October Owl

​#ClassroomBookADay
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The #classroombookaday challenge is easily most student's favorite thing about fourth grade.  I love it too!  We have read a picture book every day this school year.  We've enjoyed some truly beautiful books.  Some absolute favorites are Riptide, Drawn Together,  The Day You Begin, Beatrice's Goat, Dreamers, The Seven Silly Eaters, The Library Lion, The Paperboy, Last Stop on Market Street and Kermit the Hermit  to name just a few.  To see which books your child has enjoyed the most, check out your child's highlight reel.

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The Highlight Reel
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Every year our completely awesome PTO donates student planners. Because I've cut way back on homework, the planner has been re-purposed.  Our fourth-grade students are finding that it provides the PERFECT space to record a few highlights from each day.  We call it the highlight reel.  Is your child the kid who doesn't have much to say at the end of the day?  Check out his or her planner.  It is kept in the MAGIC binder.  I'm sure that your child's highlight reel will become a great conversation starter for your family.

​Beatrice's Goat
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We recently read Beatrice's Goat.  This inspirational and true life story about a young African girl named Beatrice has inspired our class.  Beatrice's life is forever changed by the gift of a goat.  Beatrice's job was to care for the goat.  This required responsibility and dedication.  Beatrice provided for the goat and the goat provided for Beatrice and her family.  Our students are motivated to collect enough funds to send an animal to a family like Beatrice's.  We agree that the children in our class should work for the money in the same way that Beatrice had to work to see her dreams come true.  Please consider hiring your child to complete some chores that are outside of his or her normal responsibilities.  In this way, our students will feel very proud to donate their funds to this cause.  We will collect money until Thanksgiving break.  We will review the Heifer Gift Catalog and decide how we can best help families like Beatrice's.  We hope to send our gift in time for the holidays.  
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Charlotte's Web and Opinion Writing
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Our students are reading Charlotte's Web.  They are enjoying every moment with this delightful book.  They have fallen in love with Wilbur.  As a result, they are really beginning to wonder, "How should farm animals be treated?"  Students across the fourth grade are wondering about this question together.  Some already have some pretty strong opinions.  Others are weighing all the information and forming their opinions.  In order to help the students think deeply about this question, we've provided them with some expert visitors to interview.  Our experts will share opposing views.  One is Crystal from Upton's Town Line Dairy Farm and the other is Jessica from the Maple Farm Sanctuary  right here in Mendon.  In the end, students will write opinion pieces that outline their thinking and where their opinion is well supported by facts. We'll share their final pieces, which will be published in a book and shared with you once available.  In the meantime, this might be a nice topic to discuss as a family.  

Multiples, Factors, Prime, Composite, Multiplicative Comparisons, and Lots of Data!
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We have been crazy-busy in math.  There has been a real effort to keep our kids engaged and to make the learning hands on.  Hopefully stories of math inquiries and activities are making their way into your home. If not, do check out your child's highlight reel.  I love working with your kids in math.  They work hard and are slow to frustrate.  This is an awesome combination!  

Conferences
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Please click on the below link to begin the conference sign-up procedures.

https://goo.gl/forms/7FsFbcEKrDZ13s6H2

I'm looking forward to meeting with all families in November!

Sincerely,
Marie Brigham, 4th year teacher
​Hogwarts