Finally... a New Post!

I recently had a discussion with some other teachers in the district about how to incorporate current events into the classroom.  Another teacher suggested a website: www.cnn.com/studentnews.  I now use this as our opening every morning.  It is a 10 minute newscast geared for kids about national and global news.  The kids love it!!  We then follow with Rocket Math before Math class.


Math- We continue to give a pre-test before every new math unit and group kids according to their needs for that unit.  The math is progressively getting more difficult for those students that do not know their basic facts.  PLEASE make sure your child is learning them at home!  Ex: 8x9=72 and 72 / 9 = 8. 
Upcoming units:

• Dividing by 1-Digit Divisors
• Lines, Angles, and Shapes
• Understanding Fractions
• Adding and Subtracting Fractions

Guided Reading- I continue to meet small groups of kids to work on specific reading strategies.  While I do this, the rest of the kids are working independently.  Based on a graduate class I recently took, I have implemented The Daily 5.  Students:

• Read to Self
• Read to Someone
• Listen to Reading
• Work on Writing
• Word Work

Research shows the best way to improve in reading and writing is to read and write! :)  The students are also to be using their Lexile ranges to read books that are at their level. 

Anthology- We have finished Theme 2 on American Stories.  The students have learned and reviewed many reading strategies including:

• Evaluate
• Sequence of Events
• Making Inferences
• Making Generalizations
• Categorize and Classify
• Contractions
• Antonyms
• Word roots sign and spect
• Suffixes -er, -or, and-ist
• Using Context
• Possessives

Stories we've read in this theme:

Writing- We have been practicing how to takes notes and pull information out of a text.  We have been using the information to write descriptive paragraphs.  Parents were to have signed a paragraph we wrote about Squanto.

Science/ Social Studies: We finished the units on Earth Materials and Earth, Sun, and Moon.  Students got to participate in the Star Lab.  You should ask them more about that!  They explored and got to see different constellation and how the rotation and revolvment of the Earth affects what we see in the sky.  We are currently in a unit on the Northeast.  We have discussed lots of vocabulary and how to use text features. 

Other:
For our November assembly, the 4th graders presented the ABC's of Thanksgiving.  Students recited a fact about Thanksgiving.  They did a great job!!
Students have been receiving the DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program with Deputy Hungerford every Tuesday for about 40 minutes.  They have a workbook they have been filling out and will receive a t-shirt upon completion of the program.  We will finish before Winter Break.

I recently purchased an ipad and am trying to find uses for it in the classroom.  I think it is very important to use technology in the classroom.  The 21st century will require our young minds to know how to use it!  One way in which I have been using the ipad is to take photos and video of students and show them how they look as learners.  I also have used it to record students reading and then play it back for them.  These are great learning opportunities!
Another new piece of technology we have received are "ladibug" cameras.  These cameras allow us to place anything under it and show it on the board.  It's kind of like an overhead projector only with way more capabilities!!  The kids think it's cool. :)

Thank you all for your support of what we are doing in the classroom!  Please feel free to contact me anytime you have a question.  afreiberg@marshalltown.k12.ia.us    or 641-751-1060

The Daily 5

I am taking a graduate class that has introduced me to something called "The Daily 5."  The Daily 5 includes 5 independent literacy activities that can be done during Guided Reading while I work with kids.  The students have been really interested in it and, today, we finished learning about all 5.  The students have choice, but that choice is based on trust.  You can visit with your child about what each of these are, and why we do them.

• Read to Self
• Read to Someone
• Listen to Reading
• Work on Writing
• Word Work

Information from Conferences

At conferences, parents will be receiving a lot of information about students in the form of Fall testing scores:

-Math Topics- Students bring home math homework almost daily to help them review and practice the skills learned in class.  They also review for a test.  Please make sure your child is doing their homework!!

- Basic Facts- Yes, we are still doing Rocket Math but basic facts NEED to be practiced at home!!  They are called "basic" facts for a reason. :)

-Social Studies/ Science- We are spending about 3 weeks on every unit.  Our new unit is Earth Materials and then Earth, Sun, and Moon. 

-Reading Theme Skills Test- This test is to check for basic 4th grade reading skills.  These skills are taught and/or reviewed in class, but can also be practiced at home.  If you would like some ideas/ suggestions on how you can help your child with reading at home, please ask!

-Homework completion- Lately, a lot of students have been forgetting their homework and/or not completing it.  I check for this daily.  Homework helps review concepts taught in class and prepare children for being better readers and writers.

-Spelling- We have a spelling list almost every week.  Spelling is a life skill.  Please make sure your child is studying their spelling words at home!!

-Dibels- We know that when a student reads, there are many important things to consider.  How fast a child reads is not the only thing to consider.  We are using a new Dibels test this year that not only scores words per minute (wpm) and accuracy (reading the words correctly), but also retell, retell quality, and using context to understand words.  These are ALL things students can be practicing at home in addition to working on them daily at school.

-MAP test- This test stands for Measure of Academic Progress.  We just began utilizing it last year, but are beginning now to use the data more in determing needs for our students.  It is 2 separate tests taken on a computer.  Each child receives the same number of questions, but the questions change in difficulty depending on how each question is answered.  In other words, each child receives a test designed for them!  The scores provide us with fairly accurate information.

**Our district has established goals/ benchmarks for each test and grade level.  If your child has not met a benchmark on one or more of the tests, we need to work together as a team to help them be successful and improve as a lifelong learner.  In addition, many of the goals go up as the year progresses.  Even if a child met a Fall goal, they will need to keep improving in order to meet Spring goals.  Please keep in mind that one test alone cannot determine an overall picture of how a child is performing in their academics.  We use a variety of scores to get a "feel" for where a child is at in their learning. 

I am committed to using SIOP (Sheltered Instruction) to help ALL students learn and grow.  This is a practice that our district has adopted and that I feel strongly about.  It is research based and has data supporting its use in the classroom.

As always, please feel free to contact me if you EVER have questions or concerns.  Email works best (afreiberg@marshalltown.k12.ia.us) but I can also be contacted at Lenihan: 641-754-1160.

Math, Social Studies, and Journaling

Parents- Please make sure your child is studying their basic facts at home!!  While we are doing Rocket Math at school, every student should still be practicing them outside of school.  This is fundamental to each child's math progress.  As story problems and computing get harder, a child will struggle if they don't know their facts.  Instead of being able to focus on solving the problem, they will spend their time trying to solve the facts needed to solve the problem.  The current math unit is on estimating and solving addition and subtraction problems.  This is difficult for those students that don't know their facts.

In Social Studies, we are learning about the Midwest Region.  This unit nicely follows the Iowa History unit.  Students are learning a lot about the area they live in.  If you have additional information that pertains to this unit, please share it with your child!

I have begun student journaling during Guided Reading.  For every entry a child writes, I write them back a letter responding to what they wrote and modeling what good writing looks like.  Please encourage your child to expand their thinking in the every day comments they make and writing they use.  There are many aspects to good writing.  Most students know some aspects really well, but have some area(s) that they can still improve on!

Writing

Writing:  We have been learning a lot about predicate expanders.  These tell more information about the predicate in a sentence.  A predicate tells the action of the subject.  Predicate expanders tell the when, why, where, and how of the predicate.  We have worked on mobility and moving them around in a sentence to make it more clear.  If a predicate expander is placed at the beginning of a sentence, it needs a comma after it.  We have also talked about sibstitute namers.  These rename a subject.  Example: Mrs. Freiberg = She OR desk = it.  However, we know that a substitute namer cannot be used unless the actual name has been used first.  Most importantly, all sentences needs a capitol letter at the beginning and stop sign at the end!!



Handwriting: Students need to make sure they are traveling on the line after letters and words.  They need to make sure all their letters are the same height.  They need to make sure they have correct spacing of letters and words. 

New post... finally!!

I'm sorry that it has taken so long to put up a new post!  Points of interest:

 

Math: We tested over Measurement, Time, and Temperature.  We are now in a unit on Measurement.  Time will fly with each math unit!  We will do a lesson a day.  We are also pre-testing for each unit to appropriately group students.  We will be focusing a lot on vocabulary.  Students should be practicing basic facts at home, while we continue to do Rocket Math at school.  There is math homework almost daily.

Writing: We have been reviewing and diagramming the parts of a sentence: subjects, predicates, subject describers, and predicate expanders.  We will begin to work on types of paragraphs.

