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December 13, 2013 Highlights from our week....

Reading During the past two weeks, our reading lessons have been about nonfiction. In our classroom, we have a variety of nonfiction texts-- various topics, various levels. Prior to reading nonfiction texts, we must rev up our mind to read about a particular topic. To do this, we think about what we know about the topic after looking at the title and the table of contents. Then, as we read parts of nonfiction books we determine the main idea and supportive details in that section. Reading nonfiction should not be about learning random facts, but to become an expert on a topic and teach others what we know. A way to organize our learning is to visualize the main idea and supporting details (facts) on our hands. The palm of our hand is the main idea and our fingers are details. If we can recall and be able to discuss five facts, then we are able to share our knowledge. Next week, we will do a study of reading genres and characteristics of each genre. Our study will culminate with groups sharing literature in each genre. Look for more information and announcements on next weeks homework pages. Writing You will soon enjoy our latest personal narratives! In order to become more independent at revising, students have been sharing their writing on our classroom Ladybug and SmartBoard. Allowing students to teach and share with classmates how they revised and rewrote certain parts of stories has been powerful and inspiring. We have also been telling our stories in order to visualize details and be able to put them on paper well. Word Work Last week we began doing personal spelling lists. On Mondays students will take a pretest and then, based on how well they know/dont know the pretest words, will select words to study for the week. All of the words have the same spelling pattern (adding s/es, for example), but are of different levels of difficulty. Three high frequency words are also added to our list so that these sight words can be mastered, too. Next week, we will NOT have a new spelling list. Our lessons will revolve around a high frequency word assessment and learning more high frequency words. Math Our unit on subtraction has just been completed. Students should be comfortable subtracting numbers within 1,000 with and without regrouping. The students completed an end-of-unit assessment and that will come home sometime next week.

Economics For our study about economics, we have set up a classroom economy. The children are learning what it is like to be a consumer in a community. They have opportunities to earn money by doing their classroom job and completing work. They lose money if they need to pay for a service or fail to do their job (turning in homework, expected classroom behavior, listening, etc.). Book Donations The Windermere Book Drive benefitting the Eleuthera Island, Bahamas library is taking place through December 16, 2013 (Monday). Students are encouraged to bring in gently used elementary picture and /or chapter books. Other books will be accepted as well and sold to Half-Price books to earn money to buy more children's books. Students can place books in their classroom box (outside their classroom). The classroom with the most books earns an extra recess, including gaga time! Windermere has already exceeded our goal is 1,000 books... how great that we are sharing a love of reading and learning! If you have any questions, contact any 4th grade student or teacher. We are working with high school students in Ms. Fountain's Sophomore Literature and Composition class for this servicelearning project. Thank you for your support! Read In- Friday, December 20th Our class will have a Read In on Friday, December 20th. Your child may bring in sleeping bags, blankets, pillows, one stuffed animal, and LOTS of favorite books to read! Our day will revolve around many fun reading and literacy activities. It will be a fun day of learning!
Have a super weekend and winter break (no newsletter next Friday), Noelle