Update

Important Dates this Week:
Feb 24-26: Ms. Chris will be in San Fransisco for the National Association of Independent School Conference. Caley Peterson will the the sub for all 3 days. Please alert lsattend@oes.edu for schedule changes, as usual.
March 1: International Fair parent helpers meeting. 2-3pm

Dear Parents,
Thank you for your feedback on homework. The link is here to the googledoc which is updated every Monday with the homework for the week.

Reading:
Students will continue to read short news articles about water issues. While reading these articles we have discussed some nonfiction reading strategies. Last week, we discusses reading and asking yourself "What surprised me?" and "What does the author think I already know?" These two techniques get students thinking a bit deeper than just collecting facts but also putting some context to those facts and the article as a whole.
By the end of the week, students will choose one topic to continue to explore and focus on, however, last week and starting this week, students will be reading many different articles about many different water topics. We want students to really think about a variety of ways water affects our lives and get excited and invested in their topic.

Writing:
Students will be writing many notes, free writes, reflections, mind maps, and lists this week. Writing will be used as a brainstorming and data collecting tool and highlighted as such.
We will also be discussing the art of storytelling this week in art class and with Chaplain Jennie.

Math:
We have almost finished our math project with Mr. Arensberg. In the beginning of the week, we will share our math posters and get some feedback from our classmates. Mr. Arensberg has one lingering question we will continue to explore on our own. We will also do a blog reflection piece to capture some thinking about this project.
Mr. Arensbrg has a blog that I highly recommend. At this link, he writes some school math articles and references a couple math articles that I highly recommend. I am also reading What's Math Got To Do With It? by Jo Boaler.
And at think link, he has the whole school math problem. If you want some additional math problems where students can answer a whole school math problem and show their thinking, this is a great resource.

At the end of the week, Caley Peterson will start Unit 6 with the students. Unit 6 Parent letter will be in the student homework packet.

Inquiry:
Last week, we read many articles about a variety of water issues in the US and around the world. Students finished a water mind map and a free write over the weekend. These activities have helped build some awareness of possible topics for the International Fair, we hope to have discovered our big topic of interest by Tuesday and then work on creating thick guiding questions and begin researching into these topics through the end of the week.

Please refer to a previously posted blog for more information about the International Fair from the 4th grade team.