Anthology: We have learned vocabulary, built background, read, and done comprehension activities for Akiak and Grandfather's Journey.  Ask your child to summarize these stories.  Also, we will have a spelling test every week (except for a few odd weeks here and there).  Your child is assigned spelling homework a couple times a week and tested at the end. 

Guided Reading: Each group has been working on reading while using specific strategies, such as predicting.  During independent time, students are reading chapter books, writing in a journal, reviewing cursive, and reading other content related to content themes (ex. Iowa History).

Social Studies: We are wrapping up our unit on Iowa History.  Students really enjoyed our Farm to Table field trip.  See the pictures below.  We will be taking another field trip on October 7 to Living History Farms.  Ask your child what they have learned about Iowa History!

SWINE (HOGS):

SHEEP:

TRACTOR SAFETY:

GOATS:

COWS:

CORN:

TECHNOLOGY:

Welcome Back to School!!!

It's a new year!  Our school year in Mrs. Freiberg's room is off to an excellent start!  In our first week, we have done the following:
-Put away supplies
-Started Rocket Math
-Discussed and Reviewed Fisher CATS expectations
-Started our first Math topic called "Measurement, Time, and Temperature"
-Gotten to know eachother through "Wanted posters" and other activities
-Had Music, PE, and Media
-Completed our first Anthology story, Pumpkin Runner, and reviewed reading strategies
-And more!!

We will be starting our full schedule on Monday, August 29th.  This will include Math, Guided Reading, Writing, Anthology, and Science/ Social Studies.  Feel free to contact me at any time with questions and/or concerns.  I look forward to a wonderful year!

Anthology Activity

For a comprehension activity to go along with our current anthology story, students had the following events and had to place them in the correct sequential order.  We will be using the correct order to practice writing a procedural paragraph. 

Catching and Preparing Salmon to Eat	Hooking Halibut and Making Tamuuq
Set a gill net	Bait the hook with salmon
Pull the net the next day	Attach heavy sinker to hook
Put on gloves	Hang line overboard
Separate fish	Wait and feel a tug on the line
Cut off the head	Give line a hard tug when fish nibble
Pull out the guts	Hold on and pull line in
Leave the skin and tail on	Slice halibut into strips
Leave scraps for scavengers	Hang up to dry
Put cleaned fish in the smokehouse	Wait ten days
Hang fish outside to cure	The tamuuq is ready to eat
The salmon is ready to eat

New Anthology Vocabulary

These are the new words that students learned to go along with the Anthology story, Salmon Summer.

Key Vocabulary	Definition	Sentence
Abundance (p.642)	More than enough	There’s an abundance of salmon for all.
Ancestors (p.637)	People in one’s family who lived many years ago	Like their Aleut ancestors, they catch fish to feed their family.
Lure (p.644)	Fake bait used to attract fish	Alex ties a silver lure with three hooks on it to his line.
Scavengers (p.640)	Animals that feed on dead animals	Alex leaves salmon scraps to wash away with the tide and be eaten by scavengers.
Spawn (p.637)	To lay eggs and reproduce	To complete their life cycle, they’re coming back to the same stream to spawn.

Descriptive Paragraph

Students are beginning the process of writing a descriptive paragraph.  We are writing one as a class about going on a roller coaster ride.  The use of a graphic organizer is helping us organize our thoughts.  We are writing things that we might see, hear, feel, or taste; specifically, before, during, and after the ride.  You can ask your child what some of the thigns are that they described.

New Anthology Theme

Our new Anthology Theme is "Nature: Friend and Foe."  In class, we started by doing an activity called "Surprise Book."  Students waited in anticipation and made predictions while a picture representing the theme was uncovered.  They were asked:
In what ways do you interact with nature?
How does nature affect your life?
How do you affect nature?
Why do you think this theme is called Nature: Friend and Foe?
How does the picture show both sides of nature?
Next, we did an activity called "Stand Up/ Sit Down."  Students had to decide whether a certain picture of weather represented nature as a friend or foe and had to be prepared to say "why." 

