Mr. Blanc's Class

Reading Students have learned that knowledge of text structures can help readers determine the main ideas and supporting details from a nonfiction text. The ones we have studied are chronological, problem/solution, cause and effect, compare/contrast, and description. Ask your student to tell you about the different text structures we've studied. Another way you can support your student in their nonfiction reading is to point out how often they use nonfiction reading. Whether it's reading recipes, instructions on how to assemble furniture, street signs, or the back of cereal boxes.  Idiom of the week: the cold shoulder Math Last week students made good progress in their understanding of division. Next week we will increase the difficulty by going from two digit dividends to three and four digit dividends. Last week we learned about prime and composite numbers. Have your child tell you the difference between the two.  Inquiry Students will dig in to our first line of i

Innovation Fair That you to everyone who joined us for the 4th Grade Innovation Fair! It was great for the students to have an audience to share their hard work with. Inquiry On Monday, we will begin our next inquiry unit under the transdisciplinary theme of How the World Works. The central idea of this unit is people use scientific knowledge to respond to a changing Earth. This unit will be split between the final three weeks before winter break and the first two weeks when we return.  Math We will continue our study of division. Last week students were introduced to the standard algorithm for solving a two digit by one digit problem. Most of the students are still working to get comfortable with the standard algorithm. I may be sending home some extra practice this week for students who could benefit from it.   Reading We will begin our next reading unit this week. Our focus will now shift to informational texts. Please continue to let students read any book of their cho

Innovation Fair   When students return from Thanksgiving break we will finish our How We Express Ourselves inquiry unit with the central idea of p eople innovate using creativity and knowledge of energy. The unit will culminate with an Innov ation Fair on Friday, 11/30. It will be in the cafeteria from 2:15-2:45. All are welcome to join! Math Students will come home with their mid unit assessment from our multiplication and division unit. So far we have only touched on multiplication. When we return from Thanksgiving break we will begin division.  Migration Speaker We are extremely lucky to have a guest speaker joining our class on Monday, 11/26! A grandparent of one of our students will share his migration story with all of the 4th graders. Later in the year we will have an inquiry unit on migration.  Scholastic Book Orders  Students were sent home with a Scholastic book order flyer. The best way to order books is online here . Our class code is DKQ9P. If you choose t

Reading Students will still be sent home with a reading log on Tuesday, 11/20. However, new vocabulary words will not be sent home because of Thanksgiving break. Idiom of the week: sit on the fence Math Students took their mid unit assessment for our multiplication unit. Next week we will go over our assessments and clear up any misconceptions students may have. When we return from Thanksgiving break we will begin studying division.  Permission Slip  Students were sent home with a permission slip to watch the movie Wonder . The school theme of choose kind was inspired by the book, and we read the book in class, as part of our Who We Are inquiry unit. In order to watch the movie your student will need to return the permission slip by Monday, November 19th. Upcoming Dates  Monday, November 19th - Wonder Permission Slips Due/Art Lit Tuesday, November 20th - Reading Log Due/Vocab Test - Watching Wonder November 21st - November 23rd - No School - Thanksgiving Holiday

Math At the end of next week we will have a mid unit assessment to see how well we are understanding multiplication. We have worked up to two by two digit and four by one digit multiplication. Students learned how to use partial products and the standard algorithm to solve problems. They've also learned how to model the multiplication with place value charts and area models. Idiom of the week : hold your horses Inquiry Next week in our How We Express Ourselves unit we will begin our inquiry into ways innovation expresses creativity. Students will learn some basic computer coding. This will prepare them for our 4th Grade Innovation Fair that will take place at the end of the unit. There will be information coming about the Innovation Fair soon. Writing We have a little bit of a break between our realistic fiction unit and our informational writing unit that will start soon. During this time our writing mini-lessons have focused on conventions. We've been working to u

