tmckechnie's blog

Click on each link to listen!

Alex

Hunter

Joseph

Kara

Kessler

Mary

Matthew

Nellie

Olivia

Payson

May 14, 2010

Dear Families,

We had a wonderful creative week at school. 

On Monday we began a study of the indigenous people who live in the rainforest.  We concluded our week on Friday by reading Amazon Diary.  It is a realistic fiction story about a boy who crashes in the Amazon and discovers the Yanomami people who live there.  Our group reading inspired us to begin a poster project to learn more about other tribes of indigenous rainforest people. 


We learned about rates in unit 12 this week.  We talked about rates in travel (miles per gallon of gas), sports (runs per game), and shopping (price per pound).  While this unit is intended as an introduction to this concept, this is a great opportunity for families to support the unit.  Real life examples of rates may be just the thing to help your child really understand.  Feel free to look for those rates!


In writing class, we are finalizing our artist biographies.  Mrs. Ricker is helping students to finalize copies of their great artists work as well.  Soon we will have these on display at school.

In preparation for Chris van Dusen, we read some of The Exquisite Corpse Adventure online.  We will continue reading this in reading class over the next couple of weeks.  It is a funny adventure in which the writing is shared by some wonderful authors.  We also wrote our own episodic stories in class and shared them.  Each student took home the story they started in class.  All were full of funny details and twists. 


I am guessing springtime will bring bugs next week as it warms up.  You may want to think about packing sunscreen and spray for your child.  Your child may apply his/her own spray, as needed.

Have a restful weekend!

April 16, 2010

Dear Families,

Thank you to our engineering guest speakers Adam Norwood and John Richardson.  Adam Norwood showed all of the third and fourth grade students a slide show with photos of marine projects and the work of a marine engineer.  The following week, John Richardson presented a slideshow to show a variety of engineering projects and the work of a civil and mechanical engineer.  Connection our study of engineering to real careers and projects was a terrific experience for the students.   


On Thursday students used their engineering skills to design a bungee jump safe enough for an egg to bounce from 5 feet in the air to within 2 inches of the floor.  The only materials allowed were nylons, plastic bags, balloons, string, rubber bands, styrofoam peanuts and plastic test eggs.  We tested our bungee jumps and altered our designs, testing them with real eggs. 


Our Bake Sale to benefit Haiti was a huge success. Your children practiced citizenship skills, behaved respectfully, responsibly, and worked collaboratively.  After we completed our project, students described the effectiveness and evaluated their own civic contribution.  Our class raised $172.85 to contribute to the fund for Haiti on Thursday after school and at the school play.  Thank you to all the families for cooking and shopping and involving your children in the preparations.      


We finished reading Sarah, Plain and Tall and watched the movie to compare them for the media standard.  7 kids liked the movie better than the book because it helped them visualize the prairie and the time period.  5 kids liked the book better than the movie because you could use your imagination to picture things, it was explained clearly, the ending was better, and it wasn’t as sad as the movie.  Great critiquing skills are growing.     

April 2, 2010

Dear Families,

What a beautiful end to a rainy week we enjoyed today.  It is funny how appreciative of the sun a teacher can be after three days of indoor recess.  The weekend weather looks fabulous as well.  Spring has arrived!


Students took the math assessment on Thursday of this week.  These will be analyzed and sent home next week for you to look over with your child.  The remaining units are fairly short, so we will have lots of time at the end of the school year to enjoy games and math skills work.  This means the homework may look different and be more sporadic than it has all year. 


In writing class this week students learned about homophones.  Their spelling words next week will include some commonly misused homophones.  Be sure your child is working on meaning with these words.  We also took a couple days to learn some rules about prefixes, root words, and suffixes.  In our writing notebooks we have been attending to rules for capitalization and punctuation.


We have started reading Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan.  The story is set in the grassland, which allows students to visualize the grassland plants and animals.  Students seem fascinated with the life style of the early pioneers.  After each chapter students answer comprehension questions, look up a vocabulary word in the dictionary, and enjoy an enrichment activity.  When we are not busy reading historical fiction set in the grasslands, students are reading nonfiction books about the grasslands looking for features of nonfiction books and answering literal content questions. 


Thank you all for sending back the sing up forms for the Haiti Bake Sale next week.  Attached is the master schedule.  Please note that I am there to supervise students at the sale, but after their work slot is complete, they need to be supervised or picked up by parents. 


April 15, 2010
Bake Sale Schedule

Thank
you to BEEM for a wonderful field trip!  On March 4th, 2010 Thursday,
the 3rd and 4th grade students went on a field trip to the University
of Maine.  The trip was the grand finale for a study of the tundra and
a kick-off for our study of scientists.  The third and fourth grade
teachers wrote a BEEM grant in October for an interactive
video-conference with the Mount Washington Observatory Distance
Learning educators.  Last Thursday classes went live to the summit
of Mount Washington and learned
about climate and weather from the people who know it best: the hardy
men and women living and working in the Observatory's legendary summit
weather station.  The 3rd and 4th grade students and teachers appreciate the
support of BEEM for this terrific day!

February 12, 2010

Dear Families,

Another Friday is here.  We have accomplished quite a bit in our busy pre-vacation week.  Students have finished writing a first draft of a report on the tundra.  The report consists of 3 paragraphs: an overview of the tundra, geographic location and landforms, and special features of an arctic animal.  The report will become a big book page after the vacation complete with a table comparing animal adaptations and some illustrations with captions to enhance the information presented.  During our first draft process we learned about plagerism, paragraphing, and taking notes on a particular topic. 


