Mr. Blanc's Class

Last Week at Timberland Next week is scheduled to be our final week at Timberland! It's a beautiful building, but I'm looking forward to getting back to our space at West TV. We'll have a sink in our room, restrooms a one minute walk away, and lunch and specials will be at the same time everyday! Math We've completed our place value unit. Our next unit covers metric measurement. Students will work with liters, grams and meters. They'll need to know the prefixes milli, centi, and kilo. Keep up with the progress of your student by taking a look at their Seesaw activities. Reading Two of our big focuses in our current realistic fiction unit are developing ideas about characters and determining the theme or life lesson that can be learned from our books. Next week students will complete a Seesaw activity to show their progress in those two areas. On Monday, they'll be given a passage and asked to use evidence from the text to describe one of th...

Conferences Fall conferences will take place Wednesday, 11/6 in the evening and Thursday, 11/7 from 8am-8pm. You should have received an email from the office with a link to sign up for a time to meet. If you haven't signed up, please go to the link below and select a time that works for you. I look forward to sitting down and talking about your student with you.  https://www.ptcfast.com/schools/West_Tualatin_View_Elementary Writing  Now that we have studied figurative language students are noticing it in books they are reading, songs on the radio, TV shows they are watching, and conversations. On Monday, we will have our first idiom of the week. This is a fun way to help students further explore figurative language. Have your student tell you what the idiom of the week is each week. In class students are encouraged to include figurative language in their writing in order to give the reader a chance to feel like they are present in their story. Ask your student to te...

Math Our focus in math is going to shift to using addition and subtraction to solve multi-step word problems. In the problems students will be expected to show all of their work, create a visual representation, and write the answer as a statement.  Reading All of the students are reading realistic fiction books in class. In our mini-lessons we've been talking about characters and how they often change throughout the course of a book. We're asking students to describe their characters and give support from the text to explain their description.   Writing This week students will select one of their narrative drafts to turn into a published piece. They ' ll use revising and editing checklists to help them improve their current work. Ask your student which story they decided to turn into a final draft. Inquiry Our next inquiry falls under the theme of How We Express Ourselves. The central idea of this unit is people innovate using creativity and knowledge of energy....

Friday, 10/11 There will be no school for students on Friday, 10/11. It is a staff development day. Inquiry Our inquiry under the theme of Who We Are, with the central idea that people bring their cultural and personal beliefs to a community of learners, is nearing the end. Next week students will begin working on collages that represent their values, cultures, and a community they are part of. Math Hopefully you've had a chance to see some of the exit tickets your student has completed on Seesaw. These are a great way for you to see how your child is doing in math. Next week we will continue our place value unit and work on rounding. Usually this is the most difficult part of the place value unit for 4th graders.  Reading Students were sent home with their graded first vocabulary test last week. Their next test focuses on grammar and will take place on Tuesday, 10/8. In addition, they are expected to read three hours outside of school each week and record it on a read...

We made it through our first week at Timberland! I appreciate the flexibility and understanding of everyone as we do our best to get settled in.     Weekly Homework  With all of the changes going on, we gave the students a bit of a break on their homework last week. This week we will begin the usual routine of turning in reading logs on Tuesday and getting the new reading logs too. Students will also take their vocabulary test and then get new words to study for next Tuesday.  Math   We just finished a short math inquiry that focused on mathematical patterns and multiplication strategies. Hopefully you had a chance to see the story problem that was completed on Seesaw. Our next focus will be on place value. Students will be comparing numbers, using addition and subtraction to solve multi-step story problems, and use rounding to assess the reasonableness of their answers. Reading  Next week we will begin our realistic fiction unit. All student...

It was great to see everyone who made it to Back to School Night last Thursday! I hope you left with an understanding of the curriculum and expectations for 4th grade. Reading Log This Tuesday students will be sent home with their first reading log. Students have the expectation to read three hours outside of school each week. Reading logs will be turned in each Tuesday, and a new one will be going home as well. Vocabulary In addition to the reading log, students will be sent home with vocabulary words each Tuesday. They will be quizzed on the words the following Tuesday. We spend time in class learning about the words, so it is up to the student to decide whether or not they need to spend time studying them at home as well. Inquiry Our first inquiry unit of the year is under the theme of Who We Are. The central idea of the unit is that people bring their cultural and personal beliefs to a community of learners. So far students have started thinking about their values. They...

First Week We had an awesome first week of school! We accomplished all of our first week goals which were to get to know each other, understand the classroom norms and agreements, and start getting baseline academic data on where starting are in reading, writing, and math. 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. Parent Survey Thank you to those who have already returned their Parent Survey. If you haven't sent it back to school yet, please send it with your student next week.  Upcoming Dates Friday, September - Back to School Picnic 6 - 8   Thursday, September 12th - Back to School Night 6 - 7:30