Welcome back everyone! Happy New Year.
During the month of January, we will be doing powerful work in the classroom. I want to share with you what we will be doing so that you can have conversations with your student about the content as well.
Our new unit is How We Express Ourselves. The central idea states that people develop strategies to share their beliefs and values.
We started this unit in December by learning about the rights and responsibilities we have at home, in school, in our communities, and in our country. From there, we realized together that having rights come with responsibilities, and that many people around the world don't have the same rights as we do. Especially because of conflict such as war.
This week so far, we've been learning about the Syrian civil war and the Syrian refugee crisis. Students engaged with different texts and videos to build background knowledge on this issue. Along with this work, they have been learning about opinion, reason, and evidence when it comes to opinion writing. We are making connections by finding author's opinions in articles about the Syrian civil war, and eventually will be able to share our own opinions, reasons, and evidence.
This Unit of Inquiry is ongoing and the 4th grade team at Mitchell is partnering with the UM ELMAC program. In my classroom, students are split into 8 inquiry teams, each with an ELMAC intern.
The students have been extremely engaged with the material and are growing to be open-minded communicators. I'm really excited to see their hard work so far, and I have high hopes for where we'll be at the end of January.
Here is what we're doing in other subject areas:
During the month of January, we will be doing powerful work in the classroom. I want to share with you what we will be doing so that you can have conversations with your student about the content as well.
Our new unit is How We Express Ourselves. The central idea states that people develop strategies to share their beliefs and values.
We started this unit in December by learning about the rights and responsibilities we have at home, in school, in our communities, and in our country. From there, we realized together that having rights come with responsibilities, and that many people around the world don't have the same rights as we do. Especially because of conflict such as war.
This week so far, we've been learning about the Syrian civil war and the Syrian refugee crisis. Students engaged with different texts and videos to build background knowledge on this issue. Along with this work, they have been learning about opinion, reason, and evidence when it comes to opinion writing. We are making connections by finding author's opinions in articles about the Syrian civil war, and eventually will be able to share our own opinions, reasons, and evidence.
This Unit of Inquiry is ongoing and the 4th grade team at Mitchell is partnering with the UM ELMAC program. In my classroom, students are split into 8 inquiry teams, each with an ELMAC intern.
The students have been extremely engaged with the material and are growing to be open-minded communicators. I'm really excited to see their hard work so far, and I have high hopes for where we'll be at the end of January.
Here is what we're doing in other subject areas:
Math
Students will...
- Finish Unit 4
- Students have been surpassing their math goals! They set a class average goal of 80% during Unit 3 and ended up with an average of 84%. We continue to celebrate and set new goals for every unit.
- Practice partial-products multiplication
- Find area
- Solve multi-step multiplication stories
Reading
Students will...
- Ask questions about their reading
- Work in guided reading groups
- Read about human rights
Science
I've received some questions regarding science. With the way 4th grade mapped out curriculum this year, our science IB units will occur the next couple months after our current Unit of Inquiry. Our field trips will also occur within the next couple months. Our first field trip will be in-school, and Leslie Science and Nature Center will be coming this Friday to meet with our 4th graders. Thank you for understanding as we continue on this journey of becoming an IB school!
Announcements
Learn About IB @ Scarlett Middle School on 1/12/17
Please join us for an informational night for any family interested in learning about the IB Middle Years Programme at Scarlett Middle School. We will begin at 6:30 PM.
Mitchell Free Food Distribution
All Mitchell and Scarlett families are welcome to pick up free food at Mitchell School on Saturday, January 14 at 9:30 AM. If you have registered before, you will not need to register again. If you have not previously registered, it is a short process.
This is available to all Mitchell and Scarlett families on the first Saturday of each month.
Thank you to Community Action Network and Food Gatherers for their partnership in bringing this service to our community.
Mitchell PTO Meeting
The Mitchell School PTO will be meeting on Tuesday, January 17 beginning at 6:00 PM in the media center. Please plan to join us!
PTO Movie Night
The Mitchell School PTO will be hosting movie night on Friday, January 20 beginning at 6:00 PM. Everyone is welcome to attend! Children may only attend with a supervising adult. Thank you!
NWEA Testing
Beginning the week of January 16th, children in grades K-5 will start the NWEA Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) Assessments. We give students the NWEA MAP Assessments to determine your child's instructional level and to measure academic growth throughout the school year in the areas of Math and Reading.
*Our class will be taking NWEA Reading next Wednesday 1/18 and NWEA Math on Tuesday 1/24.
Please join us for an informational night for any family interested in learning about the IB Middle Years Programme at Scarlett Middle School. We will begin at 6:30 PM.
Mitchell Free Food Distribution
All Mitchell and Scarlett families are welcome to pick up free food at Mitchell School on Saturday, January 14 at 9:30 AM. If you have registered before, you will not need to register again. If you have not previously registered, it is a short process.
This is available to all Mitchell and Scarlett families on the first Saturday of each month.
Thank you to Community Action Network and Food Gatherers for their partnership in bringing this service to our community.
Mitchell PTO Meeting
The Mitchell School PTO will be meeting on Tuesday, January 17 beginning at 6:00 PM in the media center. Please plan to join us!
PTO Movie Night
The Mitchell School PTO will be hosting movie night on Friday, January 20 beginning at 6:00 PM. Everyone is welcome to attend! Children may only attend with a supervising adult. Thank you!
NWEA Testing
Beginning the week of January 16th, children in grades K-5 will start the NWEA Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) Assessments. We give students the NWEA MAP Assessments to determine your child's instructional level and to measure academic growth throughout the school year in the areas of Math and Reading.
*Our class will be taking NWEA Reading next Wednesday 1/18 and NWEA Math on Tuesday 1/24.