Inquiry We are progressing along nicely in our how we express ourselves unit with the Central Idea of people innovate using creativity and knowledge of energy. Our current focus in an inquiry in the transfer and conversion of energy. Students have experimented with mechanical energy by making catapults. Next week they will experiment with electrical, light, thermal, and sound energy. Math  We finished up our first week of our multiplication and division unit. Next week we will work on multiplying by 10's, 100's, and 1,000's. By the end of the week students will begin working on multiplying a one digit number by a four digit number. Like I mentioned in the blog post last week, students who are fluent with their math multiplication facts will find it much easier to be successful in this unit. Students can practice their fact fluency at this link . It can also be accessed on the class websites page under Xtra Math. To sign in students select their name from the class list

It was great meeting with everyone at conferences! I hope you left with a clear picture of where your student is as a learner and what they can do to continue to grow. Math  Now that we have completed our first unit of the year we will be moving on to multiplication and division. To be successful in this unit students will need to have a strong understanding of place value and know their multiplication facts. In this unit we will work up to multiplying one digit by up to four digit numbers and also two digit by two digit numbers. We will also begin long division and work up to a single digit divisor and a four digit dividend. Reading Students continue to have the expectation of reading three hours outside of school each week. Reading logs are due each Tuesday. There were no new vocabulary words sent home last Tuesday, 10/23 because of conferences. The next set of new vocabulary words will come home on Tuesday, 10/30 and be tested on Tuesday, 11/6. Idiom of the week: out of th

Next week will be a short one for students. Because of conferences their last day of the week will be Wednesday, 10/24. Conferences I'm looking forward to meeting for conferences. If you haven't signed up for a time yet, please go to the link here and sign up. If you are unable to sign up online, please call the office at 503-356-2510. Reading Students are expected to read 3 hours outside of school each week and document it on their reading log. Their reading logs are due each Tuesday. Because it is a short week, there will be no new vocabulary words sent home on Tuesday, 10/23. However, reading logs will still be sent home. Idiom of the week: turn a blind eye Writing Students are putting the final touches on their realistic fiction papers. The final drafts will be typed and are due on Tuesday, 10/23. Ask your student how their progress is going.   Technology Party The class earned their 10th Wooden Nickel for good behavior. Wooden Nickels can be awarded for g

Reading One of the be st ways yo u can support your child grow as a reader this year is to have them talk to you about their readin g goal. Many of the students are beginning to post their reading goa l on Seesa w, but even if your student hasn't posted their reading goal yet, you can still have them tell you what they are working on.  Idiom of the week: jump the gun Math Next week in m a th we will focus on using knowledge of rounding, place value , subtraction, and addition to solve multi-step story problems. Stud en ts will be exp ecte d to show all of their work, make a visual repr e sentation, and write their answer as a st atement. Playing Prodigy is a great way to work on math skills at home. Also, the student who completes the most problems at home in each week gets on the Class Wal l of Fame, which is a pretty big deal around here! Here is the link. Writing The final dra f ts of our narrative stories will be due on Tuesday, 10/23 . Stud ents will be wor

Math On Friday students took a mid-unit assessment on place value. This will give me direction on how to continue our lessons in the unit. We will go over the test in class on Monday. Have your student go over their test with you when they bring it home. Reading The next bend in our realistic fiction unit will have students thinking about themes from their books. We will use our mentor text Wonder by R.J. Palacio, to learn that there are lessons we can learn from the books we read. Students will be asked to look for those lessons in their books and explain how the book teaches that lessons.   Idiom of the week: playing with fire Writing Students have been working on writing as many first draft stories as they can. Soon they will look back through all of their drafts and select one to revise and edit. This is one of the most difficult parts of writing for younger (and older) writers. Ask your student if they have a favorite first draft story they have written so far. Inq

Reading  The next reading log will be due on Tuesday, 10/2. Students are expected to read three hours outside of school each week. There will also be a vocabulary test that same Tuesday. Our current vocabulary words are introducing figurative language. To go along with this, we will now have an idiom of the week each week in our class. Talk about what it means with your child and keep an ear out to see you if you come across it in your daily life.  Idiom of the week: throw under the bus Writing Students are working on improving their writing by showing and not telling. By this we mean not just saying how our character feels. Instead show how they feel by using dialogue, figurative language, or their actions. Math  Next week we will focus on using rounding to determine whether our answers are reasonable. Students will use a number line as a visual to assist them in their rounding. On Friday, 10/5 we will take a mid unit assessment to see how we are doing on our place value un

