Dear Fourth and Fifth Grade Families,
Here are some notes and updates from our classroom:
Fall Family Conferences
It was such a pleasure to meet with most of you last week. If you haven't gotten a chance to sign up for a conference, please email me, so we can find a good time.
Fall Family Celebration
We will have our fall family celebration on Thursday at 10 AM in the classroom. All family members are welcome, and we invite you to bring your favorite family dish. I'll be bringing a variation of my Grandma's noodle kugel. I can't wait to taste your dishes.
Math Games
We are deep into our unit on multiplication and division. Here are some ways you can practice at home. While you're walking around the city or sitting at the dinner table, you can quiz students on their multiplication facts up to 12 x 12. Fourth graders love to play multiple turn over. Make a deck of cards with the numbers 2-50 or 2-80 or 2-120 depending on how challenging you want the game to be. Each player gets 10 cards, dealt face up. Players take turns choosing factors. When a factor is called, all players turn over any multiples of that factor. The first player to turn over all their multiples wins. Fifth graders love to play the factor game and the product game. You can find examples in your child's math notebook.
Memoirs
We have just begun a unit on memoir writing. Each student has chosen one small moment from their life to write about. This unit will focus on planning stories around a problem and solution, writing with description and narrative voice, and highlighting the heart of the story. Ask your child what he or she is writing about.
Slavery Study
We have also just started our unit on slavery and the Civil War. We are reading Jump Ship to Freedom, a novel about a young slave trying to buy his freedom in the aftermath of the Revolutionary War. We will be reading many picture books about West Africa and slavery in the coming weeks. We are also studying West African dance and culture in our Wednesday dance classes.
As always, if you need to contact me for any reason, you can reach me at stephschwartz@gmail.com or by leaving a note on my door or a message with anyone in the office.
Best,
Stephanie
