Vocabulary Parade

We have just finished reading Miss Alaineus: A Vocabulary Disaster by Debra Frasier. In the book, Sage, the main character, has misheard and misunderstood one of her teacher’s vocabulary words. Her error leads to a humbling catastrophe: a momentous tragedy in front of her whole class. She turns her disaster: an event bringing great misfortune, around at the end of the book by dressing up for the school vocabulary parade as Miss Alaineus.

Fourth grade students at Floral Street School will be having their own Vocabulary Parade this year. Students will present to the Leifer classroom the week of Monday, June 13th. Fourth graders will parade their hats and words on Friday, June 17th.  For some ideas from the author, please visit her website at: http://www.debrafrasier.com/pages/books-events/miss-alaineus/index.php.

A notice describing the event in further detail was sent home with your child today. Please feel free to email me with any questions you may have!

Miss Leifer 

SELCO field trip

Hi there!

We are all happy for Day 1 of our PARCC testing to be over with. Phew! Hopefully the weather brightens up on Wednesday and Thursday so we can get outside after the long testing sessions.

Today your child is bringing home their permission slip for our SELCO field trip on May 13. This is a half day field trip. There is no fee required, but you must send back the permission slip. We are looking for these to be in by Friday, May 6.

Thanks!
Miss Leifer

Updates

Hi families!

As a reminder, the 4th grade gymnastics jamboree is scheduled for Tuesday, April 12 from 1:30-2:30. Mrs. Smith asks that parents and relatives stay for the whole show, regardless of when our class performs. I am looking forward to seeing their hard work, and I know the students are excited to show off their skills!

This week we also started studying our next region of the U.S., which is The Midwest. Student's took a check-in quiz today to help them determine what to study moving forward, and the final quiz will be on Friday, April 15. That quiz will include the state locations, postal codes, sub-regions, and capitals. Criteria for receiving an advanced score is also included in the study guide.

Today we capitalized on the fact that third graders were on a field trip and our class was able to use the gym for Team Game. The team captains, Kendyal and Nina, did a great job planning, and students really enjoyed playing cat and mouse using the parachute. Below are some pictures.

I also shared with students that our class is representing Morocco this year for the Floral Street School Olympic Celebration. Every four years our field day is set up like the Olympics, and each class represents a country. We are excited to spend the next few months researching and learning about how to best represent Morocco. Do you know anything about Morocco? Leave us a comment below!

Have a great weekend :)
Miss Leifer

Bulletin Board

Our class created the bulletin board for our April half school meeting on the topic of "celebrating differences." After learning about diversity, students generated ideas about how we are alike and different. We discussed how these differences could range from learning style, to languages spoken, to physical characteristics. The design of the bulletin board was created by students and I was very proud of their effort from the planning to the creation stages. Take a look at the pictures below!

Miss Leifer

Classroom Updates

Hi all,

Here are a few classroom updates:

1. Our class will be creating the bulletin board for April's Half School Meeting on "celebrating differences." Student's had a ton of great ideas....it was hard to choose which direction to go in! We tried our best to find a way to merge many of the ideas together. Stay tuned!!

2. A few weeks ago, students took a practice PARCC ELA test where they were asked to read a story and a poem, answer multiple choice questions and identify a theme in each of the texts. We have already started to use this assessment as a learning opportunity! Yesterday each table group was given one multiple choice question to work on. The group needed to identify the correct answer and one strategy that could help them be successful in answering the question. After, each group chose two representatives to share their thinking. We compiled the list of strategies so that we can refer to in the future when we are answering multiple choice questions. Next week we'll take a closer look at the open response.

3. Yesterday, after briefly being interrupted by a fire drill, we watched a presentation from the Shrewsbury High School Robotics Team! The team brought the robot they built and discussed which simple machines they used and how the simple machines helped the robot to do some pretty amazing things!

There is lots of happy learning happening over here in Room 327 :)
Miss Leifer

Social Studies Citizen's Rights quiz

Students received their citizen's rights quizzes back today. Many students demonstrated knowledge about the subject matter but failed to read the directions carefully and did not answer all parts of the question.  For students who received a score of a 2, they will be retaking the quiz on Thursday, March 24 from 8:30-9:15. It will be a very similar quiz to the one they took, so they have this to study from, as well as the study materials from class.

Thanks!
Miss Leifer

SELCO fieldtrip

Hi all!

Our field trip to Shrewsbury Electric Light and Cable Operations (SELCO) will be May 13, 2016. It will be a half day field trip. All fourth graders across the district attend. We are very much looking forward to it!!

Miss Leifer