Math We will continue working on place value next week. An understanding of place value is so important for having success with the math will be working on throughout the year. Students will begin using place value to compare numbers and identify whether they are greater than, less than, or equal to each other. Reading Next week we will begin looking closely at characters in our stories. By Tuesday, every student will have a reading goal that they are working on while they read their realistic fiction book. Ask your student what their reading goal is. Please let you student read any genre they want for their 3 hours of out of school reading. The next reading log will be due on Tuesday, 9/25.  Writing Students are making progress on their narrative writing. Last week we spent time developing the characters in our stories. Students were encouraged to think about the wants/motivations, worries, treasures, and rituals of their character. Have your child tell you about a character t

Reading The first reading log of the year will be due Tuesday, 9/18. Students are expected to read a minimum of three hours outside of school each week. In addition to the reading logs, students will take their first vocabulary test on Tuesday. A paper copy of the words was sent home, but the words can also be access on quizlet . We have just started our Interpreting Characters reading unit. During this unit all of the students will be reading realistic fiction texts at their just right level. By the end of the week each child will have a reading goal that they are focusing on. Ask your student what their reading goal is. Writing Our writing is closely tied to our reading, as we are working on writing realistic fiction stories. So far students have used strategies we've learned for coming up with ideas for realistic fiction to begin drafting stories of their own. On Wednesdays we will be setting our realistic fiction aside and students can work on crafting any piece of writing

It was great seeing everyone at Back to School Night! I hope you left with a good understanding of 4th grade expectations for your student. Reading On Tuesday the 11th, students will bring their first weekly reading log home. They are expected to read at least 3 hours outside of school over the week. They will turn in their reading logs the following Tuesday. At that time they will be sent home with their next reading log.  Vocabulary In addition to the reading log, students will get their first set of vocabulary words on Tuesday. There will be a test on the words the following Tuesday. We will be practicing the words in class, but some students may want to study their words at home as well.  Inquiry Next week we will continue our inquiry unit that is under the transdisciplinary theme of Who we are. Our central idea is people bring their cultural and person beliefs to a community of learners.  The lines of inquiry are self awareness, cultural influences and experiences, an

First Week We had a great first week of school! My goals for us were to get to know each other, come to an understanding of classroom agreements and norms, and begin to collect some baseline data on where we are academically. We accomplished these goals and I think we're in for a fun year! Headphones Please have your student bring headphones to school. If you are unable to get headphones for your child, let me know and I'll make sure they are provided. Stay Connected Instagram Follow our class Instagram account at blanc.wstv. Here I'll be posting pictures of what we're up to. Seesaw Another way you can stay connected with our class is Seesaw. You can think of Seesaw as a digital portfolio. This is where your student will share their learning. How to sign up Click on this link:   https://app.seesaw.me/s/819-043-150 Choose your child from the list Create your account Once I approve you, you can see content from your child After you sign up, downloa

Today was an awesome start to the school year! I have three goals for our class this week (1) I want us to get to know each other, (2) I want to make sure that we know and understand the classroom norms and essential agreements, and (3) I want to get some baseline data on where students are at in reading, writing, and math. Today we made great progress towards the first week goals. I'm really looking forward to working with the students in this class! If you ever have any questions, please, don't hesitate to send me an email.

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, 8/23 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!

We are down to the final two days of the school year. It has been a pleasure to work with this group of students! I look forward to watching them become the leaders of West TV next year! Avoiding Summer Slide Help your student avoid the summer slide. Set aside time each day in which they are expected to read. One great way to encourage them to read over summer is to sign them up for the summer reading program at the local library. Here is a link with some information https://library.cedarmill.org/summer-reading/kids/ . To keep math skills sharp, have them play Prodigy. We have a link to the sign in page on the Websites tab. Students love this site because they feel like they are playing a video game, but they are also practicing their math skills. Health Lesson  Information about the upcoming health lesson went home last week. The lesson will take place on Monday, 6/18. We will assume that your child is participating unless we hear from you that you want them to opt out. Rep