Viewing: September, 2011
September 28, 2011
Oregon Trail Game
The original version from a few decades ago. The new iOS version has updated graphics. I'm not sure if that's a good thing, though. 🙂
This week, we read a wonderful book called The Josefina Story Quilt about westward expansion. We also used it as a focus for two HOT questions. After we read, I fondly remembered an old computer game, The Oregon Trail, which let the player simulate a journey by wagon to the unexplored west. Coincidently, I read this morning that the recent iPod Touch/iPhone/iPad adaptation game is available for FREE (for a few days) as a promotion for the maker’s new sequel. I promised the kids that I’d post the information here. Enjoy!
Link: http://www.macrumors.com/2011/09/27/gameloft-giving-away-the-oregon-trail-for-iphone/
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
September 25, 2011
Short Answer Responses
This week, you can expect to see the first of several graded short answer response assignments come home. Short Answer Responses (SAR) are, as the name suggests, brief answers to open-ended questions. They often tie into reading activities, although the first one you’ll see tied into a social studies lesson we did about Constitution Day. I often call these responses “HOT” activities – higher order thinking – because this sort of question calls on students to reflect deeply and respond critically to the question. As you can read on our SAR rubric, HOT questions are typically assessed on a 2 point scale. A score of 0 is appropriate when a student’s response does not address the prompt, reflects a misunderstanding of the question, or lacks even basic detail. A score of 1 is typically given to responses that answer the question but lack adequate supporting evidence or elaboration. Responses that successfully address the prompt and provide appropriate detail and support receive a 2. (A score of 2 is the highest possible score, typically.) Writing a successful HOT response is a skill we’ll focus on for the entire year, and you’ll see plenty of activities come home during the year that address this skill. For more information on SAR and HOT activities, click on “Parent Resources” on the left side of this page.
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
September 24, 2011
Cursive
You may have heard that PGS has an unprecedented number of new students this year. One challenge for new students is learning the style of cursive we use in Avon. There are many different cursive styles available to school districts, and kids from other schools may have learned a different variety of cursive – or, perhaps, no cursive at all. Our style is a variation of the standard Zaner Bloser – but (finally) gone are the capital Q’s that look like the number 2.
Cursive is assessed on the gr. 4 report card (three times each year), but because cursive was primarily taught in third grade, my focus is more on maintaining skills. You’ll find cursive worksheets occasionally coming home for homework, and your son or daughter’s cursive grade is based primarily on cursive assessments that I administer toward the end of the marking periods. I do not normally require students to write in cursive, although they are encouraged to do so. Some students are able to write much more neatly in cursive, while others find it more difficult to integrate clear penmanship into their cursive writing. If your son or daughter learned a different style of cursive in his or her former school (in gr. 3), please let me know. I do not expect students to unlearn an old version just to fit our series, and I’ll grade these students based on the cursive style they learned.
This is a sample of the cursive series we use at PGS. I’ll try to find a full-size version to upload so your child can more easily refer to it at home.
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
September 13, 2011
Rules for Quadrangles
Over the past two days, we have learned about different kinds of quadrangles. Tonight’s homework asks students to use the properties of the different quadrangles as a way to sort them and classify them. Here is a photo of a poster we made in class; it may be helpful with tonight’s homework.
Click for full-size image!
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
September 13, 2011
Off to a great start!
With our first two weeks of school finished, we’re off to a great start in fourth grade! Our first two days were comprised mostly of learning classroom routines (such as what to do with homework, where supplies go, etc.) and getting to know one another! These activities carried over to the second week because our school schedule got pushed back thanks to Hurricane Irene.
In the past nine days of school, however, we’ve accomplished so much! In reading, we have finished our first story of the year and are learning about narrative elements of stories (characters, setting, events, problem and solution). We are also studying the structure of sentences in Language Arts. In math, we are learning about geometry and are currently focusing on line segments, lines, and rays, and on some of the more common polygons. While we have yet to begin our formal writing curriculum, we have started two different writing projects. One is a short poster that the kids are making all about themselves, and the other is an expository article about the kids’ summer activities. (Unfortunately, a busy schedule has gotten in the way of us making much headway in either of these projects this week.) The kids have also started chorus along with their other Unified Arts specials, and they’ve done a great job getting used to fourth grade routines. Overall, it’s been a great start to the school year.
Throughout the coming months (until June!) you can expect to see periodic updates on classroom activities, resources needed for homework, and much more. If you ever have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email me.
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss