Updates

Dear 4T Families,

Here is an update of our last two weeks.

In reading, we have been focusing on nonfiction reading. We spent last week learning all about text features. We spent this week learning about the difference between main idea and topic and finding details to support our main idea.  We will work on summarizing next week. 

In writing, students are applying everything they are learning about nonfiction to create their own nonfiction book. Their book is going to include three different types of text structures and a variety of text features. They have been working really hard to research and learn all about the topic they chose. 

In math, we are learning all about factors and multiples.  We learned about prime (numbers with only 2 factors) and composite numbers (numbers with more than two factors). The students are working on mastering all of their multiplication facts.  Please encourage your child to study their facts each night!

In science, we are in the middle of our geology unit. Students have observed rocks, learned about the three types of rocks and the rock cycle. Their enthusiasm for rocks is amazing! 

I hope you and your family are enjoying the holiday season! 

-Ms. Tingle

Happy Thanksgiving

Dear 4T Families,

I hope you had the most amazing Thanksgiving! I am so thankful to have such a wonderful class this year that makes teaching so enjoyable.

Here is a recap of our last few weeks and a look at what's coming up in December. 

Reading: We finished our realistic fiction unit and began to study nonfiction. Students have learned all about text features, different types of nonfiction, and how to figure out tricky vocabulary words. 

In writing, we finished writing realistic fiction stories. I hope your child shared their story with you. Everyone worked so hard and was very eager to share their story with their classmates.  We spent the week before Thanksgiving writing strong paragraphs that include a topic sentence, three details, and a concluding sentence. 

In math, we finished our unit on elapsed time. We will begin multiplication this week. This would be a great time to have your child practice their multiplication facts at home!

In science, we have spent time learning all about scientists. Students created and tested their own experiments. It was so nice to see such excitement about science. We will begin to study weathering and erosion in the coming weeks. 

We will be heading to the book fair this Friday.

It's hard to believe we are one month away from our holiday vacation!

-Ms. Tingle

Week #9

It was a fast week in 4T between our half-day and Halloween celebration on Friday morning. It was so nice to see many of you for parent-teacher conferences. I look forward to meeting with the rest of you next week.

On Tuesday (11/1), we are heading to Old York. Students need to have a bag lunch for the trip. They can bring electronics for the bus, but everything must be left on the bus while we are inside.

Wednesday 11/2 is another half day.

A HUGE thank you to everyone who contributed a treat to make our Halloween breakfast a success! The kids had a great time and they definitely did not go hungry.

In reading we finished our classroom read aloud and the ending surprised everyone! Ask your child what happened to the tiger. The students are working on a realistic fiction project about a book they've read in this unit to wrap up their understanding of characters. 

In math we finished unit 2 which focused on addition and subtraction. We will move on to learning all about time next week. You can reinforce time at home by asking your child questions such as:

- What time will it be in 15 minutes?

- What time was it 30 minutes ago?

-If soccer practice is at 5:00 and ends at 6:15, how long is practice?

-What does quarter-past mean?

-What does half-past mean? 

In social studies students presented videos on colonial life. This was their first experience writing skits about social studies. I was very impressed! 

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
-Ms. Tingle

Week # 8

We had a fun filled week in 4T! Here is a peek.

Reading: We continued to study characters in our stories. We wrote letters of advice to characters, discussed lessons we can learn from the books we read, compared characters in our books, and discussed influences on our characters. On Tuesday, we had a class debate about our read aloud. Students had to pick a side and defend their ideas with evidence from the text. It was great to see the kids work together and be so passionate about their choice. The question was, "should Rob and Sistine let the tiger go?" Ask your child which side they were on.


Writing: We began to revise our realistic fiction stories. We discussed the importance of adding in character's thoughts, showing emotions, using transitions to show time passing, and adding adjectives and adverbs. Their stories are really starting to come to life!

Math: We spent the week solving addition and subtraction word problems using bar modeling. We will learn about perimeter this week. On Friday, we will take our Unit 2 test.

Social Studies: Kids are wrapping up their colonial life skits. I can't wait to share them with you because they have worked so hard and are so proud of their projects.

On Thursday our class took a trip out to the garden to prepare our 4th grade flower bed for new plants! We learned all about the garden and even got to try some of the vegetables that are growing out there.

We had a Mystery Skype with a class in New Jersey on Wednesday.

Important Information
This Wednesday and next Wednesday are half-days.

This Friday, we will have a Halloween breakfast.

We are traveling to Old York on November 1st.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

-Ms. Tingle

Week #7

We had a great four-day week in 4T.  Here is some of the learning we did.

We are in the middle of our second reading unit which is all about analyzing characters. We have been discussing how the characters in our books are just like us. We began our weekly self-selected reading meetings and it has been so great to see students learning and applying new strategies to their reading. 

In writing, we finished drafting our first realistic fiction story.  We will spend this week revising our stories. 

Our daily word work is in full swing. Students should be completing one page of their spelling homework each night. I strongly suggest that students do not complete the entire packet at one time. The daily practice is important for learning the spelling patterns. 

In math, we spent the week subtracting and solving word problems using the bar model. We will continue to solve word problems in the coming week.

In social studies, students are in the middle of completing a colonial life skit.  Each student completed individual research and is now working with a group to teach the class. Their enthusiasm towards this project is amazing. I know they will love our trip to Old York!

I hope you all had an amazing weekend!

-Ms. Tingle 

Week #5

Our week in 4T seemed to go by in a blink of an eye!

In reading, we began reading realistic fiction. We started our new read aloud, "Tiger Rising."  On Friday, students chose a "reading meeting" that they will attend this week!

In writing, we began to our first unit which is writing a realistic fiction story.  Students read several picture books to learn what published authors do well. They then brainstormed ideas for their own stories and chose one story idea to develop into a realistic fiction story. They are very excited to develop their ideas.

In math we finished our first unit on place value. We will begin our second unit, adding and subtracting this week. I think it's important for you to know that I let students do corrections on their math tests, on their own time. They can earn back half credit for each problem. This is a decision that students make on their own, however, parents are usually unaware that I allow this because students choose not to.  If you feel your child should make corrections, please encourage them to do so. It's a great time to talk about having a growth mindset and the power of learning from mistakes. They will need to make the corrections at home and you are welcome to help them.

On Friday, we had a Mystery Skype with a class in Ohio!



I hope you all had the best weekend! I am looking forward to the fall weather that seems to have arrived!

-Ms. Tingle

Week #4

It's hard to believe our first month  of school is complete. We had another fun-filled week in 4T.

Reading & Writing: We spent the week talking and writing about our reading. We finished our first read-aloud of the year, "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing."  In writing, we spent the week writing in our writing journals. Each day we brainstormed a different topic we could write about in our journals.

Math: We continued to study place value. We practiced rounding, comparing, and ordering numbers.

Social Studies: We wrapped up our learning on the first four towns in New Hampshire.  We will begin to study colonial New Hampshire this coming week.

We had our first Mystery Skype with a class from Kansas!


Question to ask your child about their week:

• What was your job during Mystery Skype?
• What was your favorite part in "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing?"
• What are you writing about in your journal?
• What is your favorite math activity so far this year?
• How do you round numbers?

The kids are loving Mystery Reader! Please feel free to sign up for more than one day or to pass the sign-up on to relatives who may be interested. 

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! 

-Ms. Tingle

Week #3

Our first full week of school went by in a blink of an eye! Here is a peek into our week.

In math, we began our first unit which focuses on place value. We practiced finding the value of digits in a number, writing numbers in expanded and word form, and reading large numbers.

In writing, we practiced writing paragraphs by writing "friend wanted" ads. We also wrote about the best part of ourselves. On Friday, we went to the garden to write in our writing journals.

We began learning about the 1st four towns in New Hampshire during social studies.

In reading, we practiced visualizing the story as we read. We also learned that readers can track their thinking by using sticky notes. 

Questions to ask your child:

• How do you write a number in expanded form?
• What were the 1st four towns in New Hampshire?
• What are you writing about in your writing journal?
• Who is your favorite character in "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing?"
• What is the best part of you?
• What is Mystery Skype?

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! I spent Saturday hiking Mt. Washington for the first time. It reminded me how important it is to have a growth mindset when doing something challenging!

-Ms. Tingle 

Picture Day!

Reminder:  Picture day is Thursday, September 15th! 

Week #2

Dear 4T families,

It was so nice to meet many of you at the Curriculum night! As I mentioned, we love to have parents come in and read to our classroom as a Mystery Reader. All you have to do is bring in one of your favorite books and send me five clues about yourself. The students love to guess who is coming in! Here is the link for you to sign up. Please feel free to share this link with other family members.

Mystery Reader Sign Up

 We've had another fun filled week in our classroom. Here is quick peek for you!

During reading this week we became more comfortable with our classroom library. The students completed a scavenger hunt to discover all the amazing books we have right in our room.  We also spent time discussing how to find a just right book and the importance of keeping our eyes and minds in the books we read. On Friday, we practiced a variety of strategies for figuring out tricky words.

In writing we learned that in 4th grade all sentences must begin with a capital and include punctuation at the end. We practiced this by writing sentences for our goals in 4th grade. We also learned about adjectives and adverbs and turned our strong sentences into water-color art!  On Friday, we decorated writer's notebooks. They came out pretty amazing!

During math students completed "Math About  Me" posters, practiced their multiplication facts, and telling time. We will start our first unit, Place Value, on Tuesday!

We completed two challenges this while learning about resilience and optimism.  First, students built a sailboat out of aluminum foil, straws, and popsicle sticks. The goal was to see how many pennies their boat could hold before sinking. The amount ranged from 7 to 263 pennies!  The second challenge required students to build a bridge with straws to hold as many pennies as possible.  It is so fun to see the students work together during these challenges!


Finally, we ended our week with a kickball game against Ms. Hildreth's class! The sportsmanship and kindness that 4T demonstrated brought a smile to my face!

I hope you all had a wonderful and relaxing weekend. Our first 5-day week is coming up!

Best,

-Ms. Tingle

First Week!

Wow, I don't think we could have had a more successful first week in 4T! We spent the week getting to know each other, establishing our classroom routines, discussing what each student needs to have a successful year and learning about a growth mindset. We began to build our classroom community by playing games outside, sharing about our summers and completing two challenges with peers. Students also had an opportunity to think about when reading is best for them and try out different reading spots in our classroom. Lastly, we spent time learning about math in 4T and practiced working in small groups, independently, and with a partner.

Questions to ask your child about their week:

• What does it mean to have empathy?
• When is a time that you had to have flexible thinking?
• How did  you have to be persistent during Save Fred?
• How did your group do at the marshmallow challenge?
• What book are you reading during Reader's Workshop?
• How does math TIME work in 4T?

Here are some pictures from our first week together! 

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That is all for now. I hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend and enjoyed some time outside in the nice weather!

-Ms. Tingle