Wednesday is Preview Night & State of the School at 6:00pm. Please plan to attend. We cannot wait for you to visit the Middle School and meet the teachers. They are looking forward to meeting you.
4th grade will visiting the Middle School for Friday morning activities. They will talk with 5th graders and visit their classes. Super exciting! We will be visiting the Chicago History Museum on Thursday. Please send your child in their Roycemore 100 Years t-shirt and a lunch. No glass, please. LA Whales on Stilts is an instant favorite! The students already love this exaggerated and funny novel. We have talked about the mood and tone set by this author and the importance of imagery in this genre. I have given the students the materials for a home project. They will watch a movie from the sci-fiction or fantasy genre. They will identify the character archetypes of the Hero's Journey and outline the structure, using events from the movie. You can watch this video or this one (with or without your child) to refresh yourself on the journey. Please see last weeks post for the links to the videos. Lots of stories are being written and read during Daily 5. Ask your student to share their work! There is one more lesson left in the 4th grade Roots book and then we will be beginning the 5th grade series. Next year the students will be given letter grades along with any percentage assigned to assignments. To begin getting them used to this system, I will assign them letter grades to accompany the percentage on the weekly Roots tests. There is no grade assigned to report cards and there is no more value put on these assessments. It is simply to reduce the grade shock of 5th grade. The scale is: 90-100 = A 80-89 = B 70-79 = C 60-69 = D Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Math Work on long division continues. I have also been giving some skills check-ups to check retention of past math concepts. Social Studies Students identified one country of their heritage to research. They are so interested to find out more about themselves. Some students are using themselves as experts, as well as looking up information on valid web sites. We talked about how Wikipedia is structured as a resource and why sites like Answers.com may not be the voice of experts. They are also working on creating an artistic interpretation of the Chicago flag that represents your family. They can use any medium or materials. This is a purely creative part of the project. It can be completed at home or they can bring the materials in to school and work. They also have access to materials in the classroom. The flag is due January 25. The family celebration will be Friday, January 29. It will be from 8:45-10:00 am. It will be done conference style, where a group of students will present in one of three rounds. I will send your child's presentation time home. Feel free to stay for part or all, if you can make it. The presentations should be done around 9:40 and then we will have a sampling of foods from anyone who would like to bring in a food that is important to your family.
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