Partner Power- Fourth Grade Reading

Wander into any of our three fourth grade classrooms and you will see partners reading to each other, writing thoughts on sticky notes or in their journals and intently sharing their ideas about their books. Partner reading in fourth grade is in full swing!  

Books were chosen that portrayed interesting characters and lent themselves to students grappling with interpretations and developing theories about their characters. Each pair chose between two fiction books. Some of the books being read include Dog Days, Yang the Youngest and His Terrible Ear, Jake and Lily, Ruby Holler, Fourth Grade Rats and Museum Mysteries.  Partners decided together how many pages they would read at home in between reading workshop sessions. A comprehension strategy such as Feelings Change is completed by everyone in order to elevate the readers' thinking about their book and to provide a foundation for discussion between the partners.

Tiger Rising is the mentor text that has been read aloud. Students have the opportunity to practice the comprehension strategy with this mentor text before applying it to their partner book. As students share their thinking, in response to Tiger Rising or their partner book, it is clear that this fourth grade year, is a time when student's ability to make inferences, develop theories and make connections to characters is deep and meaningful.

Mastering Math Facts in Second Grade

Becoming fluent with the math facts for addition and subtraction is an important part of second grade mathematics.  Last week, each student did a fact check-in to begin assessing which facts they already have mastered and which ones need to be practiced. Math fact fluency refers to the ability to recall the basic facts accurately, quickly and effortlessly.  When students achieve automaticity with these facts, they have attained a level of mastery that enables them to retrieve them from long-term memory without conscious effort or attention. By working to learn their math facts early in the year, students are able to more easily and confidently approach increasingly complex math problems that involve multi-digit computation.  

The second grade students will soon have an online account with the “First in Math” website that provides games for practicing facts.  In addition, card games and flash cards will also be used. Our goal is to make acquiring math fact fluency fun!   

Fourth Graders Building EnsembleThrough Chanting, Composition, and Movement

 (Main Chant)

“Roberta made the custard

She made it very thick

And when her friends had lunch with her

It made them very sick!”

This funny, short chant is the first line of a multi-layered piece aptly named Roberta. Students learn the main chant first and then are introduced to the ostinato- a repeated rhythmic figure that accompanies and support the main line.

As a class, we learned and practiced the 3 varied ostinati that accompanied the main chant.

Ostinato 1: Roberta, Roberta, Roberta, Roberta

Ostinato 2: Mix the custard, Mix the custard, Make it good and thick-yuck, yuck!

Ostinato 3: Sick! Sick! Sick, sick, sick!

 Students were asked to choose both apart and an instrument to play in groups of 4-5. They were tasked first with simply playing the composition as written, playing all of their parts together or layering them in. After this, they were asked to create their own arrangement of the piece, incorporating whatever elements they would like, including new material, improvisation and/or movement.

Here are two examples of their creative pieces!

Enjoy!

Third Graders Love Their “I Love” Writing

       

 Third graders recently completed their “I Love” writing project, which they were very enthusiastic about.  To begin the year in writing, students created a “heart map,” on which they wrote a number of things that they love and could potentially write about in the future.  They will keep these in their writing folders so that if they are ever looking for something to write about, they can refer back to it. 

           
After completing their heart maps, each student chose one topic to write about.  They began by answering questions about what they love about this thing or activity and their favorite related memories.  They also worked on a “Prove It” sheet where they had to come up with five different ways they could prove that they loved their object more than most people.  

After students had some time to write, we did an activity called Concentric Circles where students spoke with a number of different partners, each for about 30 seconds, and shared one thing that was special about the object or activity they chose.   With each new partner, they had to share something different, which helped students brainstorm details to include in their writing.  Writing about something that the third graders feel a strong connection to made the writing process both accessible and exciting for the students and it was a delight to share their writing with families at conference day on Friday.      

Kindergarten "Super Food" Super Heroes

The kindergarten students have warmly embraced our emergent study of nutrition and healthy foods. Conversations around lunches and snacks have added to deeper discussions about favorite foods and have asked if we can cook, bake, and make smoothies! The budding nutritionists have raised questions about "super foods," and why some foods are "sometimes" foods and others are "a lot" foods. With Halloween around the corner, the kindergartners have been excited to develop and design costumes that reflect their growing interest in powerful foods that fuel and strengthen growing bodies. Using a variety of literacy, math, fine motor, and creativity and problem solving skills, the kindergartners have begun to create "Super Food" Super hero costumes, complete with capes and masks.

Kid writing about "Super Food" Super Hero costumes

First, the kindergartners used their creativity and problem solving skills to imagine and develop a super hero using their knowledge of powerful foods and also, often, a favorite healthy food. Next, the students, practiced their kid writing skills as they named the super hero and drew a plan for the costume. Excitement was evident everywhere as the students really began to think through the materials they would need and the colors they would want for a cape and a super food logo design.

Bear Witness helps "Speedy Blueberry Boy"
to arrange blueberries on his new super hero cape

"Green Bean Flyer" measures green beans for his special cape

"Kitty Carrot" traces triangle carrots for her super hero cape

Math skills were naturally integrated into  the costume creations as students used uni-fix cubes and rulers to measure materials and to help estimate the size of the super food logo to create and attach to colorful capes. The designers also scoured the classroom for shapes to trace and other tools from around the classroom to help to make their super food logos. Estimating and counting skills were also practiced as the designers predicted how many pieces of food they would use on their costumes and then counted how many they actually did use. Other creators used patterns to create their ultimate logo design.

Fine motor skills were also developed and strengthened throughout this project as students were tracing, drawing, gluing, and cutting through paper, foam and felt. 

"Berry Bunny" and "Milk Super Girl" share stories about their super powers

Listening and speaking skills were also utilized as each student has had numerous opportunities to describe the powers of the special super heroes to peers. These vivid discussions have been animated and have helped friends to practice being active listeners as well as work on the beginning, middle and ending of stories as a speaker and story teller. Our kindergarten imaginations are full and they are passionate and love to share their ideas. There has been some talk of wanting to write stories about the newly created "Super Food" Super Heroes. Stay tuned for possible future publications!

   

"Macaroni and Cheese Man"
counting noodles

"Apple Man" adds some
leaves to his healthy, fresh apples

We will not share too many photos for the students want to surprise you with their creative and colorful "Super Food" Super Hero Costumes at next week's annual AFS Halloween Parade. See you there!