Mr. Blanc's Class

Updates We will take a vocabulary test on 12/6. Students will also be given their new words for the following week that day. Math The vocab test that we will be taking on Tuesday, December 6th, covers math terms. Having a strong understanding of these words will help students be successful in our current multiplication and division unit. See if your student can tell you the difference between a multiple and a factor. Remember to please check with your student and make sure they are finishing their math homework each day. Reading Last week students had the chance to demonstrate their nonfiction reading proficiency. They all read a nonfiction text and wrote a summary explaining the main idea with supporting details from the text. After they turned in their summary they were given feedback on what they could do to improve their summary. Have your student tell you what improvements they made to their summary. Next week we will begin using our nonfiction reading skills to research

Updates I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving Break! Remember, there won't be any school for students on Monday, 11/28. Reading Students were sent home with a Long Weekend Reading Log before Thanksgiving Break. Any student who records at least four hours of reading over the break will get on the classroom Wall of Fame. In addition, the student who records the most hours read will get on the Wall of Fame twice. Idiom of the Week : Leave the door open Writing We are continuing our "about me" informational writing. Students are working on writing complete paragraphs that include a main idea, key details, elaboration of key details, and concluding sentences. After Thanksgiving break, we'll work on an introduction paragraph, concluding paragraph, and transitions to connect our paragraphs. Math When we get back to school on Tuesday, 11/29, we will be on module 3, lesson 22. This will bring us to the study of divisibility, composite, and prime numbers. This w

Updates We have two days of school next week because of Thanksgiving Break. Students will take a vocab test on Tuesday, 11/22, but will not be given new words that day. Their next set of new words will be assigned on Tuesday, 11/29. Writing Our writing focus has now shifted from narrative to informational. We're working on writing paragraphs that include a main idea, supporting details about the main idea, explanations of the details, and a concluding sentence. We are practicing these paragraphs by writing about a topic we know very well, ourselves. Idiom of the Week: cost an arm and a leg Math Next week we will continue our study of division. Similar to multiplication, they are learning different strategies to solve division problems. We will continue with module 3, lesson 20 on Monday.  Inquiry We have done brief overviews of many historical migrations during our inquiry time. We plan to finish the historical overviews next week. Once they are complete, the students

Updates There were no new vocabulary words sent home on Tuesday, 11/8. Students will get their next set of new words on Tuesday, 11/15. Also, students will be sent home with an optional Long Weekend Reading Log. The student who records the most minutes read over the long weekend, will get on the classroom Wall of Fame.  Math Students were sent home with their scored Mid Module 3 Assessment on Wednesday, 11/9. We went over the answers in class, but check with your student and see if there is anything they need an extra explanation on. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns after looking at your child's test. So far in Module 3 we have focused on multiplication, as we move to the second half of the module we will begin our study of division. Writing We finished up our narrative final drafts on Wednesday, 11/9. If your student hasn't completed their narrative final draft you will receive an email from me. Students who didn't complete their final draft are ex

Updates Next week will be a short one as there will be no school for students on either Thursday, 11/10 or Friday 11/11. Students will be sent home with a "Long Weekend Reading Log". The student who records the most minutes read over the weekend will get on the Wall of Fame, which, as I'm sure you've heard, is a pretty big deal in our class. Math Students will take the Mid Module 3 assessment on Wednesday, 11/9. You can help your student prepare for the test by going over the practice test with them on Tuesday evening. Also, check in with them and ask them which of the different multiplication strategies we have learned is their favorite. Reading  We are continuing our study of nonfiction reading. So far we've studied the different text structures of nonfiction texts and learned that if we can identify the type of text structure, it can help us figure out the most important information from the text. The common text structures we've learned about are

Thanks to the parent volunteers who made our Halloween party so much fun! Enjoy the pictures!

Updates Thank you to everyone who stopped by at conferences. It was great to have the chance to get together and make sure we are all on the same page. I hope you all feel like you have a good idea of what your student can do going forward to ensure they are successful in 4th grade. Please let me know if you ever have any questions. Reading Next week we will continue our study of nonfiction texts. Students are expected to record at least two hours of outside of school reading each week. The reading logs are due on Tuesdays. Because last week was a short week, we didn't assign vocabulary words to be tested next Tuesday. However, students will get their new words that will be tested the following Tuesday, 11/8. Idiom of the Week: turn a blind eye Writing Students are currently in the middle of revising and editing a narrative paper. In my experience, it is challenging to get children to look critically at their work and find ways to improve their writing. Often they just wa

Updates Next week will be a three day week because of conferences. If you haven't signed up for a conference please to go the Conferences link found within the Websites tab. Please bring your student with you to the conference. Math  We have started Module 3. This module focuses on multiplication and division. Students will learn multiple methods to solve division and multiplication problems and use those methods to solve multi-step word problems. I have made a slight alteration to our math homework routine. I believe something that was missing from my math instruction early in the year was immediate feedback to students. Because of this, we now go over the homework from the previous day in class. This daily  homework will be coming home with students after we have gone over it in class. Reading  We finished up our first reading unit of study on characters. Our next unit of study will focus on reading nonfiction texts. You can help your student progress as a reader by makin

Updates While it is difficult to come back to work when you have a newborn at home, I'm very thankful that I have a terrific group of students I get to work with each day. Thank you for all of the well wishes and kind gestures. It is great to be back!  Weekly Volunteers Next week we will begin our weekly reading and math volunteers. I contacted all of the people who had previously indicated that they were interested in volunteering on a weekly basis. Each person should know which day of the week they will be joining us. If you are interested in volunteering and did not hear from me, please let me know as we most certainly will be able to use your help. Math  We took our End of Module 1 Assessment on Thursday. Students will bring their scored tests home on Monday. We will jump to Module 3 next. This module covers multiplication and division.  Reading  Students continue to have a reading goal each week. Check in with your student and ask them to tell you about their readi

Math  We will be taking our first math test on Tuesday, 9/27. The test will cover the first 10 lessons. We will spend Monday reviewing for the test. Students will be sent home with a practice test on Monday evening. You can help your student prepare for the test by going over the practice test with them. Reading Each child now has a specific skill they are working on while reading. Check in with your student and ask about their progress on their skill. Students should also be recording their reading on their reading log. They are expected to read at least 2 hours outside of school each week. Vocabulary  Students will be tested on their ten vocabulary words from our read aloud book, The Tiger Rising. The test will be on Tuesday, 9/27. We have been working with the words in class, but your student may need to study them in order to be prepared for their test.  Writing Students have been making good progress in their narrative writing. So far we have worked on using paragraphs

Updates It was great to see everyone at Back to School Night! I'll touch on a few of the big topics that were discussed in this blog post, but if you weren't able to attend and you have any specific questions please let me know. Students will have their first vocabulary test on Tuesday, 9/20. They will be tested on six figurative language terms. We been spending about 10 minutes a day in class studying the words, however students are encouraged to study their words at home as needed. In addition to taking their vocabulary test, students will also get their new vocabulary words that will be tested the following week. Math     Last week we started our math curriculum. You can expect your student to have math homework each night, except for Friday nights. If you find that you are not quite sure what the students are expected to do on a lesson please take a look at the math videos in the Websites section of our class website. Reading At the end of the week I started reading

First Week Goals I had three goals that I wanted to focus on during the first week. They were to get to know each other, learn the classroom expectations, and begin to collect to beginning of the year academic data on students. I feel that we had a successful first week and accomplished those three goals. Reading Last week I started the process of reading with each of the students and having a conversation with them about their reading. Studies have shown that by far the best way to improve as a reader is to read. In order for the time spent reading to have the best impact, students need to be reading just right books. When I have finished reading with each child next week, I'll have a good idea of the just right books for each student. Because time in text is the best way to improve as a reader, students will be expected to read at home two hours each week. They have a reading log to document the time spent reading. Word Work Students will have a set of vocabulary words e

Hello! The purpose of this blog is to communicate with families about the events in Mr. Blanc's class. Research shows that when students talk to their parents about school they perform better. This blog can be a valuable tool to help families facilitate meaningful discussion with their child by giving them specific things to talk about. I hope to see you all at the West TV Meet and Treat on Thursday, 9/1 from 4:30 - 5:00! Please contact me if you ever have any questions or concerns. I look forward to getting to know my new students and their families!

Updates This will be the final week of school. It has been a pleasure to work with this group of students! Each morning I wake up excited for the chance to spend the day with this class. Thank you for the great support from home, it makes my job so much easier! Artist Visit We will get to work with an artist this week. His name is Mark and he will be joining us Monday-Thursday. He will teach some collage techniques, and then the students will create a final collage piece. Health  Students came home with information about an upcoming health lesson. The lesson will cover changes a child goes through as they get older. 4th grade boys will be with me for the lesson and the girls will go to Ms. Youm's class. All students will participate in the lesson, unless they are opted out by a parent. 4th Grade Olympics On the last day of school we will have 4th Grade Olympics! Students from our class and Ms. Youm's class will create events out of objects in the classroom. Then

Updates I can't believe we are down to the final two weeks of school! If you are a volunteer that comes to our room on a specific day each week, you should have received an email letting you know that we won't need volunteers the final two weeks of school. Thank you for giving your time to our class this year! When students return to school on Monday, 6/6 they will have reading logs due. Inquiry  We are beginning to wind down our inquiry unit on responding to change. Most of the students have turned in their opinion paper and completed their action plan. There are a few students who will finish up next week. The students who have completed their paper and action plan are now using the inquiry time for Genius Hour. They get to research any topic that interests them, but they are responsible for coming up with a way to share their knowledge with me.   Everyday Heroes  Next week we will begin a unit that combines nonfiction reading and collage. Students will read biographie

Updates There is no school on Monday, 5/30 because of Memorial Day. When students return to school on Tuesday, 5/31 they will have a reading log due.     Inquiry Most students have completed their opinion paper in which they convince others of an appropriate response to a change in the world. When students finish their paper, the next step is to come up with an action plan. A few examples of action plans in progress are making posters to convince students the importance of not wasting food, giving a presentation to educate other classes in the school about the importance of preparing for an earthquake , one student has written letters to our state legislators and has already received feedback from one of them! The action plans are open-ended and can be anything the student comes up with. Check in with your student and ask them about their action plan.   Government Last week students formed committees. These committees are currently working on writing a bill that they will attemp