Moss Teaches

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Feb 9

February 9, 2018

Character Change, Fractions, Movie Day, and more!

Hello, families!  Happy Friday!  It’s been quite busy week in room 209, in spite of Wednesday’s snow day and Thursday’s delayed opening.  Here are some updates:

  • Students are working to complete a draft of their stories.  This week, Mrs. Poi, Mrs. Lyons, Mrs. Consalvo, and I have been conferencing with students about their planned “skeleton” for their stories.  We’re making great progress with this, and I’m excited to see the variety of stories kids are developing.  This week, we began working on adding details (launched by their Tour Your Home homework project this week), and next week, we’ll continue this work.
  • We are finishing up our work with examining how characters change within stories.  We’ve enjoyed three non-traditional texts for this mini-unit: the book/song Puff the Magic Dragon, a Macy’s commercial from last winter, and an animated short called Lily and the Snowman.  Students began by organizing their information in a graphic organizer, and then they’re using their notes to craft a short answer response outlining how the character evolved during the story.  We’re also in the midst of enjoying the novel Number the Stars, following our outstanding residency, brought to us by the Hartford Stage, and made possible by the PGS PTO! (THANK YOU!!!)
  • Students are finishing up their assessments following the long division unit.  We’ve now started our fractions unit.  We had a fun launch to the unit by exploring fractions by way of enjoying Hershey’s bars.  This week, we worked on identifying and interpreting fractions.  Next week, our focus will be on finding equivalent fractions.  I’ll try to put together some videos to help them with the different skills.
  • We’re finishing our science unit on waves.  This was a FUN unit!  Ask your child about how the eye perceives light waves (color, black and white, in the light and in the dark), how lasers work, how amplitude and frequency affect sound, and more!
  • We’re wrapping up our study of the southeast region next week.  We started this many weeks ago, and your children have been working on learning states and capitals as part of their spelling words.  In the coming week, we’ll learn more about the southeast region, and will move into the midwest region.  On Monday, they’ll receive a study guide for states and capitals and map locations, in preparation for the assessment on Friday.
  • Did you hear?!  The kids have been working very hard on following directions, treating everyone with respect and kindness, and showing whole-body listening.  After earning 25 points a few weeks ago (and enjoying some celebratory popsicles), they’ve now earned another 50 points and have chosen to have a movie day.  Barring any unforeseen snowdays, delays, or other schedule changes, we’ll have this on TUESDAY. I told the kids that it’s connecting to something we’re learning about in class but that it was a surprise.  (I think many concluded that it was going to be an uninspiring science video.  I promised them that it’s a very famous, popular movie (G-rated, of course, families), and that I was confident that they’d enjoy it.  Be sure to ask your child about it on Tuesday evening!  (And ask them how it’s connecting to what we’re studying!)
  • Love is in the air!  Valentine’s Day is on Wednesday.  We have a fun celebration planned, thanks to the hard work of our room parents.  We’ll also be doing a special cooking activity throughout the day (rescheduled from our ill-fated holiday party that we had to cancel).  Students are welcome to bring in valentine cards for their friends, but I ask that if they choose to do so, they bring in one for everyone.  They’re encouraged to bring in a bag or box from home to keep their cards.  For privacy reasons, I won’t post a list of names here.  But I did just post one on Google Classroom, so if you need it for valentines, feel free to have your child login there.
  • I will be out on Thursday for a district curriculum meeting, and I may be out on Friday for jury duty (if I end up having to report).

Posted in Class Updates|By

Mar 24

March 24, 2016

Cub Reporter: Acting Out Fractions

By Student #18

In school we are doing lots of things. Here is what they are. We are continuing to do fractions in math. We have a new strategy in which people are acting a problem out. It helps us understand the problems better. Students in our class are also learning about the southeast and are making presentations about them. Also Mr. Moss is teaching us beginning and endings for our Sarah’s House Disaster stories.

Luckily we have a short week this week due to holidays and conferences, so enjoy the warm weather and the long weekend.      

Posted in Class Updates, Student News|By

Feb 21

February 21, 2016

Cub Reporter Message: Southeast Research, Earning Letters, Mrs. Labowsky

Written by student #14

This week in room 209, we have been finishing our poetry presentations.  We started a new unit in social studies about the southeast region, and broke up into groups.  We had a last science lesson where we took our science tests. Then, on Thursday, we earned two letters in Spanish, and then, for math, Mrs. Labowsky joined us for our math lesson.  We had a wonderful but short week, but it was great!

Notes from Mr. Moss:

  • We’re hoping to finish the poetry presentations on Monday or Tuesday.  I’ve really been impressed with the kids’ work!  Ask your fourth grader to show you his or her group’s presentation.
  • For the social studies project, kids were divided into focus areas for the region, such as geography, natural resources, food, music, etc.  They are learning how to take notes in bullet-hierarchy form, and how to track their sources.  We’re working on making sure that they write their notes in their own words in order to avoid unintentional plagiarism.  Then, they’ll continue their process of learning how to make a slide show by making Google Slides presentations about their part of the southeastern region.
  • Allow me to explain the “two letters” that this week’s cub reporter referred to.  For a few weeks, we’ve been working to improve our transitions.  We’ve been struggling with having quiet and efficient transitions either when we move from one place to another (such as from the rug to the kids’ desks) or when we switch from one activity to another.  When the class has a good transition, they can earn a letter on the board, working to create the word TRANSITIONS.  When transitions are less successful, they lose a letter.
  • Mrs. Labowsky is our district elementary math coach.  She joined our class to team-teach the second math lesson in our new unit.  You’ll notice that the math worksheets in this unit have a different feel than previous units’ worksheets.  More on this in an upcoming post.  Mrs. Labowsky will be back on March 14th for a special lesson!  (Any guesses?!)

Posted in Class Updates, Student News|By

Mar 3

March 3, 2015

Southeast States and Capitals Practice

You can use these websites to practice your southeast states and capitals!

http://quizlet.com/462893/southeast-states-capitals-flash-cards/ – Can you identify the capital when you’re given the state?

http://quizlet.com/2045477/flashcards – Can you identify the state when you’re given the capital?

http://www.purposegames.com/game/southeast-state-capitals-quiz – A game to place the capitals on the map with the right state.  (Also great for learning the locations of each state!)

http://www.sporcle.com/games/trwrenn/SERegionstatescapitals – This game quizzes you to see if you can type in the correct capital, so spelling counts!  It also times you.  (You will NOT be timed in class.)

Posted in Social Studies|By