Math class has been tough the last couple of weeks with 2 homework papers each night.  While I heard a few complaints from the students they were confident taking their tests yesterday and at first glance it appears that everyone did well.  I will analyze these and give specific feedback after the vacation. 


Our reading groups have read a fiction book with the tundra as a setting this week.  The groups are working in literature group style taking turns being the director of the discussion and reading notebook work. 


Today we tasted permafrost.  Ask your child to tell you how to make it.  The students are all pudding experts now. 

January 8, 2010

Dear Families,

We slowly worked back into the routine of school this week. It felt like the first week of school again.  We have had to review basic expectations for classroom behavior for some to get back on track.  But that aside, we have had a productive week. 


We have completed some tough MATH lessons this week, the beginnings of division.  So far it appears that with my support in class, students are able to do the algorithm.  I am hearing the homework is still tricky for some to complete independently.  I have tried to shuffle the homework assignments in order to complete the tough stuff at school and the easier work at home.  Sometimes, it is better to give it a go.  As always, if your child has spent more than 20 minutes on the math, you may initial the homework and send it in.  Students are not penalized in this case, just given the support they need to complete the work in class. 

   
In our READING groups this week, we read books about the desert and started Desert Diaries in WRITING.  We got so inspired that we turned our windows into desert murals to really feel like we are traveling through the desert.  We did celebrate our desert fairy tales earlier in the week and completed desert post cards in the computer lab.  We will spend another week on the desert before moving to the tundra.  Next week we are doing some desert experiments, and I could use some clean sand.  Donations are most welcome.   


On Wednesday and on Friday next week, we will be doing some desert exploration during which desert attire may be brought to school for an authentic feel.  Students may bring hiking shorts, or sunhats, or sunglasses or anything that might work well in the desert.

December 5, 2009

Dear Families,

Reading gets better and better every day.  The students are writing fantastic letters to tell me about their free reading books.  It has been a nice break from the routine of responding to the Book Club books in journals.  The new format provides a new, more personal outlet for response to reading.  The Book Clubs are still responding to their reading, but do this with their peers - buzzing or talking after they read.  Their conversations are rich, talking about the book, within the book, and beyond the book. 


During writing this week, we explored detail and topic.  Students chose a hat to describe to the class with so much detail that the class could visualize the hat.   The description was read without the hat, then with the hat.  It was great fun, and students had a chance to be a thoughtful writer as well as a thoughtful listener/reader.  The hats were a stitch and the dialogue about detail was pretty nifty too.  After thinking about detail, we looked at topic selection.  Students each chose a person and thought about three or four funny stories that are true about that person.  The idea is the encourage children to write short narratives.  We will expand on this topic selection and begin a narrative piece next week.


We finished off unit four in math this week.  The understanding of decimal concepts is impressive.  Students began this unit saying, "Oh, I am terrible at decimals."  As they approached the test I am hearing, "Decimals are so easy."  I am hopeful that the assessments will reflect the "so easy" sentiments.   The homework for this week was completed in class as review for the test.

November 20, 2009
Dear Families,

Our writing binders are full of wonderful final drafts for parents to see at the conferences next month (week of December 7th).  We have a fiction story, a non-fiction report, a personal recount, lots of editing work, and some cursive papers to show off.  Students started some free choice pieces this week, as they completed other projects. 


On Monday of this week I sent home the first three math tests.  We will not complete the fourth math unit before the trimester is over, so these are the basis for the math standard reporting on the report card (to be completed just prior to conferences).   If you have any questions about the tests please bring the tests to the conference.  You have the only copies.  Students who partially met any of the strands will be coming home with flashcards to help them learn one more goal and meet the standard.  The card will have a vocabulary word or operation to practice and remember.  The data and chance goals on the last test in particular were tricky.  Students knew the procedures, but mixed up mode and median or range and mode.  I will retest them next Wednesday morning (November 25).   To exceed the standards on the report card, students must score a 3 or 4 on the open response portion of the test and complete additional work in class to demonstrate their understanding above and beyond the expected level. 

November 5, 2009

Dear Families,

Another wonderful week has passed in fourth grade.  Students have started work on their “Big Book” pages.  The Big Book is really a showcase portfolio project that students add to all year.  As we complete theme units, students document learning on large, ledger size pages using different nonfiction techniques.   It is a fun way to practice presentation skills.  This week we completed a weather page and two temperate forest biome pages.  Students used the information from their animal reports to create webs and postcards to add to their pages.


The NWEA tests began this week.  Students completed the reading and language section of the NWEA this week.

On Monday students enjoyed a Writer’s Share Circle.  They chose between the fiction or nonfiction pieces that they have taken through the writing process to final drafts this year and presented one to the class. The writers appeared quite proud listening to the comments from their peers.


We are tearing through the math book, leaving no problems blank, persevering through challenging tasks, and completing work efficiently and accurately.  Students took the Unit 3 Assessment on Friday.  I am thrilled that homework has been so consistent from the fourth grade students this year.  I am sure all of your support at home with this has much to do with their success in class.


We are looking for a bag of potting soil for our eco-jar project next week.  Any donations are welcome.  

Have a good weekend,
Tara McKechnie