Ms. Burris' Fourth Grade: Welcome 2021-2022 4th Graders!

Hi Families! 👋

Your kiddo completed their first "week" of fourth grade - woo hoo! I have loved spending the few days together and am already so excited to navigate through the year with them!

We took a class photo together on the first day, here it is!

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I would love if you could fill out this parent questionaire so I can get more information about your child! https://forms.gle/N63CyVF5c4wf9kyK7

Upcoming Events:

September 6th - No School

September 24th - No School

Curriculum Updates:

Reading: This week we began talking about the mind work and heart work we do as readers. The mind work includes all the components we think about when reading. For example: understanding characters, plot, etc. The heart work includes us looking at the books we read and identifying if they are like "windows" or "mirrors". Books that feel like windows are those that we can't fully relate to. It's like looking out a window to a different life, thought, idea, perspective, or action. On the other hand, when a book feels like a mirror, we can see ourselves in the book. We understand a situation, position, feeling, or identify of a character. These conversations have been great to have with the students and I love hearing them share if they feel that their book is a window or mirror and why.

Writing: We took a Narrative On-Demand on the first day of school. On-Demands are a 45 minute time period where students are instructed to follow the writing process to write anything they'd like as long as it fits within the genre we will begin studying. It's been so exciting to read the stories your children have written and get a strong understanding on how I can help them grow to be even better writers!

Math: This year we are integrating a new math work called Number Corner. Number Corner is in addition to our normal math curriculum, is about 20 minutes in length, and focuses on the practicing of different math skills all in relation to the monthly calendar. Through different activities, questions, and discussions students are able to broaden their mathematical ideas!

Leader in Me: This week we've spent a lot of time discussing how to be a leader and all the places we can show leadership. The first habit of being a leader that we really emphasized this week was being proactive. Be proactive, I'm in charge of me! We've done a lot of whole class conversations, small group discussions, and self reflection about how we are and can continue to be proactive in our own lives. Here's some pictures from class time when we were working hard to identify how to handle things in and out of our circle of control.