Hello All,
Happy New Year! We have had a pretty smooth return to school (minus the snow day, of course!) I always love January sine the holidays are behind us and spring fever hasn't hit us yet.  I see the students really buckling down and a lot of work getting done!

Here's the rundown of what we are doing:

In reading, we have started our "Social Issues Book Clubs" unit. I am impressed (and even a bit saddened) by the list of social issues this class came up with! We have everything on our list from homelessness to gender issues to poverty and war. The students are reading in groups and working to have meaningful conversations about  the issues they encounter in their books. I love this unit, and I know how justice-oriented students in 4th grade are!

Writing is somewhat related to reading right now, as we just started our opinion writing unit. "The kids did a similar unit in Grade 3, but this time around we are really focusing on coming up with something meaty to write about, and we are making a thesis statement with 3 bullet points. Basically this is a 5 paragraph essay, complete with an introduction and conclusion. A lot of the students seem ot "hate" this unit, but I think the structured writing is really good for their organizational skills. From here we will move into persuasive writing, and I think they will like that better! 

The persuasive writing will dovetail nicely with our current social studies unit, which is about Vermont civics. At the end of the unit, the students will be writing letters to their legislator either urging them to pass a bill, not pass a bill, or with an idea for a new bill. In the meantime, we are learning about how our government works. We have talked about what democracy means, how our Founding Fathers declared independence, what it means to be Republican or Democrat, and what the 3 branches of government are all about. Next week the students will get to meet Lt Governor David Zuckerman and ask him questions!  This is my favorite unit of all -- I think it is exciting for the kids to realize how their government works and what their civic duties are/will be!

We are just about finished with our geometry unit and will be moving into our next math unit by the end of next week. Our next unit is about addition and subtraction with numbers up to 100,000. The kids will learn a variety of strategies, including the typical US Algorithm that we learned when we were children. They will learn to regroup (or "carry" and "borrow.")  A parent letter will be sent home soon.

The students have asked if we could start having a sharing theme again. The theme is only a suggestion, but some kids really like it because it gives them an idea. Next week's theme is "something that has parts."

Enjoy the snowy weekend, and stay warm!