Viewing: September, 2009
September 30, 2009
SAR Work Coming Home Today
SAR stands for Short Answer Response. It is a form of open-ended activity in which students must write a thorough response in a limited amount of space. This limit helps students to focus their responses in order to avoid a LONG response in which they “through everything but the kitchen sink” into a response in hopes of including valuable detail. In third grade, students learned about the importance of including detail and supportive evidence. Now, in fourth grade, we are focusing on being selective when choosing what pieces of supportive detail will best support the response.
You will see two drafts coming home today. The first (written on the worksheet) is ungraded. We reviewed several anonymous SARs and discussed the characteristics of a quality SAR. Then, students revised their SARs (on lined paper). This second draft is the one that I graded. Students were assessed on a scale of 0, 1, or 2. (If you are relating that to the report card scale, a 0 would be a B, a 1 would be a D, and a 2 would be an S.) For more details on how your child was evaluated, please click on the parent resources link on the left-hand sidebar and visit the Rubrics page.
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
September 30, 2009
Math + Community Service = Learning
Curious as to why students were asked to bring in canned goods when school began? Besides being a valuable community service activity to support Gifts of Love, the canned goods allowed us to address an important skill: sorting and classifying. This skill often poses a challenge for kids who must sort items into different categories and explain their logic. We practice it at different points throughout the year in order to help students prepare for this sort of task, which will appear on the CMTs.
In our activity, we began by discussing what sorting, classifying, and ordering mean. Then, we made a list of many different possible ways to sort or order the items (by size, canned or boxed, store brand or name brand, vegetarian and non-vegetarian, etc.) Students worked in pairs to classify the items and wrote an explanation of how they went about sorting or ordering the non-perishables. It was a fun activity, good community service, and a valuable math lesson. Click on the thumbnail of the letter to read a thank you letter from Gifts of Love.
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
September 29, 2009
School Pictures
Smile for the camera! School picture day will be next Wednesday, October 7th. I haven’t heard anything about order forms, but when I get them, you’ll get them!
I found the photo on the right when I searched on Google Images for “old camera.” Is it bad that I also stumbled upon a photo of my digital camera under the same search for OLD cameras? 🙂
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
September 29, 2009
Update from Physical Education
Although we were sad to lose Mr. Filon to Avon High School, we are fortunate to have Mr. Tim Feschler join us from RBS as our new full-time Physical Education teacher. This semester, Mr. Feschler has a student teacher from CCSU, Miss Kawecki. She has been so impressed with our class that she would like to use our class as a model for some of her observations and assignments. Here is a message from Miss Kawecki.
Hello!
My name is Lisa Kawecki, known to the students as Miss. K, I am currently a student teacher in Physical Education from Central Connecticut State University. Because your child’s class has shown great behavior and cooperation in the Physical Education classroom, I have chosen them to be a part of my portfolio work. Within my assignment I am asked to video tape a lesson taught to the students, this video footage is solely used as a teaching tool to monitor my interaction with students and the teaching strategies that I apply in the classroom setting. The only viewers of this video would be myself and my university teacher. If there are any concerns regarding your child on this video, please do not hesitate to contact Mr. Moss, and your child will not be shown on the video. Thank you for your cooperation and understanding as I continue to improve my teaching.
Sincerely,
Lisa Kawecki
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
September 21, 2009
First full week!
Our first full week of school was a lot of fun, and a lot of work. The kids spent many days working on a collaborative reading comprehension activity relating to our first story: The Gardener. I divided the students into four groups, and each group worked on a different area of comprehension: timeline, inferences, narrative elements, and character analysis. They were able to combine their different pieces of work into a single display that tied in with the theme of The Gardner. I was impressed by how well the kids worked together and how much thought they put into their tasks. Definitely a growth from third grade thinking!
We’re now in our second set of words for the spelling pre-pre-tests (the test that comes BEFORE the pre-tests). Once we finish, each student will have a unique list of words that he or she can practice in lieu of weekly spelling words that he or she gets correct during the weekly pre-tests. (The weekly pre-tests for the typical Gr. 4 spelling words WON’T begin until we have finished the pre-pre-tests.)
We’re wrapping up the first math unit this week. We have spent the last three weeks learning about different areas of geometry, including how to use a straightedge (and why a tape measure makes a bad straightedge, as the photo shows); the differences between lines, line segments, and rays; the differences between parallel, intersecting, and perpendicular figures; properties of different polgyons; and (most exciting for the kids) how to use compasses to draw circles. Math test tomorrow!
All students have finished their first draft of their summer item expository writing pieces. About half of the kids have conferenced with me or with Mrs. Colbert (not the same as Miss Colbert). The students are typing their final copies in the computer lab.
In case you didn’t hear, allow me to make a modest announcement on behalf of our class…
WE HAD A 100% RETURN RATE
FOR SUMMER READING LOGS!!!
If I could have put that in glowing text with little marquee lights dancing around it, I would have! We were one of several classes that had each and every student, including those new to Avon, return a reading log! How impressive! We started our celebration last week at the spirit day (also Ms. Grainsky’s birthday), and the kids were excited to learn that as the co-winners of the reading rally, they will get to partake in an ice cream party that Mrs. McCabe is throwing!
As a whole class, we read 315 books over the summer. Before I shared that number with the kids, I had them predict how many books they thought the whole group read over the summer. We spent a few days working with the data by finding out the mean (average), median (see photo), mode, range, etc. Next week: Standard deviation and variance! (Just kidding!) We graphed the data by making a bar graph that is now hanging in the hallway (in case you’re in the building and want to see what the kids put together!)
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
September 21, 2009
Weather Widget Now Live
Visitors to this site can now check the live weather report from the PGS weather station. The WeatherBug Web Widget (How’s that for alliteration?) is on the lower portion of the left-hand sidebar. The continued operation of the PGS weather station is made possible by the generous funding that we have received from the PTO over the years.
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
September 18, 2009
Comments temporarily disabled
It seems that my comments feature is vulnerable to automated bots that are posting ads for various products. Until I can iron this out, I’ve disabled your ability to anonymously post comments (without being a registered user). If you have a comment that you want to post, please email me and I’ll give you access. I’ll let you know when things are back to normal.
Posted in Site Updates|By Jon Moss
September 14, 2009
Parent-Teacher Conference Schedule
I am trying something new this year. I have uploaded a copy of the parent-teacher conference schedule. If you were unable to attend open house last week, you can look at what free spots are available and choose one that fits your schedule. (Email me with your picks – first come, first served. I will do my best to post changes as quickly as possible so that you know what times are still actually available.) Because the schedule has private information (last names) that I don’t want to share with all the nice, friendly people on the internet, I have password-protected the page. You all should have received an email from me with the password. It is the same for all families.
You can access the schedule by choosing Parent Resources (from the left-hand sidebar) and scrolling half-way down the page.
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
September 14, 2009
Parent Resources Now Available
As promised, I have posted a variety of parent resources on a new page that is aptly titled “Parent Resources.” You can access it from the sidebar on the left side of this page. There are school-specific resources (lunch menu, calendar, etc.) and academic support resources to help you to better help your child with reading, writing, homework, etc.
My policies are also available from the left sidebar. The only thing missing is an explanation of how I will be managing spelling words and quizzes this year, but I hope to have that up this week. (It is unchanged from what I described at open house, but for parents who were with me last year and were unable to attend open house, you will find many changes in my spelling program.) Stay tuned!
Speaking of spelling, you will find that this week’s spelling list, as it appears on the website, does NOT yet match up with the printed list that your child received. Please use the PRINTED list for now. I will update this post when the error is corrected.
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
September 11, 2009
Magic Wings – Great day trip!
Today, while finishing our first story, we enjoyed a vivid illustration of a high rise’s roof filled with colorful flowers. (The story was about a girl who loves gardening and created a floral masterpiece just to make her uncle smile.) We thought of our own experiences that this setting reminded us of. Many students remembered Mark Twain’s elaborate greenhouse that remains flourishing in his house today. I also remembered another field trip I had gone on a few years ago: a trip to Magic Wings in southern Massachusetts. What a neat place! It is a butterfly conservatory, and once I got over the initial (uncomfortable) sensation of having butterflies zooming around my head, I really enjoyed the beautiful foliage and the unique experience. It isn’t too far away and would be a great day trip on a dull weekend or over a school vacation. Highly recommended!
http://www.magicwings.com/index.php
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss