Hey, y’all,
Thanks for checking out our new classroom blog. I want to first talk a little about how I chose to start this blog post. “Y’all” isn’t a word that we see everyday, but here in South Carolina it’s used by people from all walks of life in all types of scenarios. I’d imagine it was one of the first words I ever learned. In my opinion, “y’all” is the most inclusive pronoun in the English language. I hope you don’t mind my using it to address everyone.
Thank you to everyone that signed up for Student Led Conferences. It has been amazing to watch the kids lead these with such poise and creativity in creating their presentations. I am so proud of the resilience of this group and their ability to come to school every day eager to learn and grow despite the adversity that we have all faced this past year. I am inspired daily by these kids.
As Mathematicians, we have been learning about different types of graphs and how we can use graphs to represent different types of data. Here are a few examples of the graphs we’ve been studying in class:
A bar graph representing the diversity we see in the main characters of our own class read alouds. We decided to start tracking this data to hold me accountable for selecting diverse books and as a way to reflect on the types of stories we read together.
An infographic showing the data compiled by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center concerning the lack of diversity in children’s books published in 2018.
A bar graph representing our class’ favorite ice cream flavors.
Paisley B.’s Ice Cream bar graph
As readers, we just finished our class book study of Jada Jones: Rock Star by Kendall Starling Lyons. You can view and purchase Kendall Starling Lyons complete collection of books by clicking here, Jada Jones is a science-loving fourth grader who finds a way to make new friends, try new things, and stand up for herself after her best friend moves away.
As a class, we are working on writing short (2-3 sentence) chapter summaries after reading together. One way you can help is by asking your child to tell you a little about what they are reading.
You can say things like:
-Tell me about what you read today in 2 sentences.
-What’s the most important thing that happened in the chapter you just read?
We also learned a strategy this week to help “beef” up our writing and take us to the next level as writers. We are learning to show, not tell, what our characters feel and how they respond in our stories.
Check out this example, written by Abby S. after we read Jada Jones: Rock Star.
“My caramel face softened, my eyes glittered, and a smile split across my face.”
– Abby S.
Finally, here a few reminders about next week.
- When the weather is nice, those of us who are in school will be eating lunch outside. Feel free to send in a beach towel or folding chair for your child to use outside at lunch.
- March 25 & 26 – Asynchronous Learning Days (Students will not come to school and there will be no Google Meets that day. All assignments will be posted in Google Classroom)
- March 31 – End of the 3rd Nine Weeks.
- April 2 – Teacher Work Day (No school for students)
- April 5-9 Spring Break
As always, thank you for all that you are doing at home to help support me and the students. I am reminded daily of your kindness, support, and love for our students and community.
Have a great week!
Respectfully,
Rutland
Martin's Classroom Blog 