We had another great week in fourth grade! The students have learned many new concepts, and are working very hard.

• Students had their word-work assessment today. I would like to explain how the word-work program works, incase there is any confusion. Word-work is done in a 3 week rotation. Week one students are given new words and a word sort to complete. They learn a spelling pattern/spelling rule. Students complete 3 word-work tasks at home to hand in Friday, as well as word-work activities in class. Week 2, students are given new prefixes to learn. We use dictionaries to find words with the prefixes we are working with. On Friday, 3 prefix activities are due. Week 3 is a review of the previous weeks, with 4 tasks due on Friday, and an assessment.
• The class finished up their final copies of their "special people" writing. Next week, we begin writing about things we are thankful for. Again, the emphasis is writing paragraphs that flow and have topic sentences, supporting details, and closing sentences. All students have a writing goal that they are working towards.
• We have been working on author's purpose, main idea, theme, and answering questions using text based evidence. 
• In math, the class just finished up a unit on place value. Next week, we begin a unit on different methods to multiply double digit numbers.
• In social studies, students presented their posters about explorers. Next week we will learn about the English taking control of the Dutch colony.

Have a great weekend! Please remember to schedule a conference if you have not already done so.