Guest Post from Ms. Janet HaasDear Parents,
As we wait for those first snowflakes to fall, I want to give you some important dates to put on your 2016 calendar. Our strings students are beginning to work on their winter concert songs. The first public performance is a big milestone in the life of a young performer. Your support shown by attending these performances is critical to their continued success. Each school will be having in-school performances for the student body and in some schools a second performance for parents. Bowman School will have their in-school performance on Fri., Jan. 29th at 9AM. Students will be able to use their music for this concert. For the dress rehearsal and the concert day, we are asking students to bring in their music stands from home (please label all the parts of the stand-return address labels work well), their supplement books and their instruments. Dress for all concerts is a plain white shirt (free of logos or designs) and dark pants or skirt. Students may change after their performance into normal school clothes. Second, Lexington’s orchestral program has a wonderful concert called the Winter Orchestra Concert. The concerts, at Lexington High School in the gym, feature students from gr. 4 through gr. 12 playing “in the round”. Your child’s performance night is Thursday, Feb. 4 at 7:30PM. Gr. 4 students from Bowman School will perform with students from Bridge and Harrington, listen to the Clarke Gr. 6 String Orchestra, the Clarke 7/8 Full Orchestra and the LHS Chamber Orchestra. The performance will conclude with all the students playing the finale, Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy”. This concert inspires students and families with the wonderful opportunities available with continued string lessons. Students will need to have their concert songs memorized for this performance. Finally, if your family is free this Friday afternoon, December 18th, there is lovely holiday concert at Lexington High School at 4PM. It features the LHS Chamber Orchestra playing seasonal favorites as well as one of our 2015 Concerto Competition winners, Corinne Auger on violin. The concert will be less than one hour long and is suitable for younger listeners. This is a fund raising event for the orchestra; admission is $5 per family and a donation of food for the Lexington Food Pantry. Please see the attached flyer for donation suggestions. With the hectic schedules of the holidays and vacation, it is easy to loose track of regular practice. It is very important that students work on their concert songs over vacation. Even if a student can’t bring the instrument on vacation, he or she may bring their music. They may practice saying the note name, write in notes name and/or fingerings, play “air” instrument to exercise the fingerings and the bowings. These are all extremely valuable activities when “on the road”. When the family returns home, please help to establish the regular practice routine for continued success. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at [email protected] and I will get back to as soon as possible. I enjoy working with your children and am looking forward to our first performances! Sincerely, Janet Haas
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Guidance Department is Doing Lessons in 4th GradeThe guidance department has begun a series of lessons in the classroom. The goal is to bring "Intent and Impact" to the fore front of students' minds. Although many students may know the difference between what intent and impact mean. Students are now learning that it is important to think about how we may intend for our words to mean one thing. But those words may come out and have an unexpected impact on others. In Reading, we are currently underway with our guided reading groups. The guided reading groups gives students an opportunity to use their known strategies to unpack their reading while I can deliver instruction. The groups in the classroom will be working on a different range of skills. The different skills range from, comprehension, summarizing, fluency, and learning how to have meaningful conversations about texts.
"Reading Jobs" will also be given. The assignments are specifically designed so that students will use the strategies learned in reading groups. The are reading assignments that should be completed by the due date. Appropriate times for students to work on the reading jobs include:
There has been a number of instances over the past two weeks with students and what to do with their nose. I usually spend a morning meeting discussing proper nose protocol but the problem has persisted. Now I am reaching out for help from each and every parent. Please be sure to talk with your child regarding proper tissue use and what to do with a tissue. Below are some nose protocols that everyone should observe.
Rick Riordan has a new book, The Trials of Apollo: The Lost Oracle, that will hit a bookshelf near you in May 2016. If you're anything like me, you'll be itching to get your hands on a copy. But, you are in luck, The Gaurdian has obtained the first chapter from Mr. Riordan and Puffin books (the publisher). The Brufftopians are learning new strategies to do repeated addition. They have learned that multiplying numbers is a more efficient way to repeatedly add the same number over and over. One of the methods students have learned (to multiply numbers together) is the Partial Product Method. Check out the video below to brush up on exactly what the Partial Product Method is.
Earlier this year the students completed the Week of Inspiration by Jo Boaler. Check out some other cool math lessons to get your math mindset readjusted, You Cubed. Below you'll be able to see a student sample of the connections between numbers.
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July 2016
A Noteworthy 4th Grade Bowman Blog
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