Mrs. Drzayich's Class: Week 29

Here’s what our week looked like:

Monday we had an unexpected substitute (in case you were wondering why there was no homework sent home). All reports said the students were as good as good can be—what a great thing to hear coming back the next day!

Maintaining Conversation. In Superhero Social Skills this week we’ve practiced the ever-difficult skill of keeping up a strong conversation. This is a really tough thing for many of the students in our class, which means we’ll probably continue practicing this skill next week as well. The steps we use are: 1) remember F.E.V.E.R.; 2) say something about a topic – emphasis on something shorter, not 10 things about one topic; 3) listen to what the other person has to say and wait your turn; 4) make a comment or ask a question about what the person just said.

This week we practiced this not only in role plays, but by telling a few stories together. Each student took turns adding a sentence to the story, which required a lot of listening to everything the previous students said. The new videos are up, so watch them with your child and practice this important skill at home.

Here is one of our role plays:

Continuing fiction. We’re continuing our retelling, sequencing and comprehension strategies for fiction texts. Some of our fourth graders have begun learning about historical and science fiction to add to their knowledge of genres.

Plant failure. Last week we planted some beans in class. Unfortunately, few of them have shown any progress. On Wednesday, we had a class meeting and talked about some possible causes for our “plant failure”. Then we re-planted new beans with these problems in mind. Today we saw one tiny little sprout popping from the ground.

Coming Up: Next week some of our fourth graders will begin the writing portion of standardized testing. Wish them luck!

Also, Spring Break is the week after next week—no school, go do something fun!

A Note: You may want to think twice before sending toys, etc, to school with your child. If you know he/she may have difficulty keeping it put away during class time, it may be best to leave it at home. We never allow toys, etc., to be out during class time, only during breaks, and they must stay in the student’s backpack until then. We try to be strictly consistent with this and it sometimes causes unnecessary meltdowns. If you do send such items to school with your child, please make sure you discuss these parameters with them beforehand. Thank you for your support in this!

Homework Heroes: