Getting in the Swing of Things

It takes a while to get back into the swing of things. The first few days of school seem to go so slowly because there isn't a routine yet, that steady flow of activities and expectations that seem to carry the teacher and the students through the days and week. Somehow the time between recess and lunch, which goes so quickly in March seems to last forever in September.

But we are getting our routines established, and the students are adjusting well. Today we began with our first discussion of Thinking Maps. We talked about the Circle Map, and the students did a Circle Map about themselves and the people who have influenced them. They then turned this into the rough drafts of a short, two-paragraph composition. They will do the final draft tomorrow. We will follow the same pattern for all 8 of the Thinking Maps, and when they are done the students will assemble these compositions into their first book.

We finished the "Let Me Introduce" assignment they started yesterday. Students had previously interviewed each other and done a rough draft of a composition. They had also started to do a portrait of their table partner. Today we finished this. We did final drafts, mostly in cursive, and used oil pastels to color these. You can see three of the very best ones above. We have some talented artists here.

The students did their math pretest today, and they corrected their language arts pretests which they took yesterday. Fourth grade students do not like pretests, and I cannot really blame them. It seems a little unsettling to be tested on something you haven't studied yet. But they are useful tools for teachers to help us pinpoint strengths and weaknesses. So far it looks like our students need work in grammar, but do well in spelling and reading comprehension. We haven't checked the math yet, but I suspect fractions and beginning algebra will be the weakest areas there. There's nothing wrong with that: those are true fourth grade math objectives, not weaknesses from inadequately mastered second or third grade work.

They were pretty restless after lunch, so I gave them some routine addition and subtraction practice from the math book to help focus them. A few of them will need to finish this as part of the homework tonight, but most did it fairly quickly. We did some more work in music, focusing on the areas of beat and rhythm. Students practiced finding the beat in a jump rope chant and a short piece of music. They also practiced finding the stressed beat using the first syllable of their name as a kind of downbeat.

Home Studies: Complete page H34 if needed in the math book. Do the first language arts packet -- see black folder. This is preparation for reading the first story in the Open Court book.