What We Learned This Week

Technology
Students were given district Google docs account this week. As a Google district (meaning we use Google products for staff and students), students must use Google docs to upload, save and share work. Fourth grade will be using this platform at the start of next year for sharing work with teachers and peers for immediate feedback.

There is NO texting and use of Google docs is expected to follow the student technology use agreement signed by every student at the beginning of the year. Google docs will also obviously not be used for casual communication between students and should be seen as no different than paper based work shared in the classroom for co-authoring and revision. The only people who will see a student's work are those they intentionally share them with. Students will not have access to outside contacts from school.

The intent of adopting the Google docs platform for sharing is to prepare our students for the technology they will use in the future for careers and to encourage efficient and productive collaboration. If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

Important Dates & Reminders

Important 4th Quarter Dates & Reminders

May 18, 2015 - All library materials are due. 
May 18, 2015 - 3rd Grade Team attending full day professional development
May 22, 2015 - Volunteer luncheon
May 25, 2015 - No School Memorial Day
May 28, 2015 - 3rd Grade Team attending full day professional development

May 28, 2015 - Visiting author, Kristen Otte, visits (Please see previous email and mail.)

June 1, 2015 - Field Day (Please see Mr. Moore's email.)
June 3, 2015 - End of fourth quarter/Last day for students, Classroom parties 12:05 till 1:05pm

June 9, 2015 - Progress Reports sent home 

Newsletter for May 8, 2015

Happy Mother's Day.

Thank you for all you do!

What We Learned This Week

Word Study
We are continuing our study of r-controlled or r-influenced patterns. We reviewed our initial patterns of ar, ir, or, and ur. R-influenced vowels are tricky as many of these words have to be memorized due to them sharing sounds. For example, ir and ur have the same sound which can lead to misspellings of bird (burd) and burn (birn). We introduced ar patterns and related features this week by studying ar, are, air, and patterns that share these sounds, e.g., where. Students did an open sort first where they determine how they will sort the words. Students might sort by alphabetical order or shared beginning consonants. These inventive sorts show a lot about how a student views decoding and encoding and they can be directed to look for initial blends and vowels instead, which are often much more helpful features. We follow the open sort with a  closed sort, where the features are dictated by the teacher. Closed sorts still require the students to use both sight (spelling features and patterns) and sound to sort and may include "oddballs," words that share a sound but not a spelling pattern or share a spelling pattern, but do not sound alike. Oddballs we encountered included bear, heart, pear, wear, and where. R-influenced words include a number of homophones (e.g., pear and pair, bear and bare) which require direct instruction and memorization as well.


Reading Workshop
Students are continuing to grow through individual conferences. I'm seeing great growth in these conferences as I can focus on truly individualized reading and word study goals for each student. Conferences with fiction books are focusing on figurative topics of author's message and inference. Book choice is still a challenge for some students. As we head into summer reading, it is important to support your student with appropriate or just-right books. Students should read books they can read fluently, with a normal speaking voice pace, an accuracy rate of approximately 98%, and expression, attending to punctuation and context. You can challenge your student with harder reading material of short passages if you are explicitly working with them on an identified skill, but they should read just-right books when reading independently. 

Writing Workshop
Students are building productivity and stamina through their peer letter writing. Students are encouraged to use "wonderful words," great vocabulary and to support them with specific examples or memories of when their classmates were "kind" or "enthusiastic." Each letter gets stronger. This increased writing will support students this week as they take the District Writing Assessment.

Students continue to research animals, working towards a final product which will share what they have learned. Students will get to choose how they do this (e.g., slide show, iMovie, poster board, diorama, etc.).

Math
We continued our study of the metric system with an emphasis on personal references. Students know there are 100 centimeters in a meter and have personal references for a centimeter (width of a jumbo paperclip) and a meter (width of a door). Students also used meter sticks to explore the school looking for personal references. We discussed how a good personal reference is something that will be consistent over time. For example, our height will change and the size of posters and flags will be different, but a piece of printer paper is always 8.5" x 11", a good reference for 1 foot. Personal references are essential for catching errors in measurement computations. Centimeter also contains "cent" which means 100 and can be remembered by thinking of 100 years in a century or 100 cents in one dollar. We ended the week by introducing the fact that there are 1,000 meters in a kilometer.

Science
We continued life science through our research and studying the commonalities of life cycles: birth, growth, reproduction, and death.

Important Dates & Reminders

Important 4th Quarter Dates & Reminders

Happy May!

May 12th through May 14, 2015 - Students will eat in the classroom due to the 5th Grade Musical. Please do not send peanuts or tree nuts in packed lunches!

May 18, 2015 - All library materials are due.
If you have lost an item, email our media clerk, Edie Hartmus to confirm payment or replacement at enhartmus@uaschools.org. You can look for a used copy online or at a book store. It's usually cheaper for you and it guarantees the book will be back on the shelf for next year.  If you lost the book and it was hardback, please purchase the hardcopy edition. Alternatively, send cash or a check to Windermere for the replacement cost.  Mrs. Hartmus will let you know what that is. Outstanding items that have not been replaced will block your child's record at the beginning of the next school year. 

