Dr. Johnson's Reading Blog

Before I share a few things about what's going on in class, I wanted to send out a reminder that our 4th Curriculum Night will be this Thursday, March 16th from 7:15 - 8:00 . Also, the MAP testing window begins this week. I plan on testing student the very last week of March (March 28 & March 30), so we can get as much math instruction before then. And one final piece of info, I will be at Camp Kanuga (5th grade camp) for three days next week (March 22 - 24). The kids and I will begin putting together several projects I will be expecting them to complete when I return back to school. Our kids have been great when they've had substitutes, but any reminder about expectations and behavior while I'm gone would be appreciated. Reading: We will begin our first literature study of the year. This literature study will be a whole class literature study so we can discuss expectations for future small group literature studies. Writing: We have been working on creating a bro...

There isn't too much information this week. I do want to remind everyone that instead of having Curriculum Night #3, we will be using that time for student-led conferences. Conferences will begin after school and continue into the evening. We will also use Friday, February 17 (half-day) for student-led conferences. Those will begin in the afternoon and continue into the early evening. I am also looking at several more dates, including Saturday, February 18 (I'm waiting on my son's soccer schedule), to schedule more times. I am in the process of creating a SignUp Genius, and as soon as I have dates and time slots down, I'll get the sign up out to everyone. Reading  - We are still working on studying characters in books. This week we will begin one of my favorite read alouds called Chains  by Laurie Halse Anderson. Writing  - Students have begun writing their DBQ pieces. We will be spending this week doing some editing. Math  - We are working on solving multipli...

First of all, thank you for all the wonderful gifts and treats I received before the holiday break. I appreciate every one's kind words and support. I wanted to share a few things we are currently working on, and give you some information on student-led conferences. Student-led Conferences : Students will begin working on their student-led conferences after the MLK holiday. While the dates are still tentative, we are working on having student-led conferences sometime around February 16 (in lieu of Curriculum Night), 17, and 18 (that's a Saturday). I am trying to come up with several dates to spread conferences around. As we closer, dates and times will be better known. Reading : We are engaged in a study of characters. We are looking a different characters in books and using evidence from the story to describe the character. While some books blatantly describe a character, in some stories the reader must infer the characteristics of a character based on the story. Writing...

I usually don't do homework this way, but since this is the week before Christmas Break, this made more sense. For homework, I want students to read for at least 20 minutes each night. I also want students to practice memorizing their multiplication tables. On Friday, students will take another timed quiz. The class' goal is to show you growth in the memorization of their multiplication tables by the time Student-led Conferences come around in February. I would focus on one number each night and have students use  http://www.multiplication.com/ . After students play a few games, they should go to the "Auto-scored Quizzes" tab at the top of the multiplication.com page ( http://www.multiplication.com/quiz/multiplication-self-correcting-quizzes ). They can do further work on memorizing their tables and get immediate feedback.

Thank you to everyone who was able to come to our Passing of the Cans gathering. I have included the short video we made of different ways to pass a can, and a link to the powerpoint presentation of our gathering. The kids did a phenomenal job at gathering. They really worked hard getting their parts correct, practicing reading their parts, and coming up with the order. We only went through our presentation twice before sharing at gathering - that's how good they were! Now that gathering is over, we can get back to our normal schedule. Here are some of the things we will be working on: Math - memorizing multiplication tables and multiplication strategies Science - astronomy Social Studies - finishing study of Jamestown Reading - working on nonfiction Writing - Jamestown DBQ (students have been doing really well with this so far)

I wanted to get out a few other updates as to what's going on in class. Reading : In reading, we are working on nonfiction. We have spent the last week discussing what nonfiction is, finding nonfiction books that appeal to students, and will begin looking at the text features of nonfiction, which may help student's make better sense of nonfiction texts. Writing : In writing, we are working on lots of writing and editing. Math : We are now moving into multiplication. In 4th grade, multiplication means knowledge of arrays, factors and multiples, composite and prime numbers, doubling, and solving multiplication problems in a variety of ways. This also means students will need to begin memorizing their multiplication tables to the point of recalling multiplication problems automatically. A good website for this is www.multiplication.com . Science:  In science we are at the end of our weather unit, and will be moving into astronomy. Social Studies : In social studies, we h...

Here are some pictures from our school wide zoo trip. I was having so much fun with the kids, I only got pictures from the class we took: I also have some pictures from "It's a Grand Day." Everyone had a great time with the grandparents. While we presented a few things to the grandparents, the highlight was explorations with grandparents.