Working Hard

Hi Peeps!

I remembered to take pictures today :)...Here's what we've been doing in 4th grade

For this unit, we are learning how to make connections. When I first introduced it, my kids had NO IDEA on what making connections were or why they were important. Needless to say, we're much better at it now! :)   We also started out Reading Notebooks, and our first entry was a Making Connections foldable!

We've also been talking about Bucket Filling. I read the story, and then we came up with ways we could be Bucket Fillers and Bucket Dippers. Next week, we'll start filling out cards to 'fill' other's buckets. 

Our Math curriculum right now has a jumping around a little. The first lesson talked about how math was important, and how we can use it in everyday life. I showed an overhead of landscapers working, and we went over shapes, plane and solid. They also asked us to go over measurement as well in the first lesson. The next lesson is more on geometry and tessellations. So, we started out Math Notebooks! The first foldable...terms of measurement for length.

Each one has the abbreviation, conversions (12 in= 1 ft) and two things that they would measure with that unit.  The kids told me that they have never really done foldables before, and that they really enjoyed it. I told them good! Because we are going to be doing a lot of it! :)

So things have been going very well! Everyone has been super nice, and I feel like I fit right in. I've also never been so calm when starting a school year. Everything just feels so easy...as one co-worker put it...you have experience, you know what type of teacher you are and how you want things to run...and he's right! I guess after 5 years ( and 12 working with kids) I know what I want to do, how I want to do it and what works best for me. It's nice to have a start go fairly easy :)

And what I wore.... 

Dress, Tank & Shoes: Target
Though not all at the same time!







One last thought to share...after one of my more struggling readers finished reading with my helper (and she told him he would be super great by Christmas) my friend told her:

Learning is unlocking you mind. You know everything...you just don't know you know it.

How wonderful is that!!




Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn