Hour of Code

Our class had an amazing opportunity this week to explore how to write computer code. Mrs. Klipfel guided us through the process, learning how to "tell" characters what to do online (yes, there were Angry Birds!). The website is accessible from the grade 4 portal on Mrs. Klipfel's blog. 

Webcast with two famous authors!

Today, the class had the opportunity to watch a live webcast with Jeff Kinney and Dav Pilkey, creators of the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" and "Captain Underpants" series.  They started creating a story together which our class has the opportunity to finish. They can then submit their story and win prizes! Details are being sent home today. 

New Weekly Homework Assignments

For Reading:  Children will still need to read 30 minutes every night and have someone sign their red reading log.  Additionally, they will need to respond (with a comment) to a blog post I put up every Monday.  They have until Friday to do so, and will need to check their comment for spelling, grammar, etc. (I suggested writing it in Word first, then posting it as a comment).  For example, the post I put up today asked about the genre of the book they're reading at home and how they know what genre it is.  This would be a great comment:

"I am reading Charlotte's Web by E.B. White which is a fantasy.  Though there are realistic parts, the thing that makes it fantasy is the talking animals.  There isn't any magic or anything like that, but the fact that the animals have conversations, with each other and humans, makes this fantasy.  What I think is interesting is that the rest of the book is very realistic but there is just this one aspect of fantasy."

For Vocab:  Students will now have vocabulary/spelling tests.  Each list of 12 words will last two weeks.  On the first Friday of the unit (so January 10th) they will have a test consisting of me reading the word and them writing a sentence illustrating the word's meaning.  They will earn 1 point for each word that is spelled correctly and 1 point for each sentence (but only if it tells me that they know what the word means).  If they get a 100% on the test during week 1, they do not have to take another test for that list of words.  If they do not get a 100%, they can use the next week to study what they need to fix and take the test on the next Friday (January 17th).  I will take the higher of the two scores.  This means they will have more vocabulary homework and will do all of their studying at home.

Please let me know if you have any questions!