May 25, 2015 - No School Memorial Day

June 1, 2015 - Field Day
June 3, 2015 - End of fourth quarter/Last day for students, Classroom parties 12:05 till 1:05pm

June 9, 2015 - Progress Reports sent home 

Newsletter for May 1, 2015

 What We Learned This Week

Word Study

We focused on linking verbs (being verbs, e.g., is, am, are, etc.) and r-controlled vowels. Four new vocabulary words were introduced from our Words of the Week resource. Students defined the words, used them in sentences, and looked for them in their daily reading.

Reading Workshop

Students are diving deeply into fluency. Using poetry, tongue twisters, Seuss, and "voices," (such as teenager, quarterback, cowboy, etc.) students are reading a broad range of short passages with an emphasis on phrasing that matches their speaking voices, expression, and attention to context and punctuation.

The first annual Book Room film festival was hosted at the Tremont Library this week. Here are a few shots of the festivities. If you weren't able to attend, you can still see the students' work at our Book Room blog here: http://mrhudsonsbookroom.blogspot.com/ Thanks for coming out. The students were very excited to show their work and more importantly, talk about books! I also want to share my sincere thanks with Mrs. Hastings for her time and energy in this collaboration.

We are on to our final novel read aloud of the year, a favorite piece of contemporary fantasy, The Edge Chronicles: Beyond The Deepwoods by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell. I'm trying to engage students in this read aloud through all of the strategies (e.g., prediction, inference, question, compare and contrast, message, etc.) we've studied this year.

Finally, we began our last research project of the year. Students were assigned two animals (with as much choice as possible) that they will compare and contrast across classification, habitat, adaptations, food web, and life cycle. They will then determine how they would like to present and share the information they learned. This is a challenging project and demands use of all of the reading and writing skills we've learned this year. This project will culminate in a fun art project based on their two animals' adaptations being utilized in a foreign habitat. More to come on that...

Writing Workshop

We are writing our end of year "Memory Books." Using a list of positive adjectives, students are composing a two paragraph letter daily that describes a classmate as a friend and a learner. Students are encouraged to use adjectives that describe their classmates and to make each letter unique and sincere by including examples of the attributes they include. This has been a great end of year project in previous years and really ends the year with rigorous writing practice with students becoming much more efficient. Because their peers are a meaningful audience they tend to be easy to motivate to do a good job and put a lot of thought into their work. The letters will go through a final editing process and will be shared on the final day of school as a keepsake from the year. I will also have students write a final letter to me about what they found most meaningful and challenging this year as well as what they might suggest to improve the year. This can be supported by discussion at home prior to this final writing assignment.

Math Workshop

We reviewed multi-digit operations for addition, subtraction, and multiplication. Mastery of basic facts is essential. We also kicked off our final math unit of study: measurement. We introduced different types of measurement (time, length, volume/capacity, and mass). We also talked about why we might need each of these forms of measurement to build interest in the topic. I started our in-depth study with metric length and converting centimeters to meters and vice versa (e.g., 125 cm = 1 m and 25 cm; 3 m and 18 cm = 318 cm).

Science

We skipped our typical rotation this week to take a final trip to Thompson Park to document change in the Thompson Park Tree Trek. We will be updating the blog soon. I'll post an update once we've had a chance to complete this.

Guidance
From Ms. O'Keefe...
"The Art of Positive Parents (TAPP) EXPRESS
Sign up now for a 3-week parenting class at Windermere Elementary taught by Dionne Meddock.  This class will be held from 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. on May 5, 12, and 19.  Registration fee is $75.00/person and $125/couple.  Register online now at www.positiveparents.com or call 614-224-0222, ext. 103."

Important Dates & Reminders

Important 4th Quarter Dates & Reminders

Happy May!

May 7, 2015 - Walk-A-Mile Day
The entire Windermere community (staff and students) will walk one mile around the Windermere block next Thursday as a follow-up to the Walk-a-Mile Day that we held in the fall. This time, we will walk in honor of our Wish Run beneficiary, Canine Companions for Independence. This is held in lieu of a pep rally, to foster enthusiasm and encourage participation for the upcoming Wish Run. Please be sure your child dresses appropriately for the weather and wears comfortable walking shoes.

May 9, 2015 - Wish Run
Registration starts at 8am. 5K starts at 9am. One Mile Fun Run starts at 10am.
All proceeds go to Canine Companions for Independence!
Register online at www.premierraces.com.  Click on Events and search for Wish Run.

May 25, 2015 - No School Memorial Day

June 1, 2015 - Field Day
June 3, 2015 - End of fourth quarter/Last day for students, Classroom parties 12:05 till 1:05pm

June 9, 2015 - Progress Reports sent home