New Math Unit

Our Math Topic 12 is entitled "Understanding Decimals."  This will be our last math unit of the year.  We will be taking a cumulative math test at the very end.  This Topic's lessons are:

• Decimal Place Value
• Comparing and Ordering Decimals
• Fractions and Decimals
• Fractions and Decimals on the Number Line
• Mixed Numbers and Decimals on the Number Line
• Problem Solving: Draw a Picture

Facts and Opinions

We recently did an activity called "Stand Up, Sit Down."  I read statements from our Anthology story and students had to stand if they believed it was a fact and sit down if they believed it was an opinion.  In either case, they had to be prepared to defend their decision and tell us "why".  What I discovered was that this was a good skill to discuss and practice as many students struggled in their decision making.  The following are the statements I used. 

• The first World Series was playing in 1903.
• Through eight years of school Lou didn't miss a single day.
• Those were the first two games in what would become an amazing record. 
• He was selected again as the league's MVP in 1936. 
• The 1927 Yankees were perhaps the best team ever.
• It was a courageous speech.
• The more than sixty thousand fans in Yankee Stadium stood to honor Lou Gehrig.

New Social Studies unit

The Southeast comprises 12 states from teh Atlantic Coast to the Mississippi River.  Rivers, farms, and coal mines are important resources of the region.  First the Cherokee and later the English settled in the region.  Here colonists elected government leaders and the Civil War was fought.  The civil rights movement led to changes in the region and the nation.

Writing Descriptive Paragraphs

We have begun discussion on writing a descriptive paragraph.  So far, students have learned to include different words that involve the senses.  For example:

• Taste: bland, buttery, sugary, syrupy, rotten, nasty
• Feeling (physical or emotional): gentle, rough, furious, soft, kind
• Shape: rectangular, irregular, ovaly
• Size: tiny, ginormous, average, miniscule
• Texture (feels or looks): rough, squisy, shiny, dull, slippery
• Movement (feels or looks): lunge, drag, sidestep, scatter
• Sound: yell, sputter, ring, shout, whistle

Anthology Vocabulary

Students have learned the following vocabulary from our newest Anthology story, Lou Gehrig.

Key Vocabulary	Definition	Sentence
Consecutive (p.589)	Following one right after the other	For the next fourteen years Lou Gehrig played in 2,130 consecutive Yankee games.
Fielding (p.591)	In baseball, picking up the ball and throwing it to the correct player	He had trouble fielding.
First baseman (p.589)	The baseball player who guards the area around first base	The next day Lou played in place of first baseman Wally Pipp.
(to) honor (p.594)	To show special respect for	Many of the players… came to honor their former teammate.
Modest (p.590)	Having a quiet, humble view of oneself	Lou was shy and modest, but people who watched him knew just how good he was.
Shortstop (p.589)	The baseball player who guards the area between second base and third base	…The Yankee manager sent Loud to bat for the shortstop.
Sportsmanship (p.595)	The quality someone has when acting with dignity in difficult situations	… the mayor… told Lou, “You are the greatest prototype of good sportsmanship and citizenship.”

Please Respond

Recently, students have used the following ways to respond to some short read alouds.  These sentence starters use a variety of reading strategies.  Students have enjoyed sharing their responses.

žI noticed…

žThis reminds me of…

žI wonder…

žA question I have is…

žI predict _______ because….

žI think…

žI am surprised that…

žI feel…

• This is about…

New Math- Topic 11

Our new math unit is titled "Adding and Subtracting Fractions."  It's a fairly short unit, with only 4 lessons.  The following are the titles of the 4 math lessons:

• Adding and Subtracting Fractions with Like Denominators
• Adding Fractions with Unlike Denominators
• Subtracting Fractions with Unlike Denominators
• Problem Solving: Draw a Picture and Write an Equation

Anthology Vocabulary

These are the vocabulary words that students learned to go along with the Anthology story, Gloria Estefan.

Key Vocabulary	Definition	Sentence
career (p.565)	What someone does as a job	“She had never thought about joining a band or following a full-time musical career.”
contract (p.568)	A written agreement	“Soon the group signed a contract with Discos CBS International…”
demonstrated (p.570)	Showed clearly	“…Cuts Both Ways demonstrated Gloria’s talent as a songwriter.”
eventually (p.568)	At the end; finally	“But we kept the right to record in English, because eventually we wanted to try for the States.”
specializes (p.568)	To be involved in a particular activity	“Discos CBS International specializes in Latin music.”
tireless (p.575)	Able to work a long time without getting tired	“Gloria is also a passionate, tireless worker for those with troubles.”
worldwide (p.568)	All over the world	“From those albums came a dozen songs that became worldwide hits.”