Sunday, August 31, 2014
Just to make my classroom accessible I have started a class Facebook page which provides links to this blog! Smith Classroom is our Facebook name, please friend and follow for more access to our reading class for this year!
~Thanks for all you do!
~Thanks for all you do!
Friday, August 29, 2014
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Lab Safety Contract for Science
Good evening! This is a late post tonight, but I wanted to let everyone know that signed science lab safety contracts are due tomorrow! This is not for a grade, just to make sure you all know that the students have been informed of the safety rules in a lab and that they have agreed to follow them. Thanks for all you do! :)
Sunday, August 24, 2014
Thursday, August 21, 2014
Fourth Grade Welcome
Hello and welcome to Mrs. Smith's Fourth Grade Reading Class!
This is the place to come for information on what's going on in our classroom!
The first week of school we will develop procedures and strategies for the classroom. We will develop our classroom rules together, discuss the proper voice levels for activities, define workspace expectations, and being developing reading stamina through processes called the Daily Five.
We will also discuss how to choose appropriate books to read to make sure that we are able to grow stronger as readers. Towards the end of the week once we have developed a pattern for practicing our processes we will begin to discuss theme and different genres of fiction.
Fiction consists of stories that are not true. They did not happen and in some cases could not happen in real life.
For genre students need to know about: Folktales including: Fairy Tales, Myths, Legends, and Fables, Realistic fiction, Historical fiction, Fantasy, Science fiction, and Mystery.
Folktales: tales that have been passed on by word or mouth from generation to generation usually through families
Fairy Tales: a tale with magical beings and events; usually begins with "Once upon a time..." and concludes with "happily ever after."
Myths: an ancient tale of gods, supernatural beings, and heroes that may explain something in nature (like Hercules)
Legends: a story passed down through time that may be partly based on something that actually happened or someone who actually lived
Fables: a tale that has animal characters that act like humans and contains a moral or lesson
Students will also need to be aware of a type of character in folktales called the trickster character. The trickster, of course, plays tricks on others. Tricksters are very clever, cunning, selfish, and full of mischief. Tricksters can be magical creatures, play tricks to survive, can play tricks to help humans, make us laugh, teach very important lessons, and usually are found in stories from long ago.
Realistic Fiction: a story that could happen in real life, but did not happen in real life.
Historical Fiction: a fictional story with real and invented characters that takes place during a historical time.
Fantasy: a story that takes place in the imagination, can have magic and talking animals.
Science Fiction: a story that blends futuristic technology with scientific fact and fiction.
Mystery: a suspenseful story about a puzzling event that is not solved until the end of the story.
Theme: the theme of the story is its meaning or lesson. The author wants to teach us something about life. It's an important idea that the author wants you to remember. Sample themes would be: kindness, courage, or honesty.
This is an overview of what we will be working on the first week of school. The second week of school we will be DRA testing to find students current independent and instructional reading levels. The rest of the six weeks we will cover: characters, character traits and changes and relationships, summarizing, sequencing and summarizing the plot's main events and predicting how they will effect the future, and point of view of the narrator. I will be making further posts to overview these concepts. If you can print the posts and review them with your children. The more they are exposed to this information the better! :) I hope that by providing this information online I will be able to better help serve you and your children this school year.
This is the place to come for information on what's going on in our classroom!
The first week of school we will develop procedures and strategies for the classroom. We will develop our classroom rules together, discuss the proper voice levels for activities, define workspace expectations, and being developing reading stamina through processes called the Daily Five.
We will also discuss how to choose appropriate books to read to make sure that we are able to grow stronger as readers. Towards the end of the week once we have developed a pattern for practicing our processes we will begin to discuss theme and different genres of fiction.
Fiction consists of stories that are not true. They did not happen and in some cases could not happen in real life.
For genre students need to know about: Folktales including: Fairy Tales, Myths, Legends, and Fables, Realistic fiction, Historical fiction, Fantasy, Science fiction, and Mystery.
Folktales: tales that have been passed on by word or mouth from generation to generation usually through families
Fairy Tales: a tale with magical beings and events; usually begins with "Once upon a time..." and concludes with "happily ever after."
Myths: an ancient tale of gods, supernatural beings, and heroes that may explain something in nature (like Hercules)
Legends: a story passed down through time that may be partly based on something that actually happened or someone who actually lived
Fables: a tale that has animal characters that act like humans and contains a moral or lesson
Students will also need to be aware of a type of character in folktales called the trickster character. The trickster, of course, plays tricks on others. Tricksters are very clever, cunning, selfish, and full of mischief. Tricksters can be magical creatures, play tricks to survive, can play tricks to help humans, make us laugh, teach very important lessons, and usually are found in stories from long ago.
Realistic Fiction: a story that could happen in real life, but did not happen in real life.
Historical Fiction: a fictional story with real and invented characters that takes place during a historical time.
Fantasy: a story that takes place in the imagination, can have magic and talking animals.
Science Fiction: a story that blends futuristic technology with scientific fact and fiction.
Mystery: a suspenseful story about a puzzling event that is not solved until the end of the story.
Theme: the theme of the story is its meaning or lesson. The author wants to teach us something about life. It's an important idea that the author wants you to remember. Sample themes would be: kindness, courage, or honesty.
This is an overview of what we will be working on the first week of school. The second week of school we will be DRA testing to find students current independent and instructional reading levels. The rest of the six weeks we will cover: characters, character traits and changes and relationships, summarizing, sequencing and summarizing the plot's main events and predicting how they will effect the future, and point of view of the narrator. I will be making further posts to overview these concepts. If you can print the posts and review them with your children. The more they are exposed to this information the better! :) I hope that by providing this information online I will be able to better help serve you and your children this school year.
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