studying GEOMETRY. We began by reviewing how to name and draw lines, line segments, & rays; then dove into angles, triangles, & quadrilaterals; studied different models of quadrilaterals / quadrangles (quad means 4, so ask your kiddo to elaborate on the literal meaning for each of those terms) and how they are alike or different; and finally landed on polygons. Here we are creating different convex and concave polygons. Yes, we now know what that means...ask your son or daughter to point out which are which in these photos!

More to come!