Addition, Korman’s Survivor, and Basketball

Hard at work during Math this morning

We had a busy day! There were lots of yawns this morning, despite gaining an hour this weekend, but the class was focused and got a lot of work done. They’ve come a long way since September. Students should be proud of themselves for getting to work right away, finishing work in class, and needing less reminders to stay on task. This is what grade 4 should look like J

This morning students wrote Spelling Pre-Test 8, started a unit on addition (building on what Mr. W has done with them), and started a novel study on Gordon Korman’s Survivor. I read the first book in the series aloud to the class for pleasure while they finished work or drew but with this 2^nd book, they will learn about characters, plot, setting, and theme and do activities on these elements. Today students wrote a summary of the first chapter and made connections to their own life, relating the events in the chapter to something they have seen, done, or know about.

Before lunch students read a short story and answered comprehension questions. Some students finished their math after this time and a few students who were finished everything played math games (dominoes, dice games, cards, puzzles, brain teasers, etc).

After lunch was Library for a book exchange, then Science. Students planned and practiced their weather presentation, which will be presented tomorrow. Each student is a weather person, giving us a weather forecast and update on an extreme weather system moving into the area. Hurricane Sandy’s landfall last week is a perfect example, and we’ve watched some of the weather updates and news broadcasts of this event.

We finished the day with Basketball in the gym. Students practiced dribbling in patterns and following lines, practiced ball handling tricks (figure 8s and other ball control moves), did some team dribbling relays, and ended with free play. I taught the students the game Bump because some didn’t know how to play. Others chose to shoot hoops, play 4 square, practiced ball handling tricks, or made up games.

Reminders:

Please return signed October Home Reading forms. Our class is at 248 nights of home reading so far.

A Tillicum School fundraiser (selling chocolates) went home today. Please look at the forms and do your best to sell some.

Mrs. S