Week of March 29th and April 6th

Happy Friday!

I really enjoyed speaking with all of you this week during conferences! I really appreciate all that each and every one of you do for your child and their success here in the classroom. I appreciate all of your continued support for me as well. Conferences is just a reminder to me of how incredible my students are and how fortunate I am to work with them this year. 

Saving Fiona, our class book that we entered into NDLC's Book March Madness, made it to the final two! The students are so excited to see if we will win! 🤞🏻

There is no school next Friday (4/2/24) or Monday (4/5/21). Enjoy your long weekend!🐰🐣🐥

Here's the link to order a Yearbook! https://www.prepaysystems.com/view/ZEBslp43/new-directions-learning-community-yearbook-orders

Students at NDLC will be participating in an Egg Crack-off.

Please send a hard-boiled egg in a container to school with your child on Thursday, April 1.  Eggs cannot have paint, crayon, marker, or film on them.

Upcoming Events:

April 1st: NDLC Egg Crack-off

April 2nd: No School
April 5th: No School

April 14th: Forward Testing Begins

April 16: Knowledge-A-Thon! (NDLC Wear)

April 18th: Summer School Registration Begins

Curriculum Update:

Reading: We began Forward reading test prep this week! Students are really working hard to answer practice questions and analyzing and thinking deeply about the practice readings we are working through as a class!

Writing: Our journalism unit has come to an end. This past week we worked on feature articles. These articles tend to be what we see in magazines and share information that can be shared over a period of time and isn't necessarily 'breaking news'. It has been so fun creating the newspapers with the kiddos and watching them go through the day as journalists and writers. Check out our Google Slide on Seesaw to see the featured articles the student's worked on this week! 

Word Study: We've are still working through Unit 10. We will likely be done next week and take the test on Thursday This unit focuses on the double vowel syllable which we are going to call the "D syllable". The "D syllable" contains two vowels that are next to each other such as "ai" in "bait". We will be learning about other vowel teams as well. We are going to work on adding suffixes to the word endings of vowel teams and understand how sometimes when two vowels are together, they don't make a combined sound. For example the "ea" in create. This week's fundation work will becoming home earlier next week. 

Math:  Students took the Unit 6 Math Test this afternoon. I will have those graded and ready to give back on Monday. Students take the time to correct their errors and I do have them bring them home to get signed by parents. Be on the look out for this on Monday evening.

Content: We've been exploring more topics related to Earth's systems and processes. We've also been spending some content time practicing reading and test prep questions on a website called Common Lit. The goal of this extra practice is for students to become comfortable reading and working online as they will take their Forward Exam on their computers.

Have a great weekend! 🌞

Carly Burris

Week of March 22nd

 Happy Friday! 

Please make sure to fill out the form before Conferences to help guide our conversation and make sure we discuss everything you'd like to talk about your child. Here's the link again: https://forms.gle/K4pVpXc3FvE7jgRF7

This is the link for conferences: https://meet.google.com/sej-phqf-xuq

If you'd like to purchase a donate a book to the classroom, I think that the fourth graders (and future fourth graders) would enjoy the following:

The Babysitters Club by Gabriela Epstein

Rowley Jefferson's Awesome Friendly Spook Stories by Jeff Kinney

Cat Kid Comic Club by Dav Pilkey

Dog Man Mothering Heights by Dav Pilkey

Stepping Stones by Lucy Knisley

Allergic by Megan Wagner Lloyd

Becoming Brianna by Terri Libenson

Nubby's Story by Aubre Andrus

I Survived by Lauren Tarshis

Blended by Sharon M. Draper

Diary of a Wimpy Kid The Deep End by Jeff Kinney

We are running very low on post-its in the classroom. If you have any that you'd like to donate, that would be greatly appreciated! 😊

Here's the link to order a Yearbook! https://www.prepaysystems.com/view/ZEBslp43/new-directions-learning-community-yearbook-orders

Here is the link to the online book fair!

https://www.scholastic.com/bf/newdirectionlearningcmty1

Upcoming Events:

March 23rd: Parent Teacher Conferences
March 25th: Parent Teacher Conferences
March 26th: Early Dismissal for students
April 2nd: No School
April 5th: No School

We started using Prodigy during math after students finished their assigned workbook and packet tasks. If you'd like to make a parent account to check your child's progress here's the link to do so:

https://sso.prodigygame.com/parents/signup?referralOrigin=link&utm_campaign=teacher_parent_referral_link

Curriculum Update:

Reading: We are continuing to work on lifting levels! This week we've spent time discussing point of views, time, plot, setting, and how the voice in which you read (both aloud and in your head) plays a role in how you interpret the story. We've continued to draw on all that we know about fiction books and apply them to our partnership and book club conversations.

Writing: This journalism unit has been a blast! You should have received a copy of our classroom's newspaper on Monday and Thursday! It has been so exciting listening to the ideas student's are coming up with to report on. Most articles being generated revolve around making our classroom and school a better place - which is awesome! 

Word Study: The Unit 9 Fundations test was given on Tuesday. You should have recieved your student's test back in their homework folder. We've begun Unit 10. This unit focuses on the double vowel syllable which we are going to call the "D syllable". The "D syllable" contains two vowels that are next to each other such as "ai" in "bait". We will be learning about other vowel teams as well. We are going to work on adding suffixes to the word endings of vowel teams and understand how sometimes when two vowels are together, they don't make a combined sound. For example the "ea" in create. This week's fundation work will becoming home earlier next week. 

Math:  Students took the second Quick Quiz of the unit on Tuesday and took the third Quick Quiz today. We will be finishing the unit next week! There will be a test on Friday, March 26th. A review packet will be in your child's mailbox on Monday in preparation for the test. I am continuing to pull students for small groups to support them wherever they are struggling. Please let me know if you have any questions!

Content: We've continued working through understanding the Water Cycle. We started the week off with a fun lab! I filled up a glass with water and topped it off with shaving cream. I slowly dropped in blue colored water and students observed as it fell through the shaving cream. This lab was to demonstrate precipitation. Students also worked hard to create Water Cycle wheels out of paper plates. You should have seen these come home this week! Yesterday we did a 'skit' where each student took on a role of a part of the water cycle. As a class, we performed it in a circle - it was too fun! Students took a water cycle quiz today to test their knowledge. It will be reviewed and returned to them early next week! 💧

Have a great weekend! 😎

Carly Burris

Week of March 15th

Happy Friday, everyone! I hope you've had a great week and enjoyed the Spring weather we've been experiencing!

If you hadn't had the chance yet to sign-up for Parent Teacher Conferences, please do so as soon as you can. Conferences will be held on the evenings of March 23rd and March 25th. Please let me know if you'd like me to resend you the link.

We are running very low on post-its in the classroom. If you have any that you'd like to donate, that would be greatly appreciated! 😊

Here's the link to order a Yearbook! https://www.prepaysystems.com/view/ZEBslp43/new-directions-learning-community-yearbook-orders

Upcoming Events:

March 23rd: Parent Teacher Conferences
March 25th: Parent Teacher Conferences
March 26th: Early Dismissal for students
April 2nd: No School
April 5th: No School

Curriculum Update:

Reading: This level we've started this week is all about lifting our reading levels! We are identifying our personal reading challenges and figuring out ways to tackle them as well as accomplish reading goals for ourselves. The units I am teaching revolve around narrative nonfiction skills and strategies such as orientating, identifying multiple themes, pacing, and identifying when something doesn't make sense.

Writing: I've got to say, this unit has been my absolute favorite so far! We are currently being journalists this unit and practicing writing and publishing journalism pieces. We have students working on current events throughout the school, sports, comics, and we even have a secret advice columnists who is giving advice to peers that privately wrote to them. We will be publishing a whole class newspaper and it's my goal to print enough copies to send home to families as well! 

Math: We are continuing through Unit 6 on Fractions. I have been really impressed by how quickly everyone has grasped understanding fractions. We have spent majority of the week working with fractions that have the same denominators. We've practiced adding, subtracting, identifying fraction problems in word problems, and converting fractions to mixed numbers and vice versa. Students were all given fraction strips at the beginning of the unit to visually see the difference between fractions and their parts related to the whole. The first quick quiz of the unit came home this past week. As a class, this quiz was one of our best ones yet! Everyone really demonstrated their expertise on fractions. Way to go, fourth graders!

Content: We've been exploring the water cycle this week. Through readings, videos, and labs we've learned the different stages and processes of water. 

Word Study: We are wrapping up Unit 9. We will be taking the Unit 9 Word Study Test early this week! This is what your child's word study paper should have looked like for this week:

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Carly Burris

Week of March 8th

Happy Friday, everyone! I hope you have all had a great week. 

Please make sure your child is reading 30 minutes a night Monday through Thursday unless otherwise stated on the calendar (Friday and the weekends are optional 😊). They should be bringing home their Homework Reading Log which is a bright yellow sheet. It is double sided so this sheet should last about four weeks. Thank you for signing it each night confirming that they have completed their homework. I do check this sheet every morning when students arrive.

The link to sign up for Parent Teacher Conferences will be sent out on Monday, March 8th.

Upcoming Events:

March 23rd: Parent Teacher Conferences (Stay tuned for link)
March 25th: Parent Teacher Conferences (Stay tuned for link)
March 26th: Early Dismissal for students
April 2nd: No School
April 5th: No School

Curriculum Update:

Reading: We wrapped up our Reading unit this afternoon on Interpreting Characters. We celebrated by creating bookmarks with a chosen powerful quote that we liked from one of the books we read throughout the unit. These book marks will be copied and offered to other students in the school! Here's some pictures from students working on their bookmarks today!

Writing: We finished up our Writing unit as well. I am so proud of how invested and motivated students were throughout this unit. I enjoyed watching them choose their own adventure in writing. Check out Seesaw to see the slideshow we made during our celebration to celebrate all we've accomplished this unit! We are moving on to Journalism! 

Math: We started Unit 6 this week in our math curriculum! This unit focuses on fractions. The students have jumped right in to this unit and it has been awesome to see and hear all about their previous fraction knowledge. We are currently working to understand what a fraction is alongside understanding the parts of a fraction like the numerator and denominator. Adding and subtracting like fractions seem to come easy for majority of the class. I am excited to continue through this unit with them! We played Fraction Bingo today which was so fun! Students were given a fraction addition or subtraction problem and had to find the answer on their bingo board. Here's some pictures:

Word Study: We are still cruising through Unit 9! This unit is all about r-controlled vowels. This syllable contains a single vowel that is directly followed by the letter r. The r changes the sound of the vowel. For example, in the word bark, the vowel a has neither a short nor long vowel sound - instead the sound is "controlled" by the r. There is an exception to the r-controlled syllable. If the r is followed by another r, the proceeding vowel is often short, as in the word carry. Students will also learn about the 1-1-1 spelling rule that applies to r-controlled words. When a base word is a closed or r-controlled syllable with only one consonant following one vowel, you double the final consonant on the base word if adding a vowel suffix

Your child's weeks worth of Fundations work will come home early next week. It should look like this (for 3/2/21 the words on their slip should be marked up):

Content: Last week we did a fun lab where students practiced being paleontologists. They were given a sheet of paper bones and were instructed to try and put the bones together to identify what the fossils were remains of. Here is what some groups came up with: