Grade 4/5 News

This Week
        This week is the craziest week of the year!  Hallowe’en week at school is exciting and fun for the class because of all the activities.  Students are decorating the classroom to make it scary and creepy and we’re also doing reading and art activities to fit in with the mood.  On Wednesday students can wear their costume to school or change at school if they prefer.   In the afternoon we’re going to play some fun games and share some goodies.  You can send in a treat for students to share if you wish.  On Thursday we also have crazy hair day!
    A reminder that students need a second pair of shoes at school.  They should change from their outside shoes/boots when they enter the school so that water and mud isn’t tracked through the school.  Thanks :)

Subjects
Math: We have started a unit on number theory which involves learning concepts such as place value, number order, and rounding.
Reading: Students throughout the school have been organized into reading groups with different teachers in small leveled groups.  Reading Workshops occur Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays from 9:15 to 10:00.  The focus is on helping students become more successful in their reading skills and comprehension.
Writing:  We continue to examine the meaning and use of sentences in student writing.  I am showing students how to develop sentences into paragraphs.
Keyboarding: Students practice keyboarding every day before they begin any writing in the computer lab.  Their hands are covered so that they will not look at their hands while keyboarding.  I want them to be slow, steady, and accurate at first and then build up their speed.  As they become more efficient and faster there will be a huge growth in their ability to write on the computer for both fiction and nonfiction work.  I encourage students to practice keyboarding at home at the online site we use at school.  www.freetypinggame.net  
Art: Students have learned vanishing point lettering and will practice some perspective drawing next.
PE:  We are just about finished creative games and will begin practicing volleyball soon.  Tuesdays is dance day.  Currently students are learning to jive.  
French: I French students have been learning basic greetings and practicing some beginning vocabulary.  They’ve been having great fun learning the greetings and seem enthusiastic about learning French.