PS/IS 686 | Brooklyn, NY

401 Class Blog Week of 11/12/18

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Hello!

Our 401 blog is up and running, so you can expect weekly updates about what we are doing in class going forward. Since this is our first post, it is a bit longer than normal (normally blog posts will be much shorter).  🙂

A few reminders/announcements:

Parent Teacher Conferences 11/15/18

  • This Thursday is a half day because of parent teacher conferences, dismissal is at 11:40.
  • If you have specific questions or concerns you would like addressed during our parent teacher conference, please email me in advance.  Since we only have a limited amount of time for conferences, it’s helpful to know in advance if you would like to address anything specifically.

Book Wish lists

  • Thank you to everyone who was able to contribute books to our classroom from the Amazon wish list, the kids are loving them so far!
  • The PTO is hosting a book fair at the Barnes and Nobles in Park Slope on Sunday 11/18. If you are able to make it, there will be a few teachers from BSI doing read alouds and hanging out. There is another book wish list for our class through Barnes and Nobles, so if you happen to stop by, and want to pick up a book, it would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Parent Support

  • I just wanted to say another thank you for all the wonderful support families have offered so far this year. It’s been wonderful to have so much communication and input from the families in our class. I appreciate all the hard work you are putting in with your fourth grader.

Curriculum

Math:

  • In math we have been working on factors and are moving into how we can use them  to help us understand how multiplication works. This week we will be discussing how changing one element of a multiplication problem can effect the other parts.
  • We will also soon be starting work on multistep word problems.

Reading:

  • We are continuing to read The Sign of The Beaver as a class. We will continue to learn new vocabulary from every chapter we read this week.
  • During independent reading we will continue to increase our stamina for how long we can read and being engaged in our books.

Writing:

  • This week we will settle on which story idea we are choosing for our realistic fiction writing.
  • We will also continue to develop our characters and plot.

Social Studies:

  • This week we will begin our next unit which is titled: Native Americans: The First Inhabitants of New York State. In this unit, students will explore the ways in which Native American groups, specifically the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) and Algonquian-speaking peoples (Mahicans, Shinnecock, and Lenni Lenape), who lived in the southern parts of New York State, in what is now Long Island and the Hudson River Valley, interacted with their environment to develop unique, and complex cultures.