Mr. Blanc's Class

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