Literacy
By: Nethra Srimal
In Reader’s Workshop, the students finished the book, The Tiger Risingthat had a very shocking but thrilling end to it which concluded our Fiction unit. As of the 17th of November, we have been working on our Non-Fiction unit. This has included many important items such as: skimming pages before reading the book, finding facts, making connections, anticipating what you are going to be learning about, using prior knowledge, looking briefly at the Table of Contents, etcetera. In Reading, we also got new partners and had an exciting assignment to complete: “These facts stick in my mind” which consisted of 3 bullets to list facts that you already knew and 4 boxes to put post-its with interesting new facts we learned while reading.
In Writer’s Workshop, the students are working on their persuasive essays. We worked on flash drafts, using the thesis statement, I love Ice Cream. We also spent some of the time learning about good qualities of freewriting and free wrote for most of the time. Some good qualities of freewriting include:writing freely and letting the thoughts flow, write longer to make the ideas stronger, make comparisons to help the readers understand and many more. We also got new writing partners and learned how to push our thinking using prompts such as: In other words... , That is…, The important thing about this is…., and many more.
Science
By: Andrew Zhang
In science this month we learned about the weather and the water cycle. We started to work on a project where we put blue water in a plastic cup and some rocks inside it. Each day we got to see what changed in the plastic cup and wrote about what changed. Also we finished all the space for the observations we wrote. We also finished watching a Bill Nye video and got to answer the questions on a sheet of paper. After that we got to check our answers. That’s all for science since we had only one whole week of school in November.
Mathematics
By: Margaret Wang
In Math this month the students learned about multiplication bar models and word problems. We also learned about area models. The students learned how to draw a different type of area model, not those rectangular or square ones that are used for small numbers like 6*7, or 4*5. We also learned how to figure out how to solve multiplication and division word problems with bar models. During Math, the students did an exciting activity called Walking Word Problems. How that works is you go around the classroom with a worksheet that has letters on it. You go to that math problem taped on the wall or object around the classroom with that matching letter, and you solve it. There are some very challenging questions in Walking Word Problems. One problem even takes some Algebra skills. We also learned how to solve double-digit multiplication using different methods. The methods are: Traditional, Partial Products, Area Models and much more. We worked on something called the Math Contract. The Math Contract is a list of challenges and tasks you have to complete in five days. Those tasks were to help us with our multiplication unit. Some questions may shock or stump you though. But it’s all in good fun.
We are also still continuing Xtramath! Some kids are on multiplication 2 seconds. Some are on division 2 seconds. Actually, only TWO kids are finished with Xtramath! Out teacher, Mrs. Brown will change our program when we’re done with Xtramath. She will change it to multiplication and division 1.5 seconds. I mean, how cool is that? Right now in Math the students are still working on bar models and area models we learned on November 16th (bar models) and November 14th (area models). We are still learning them because our teacher wants us to perfect those skills on solving the problem and drawing the model. That is why we are practicing more and more!
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Responsive Classroom/Other
By: Mrs. Brown
Our Morning Meetings are continuing very successfully. Some of our favorite greetings and activities are Pop, My Grandmother’s Trunk, Ghost Spelling and various hand games!
In November we went to the high school to see the play Journey to Oz. The students enjoyed the performance. They were even more excited to see one of their very own classmates on stage performing the part of Dorothy!
We also had the opportunity to attend an assembly from the Franklin Institute. The students learned about the different types of energy and enjoyed all of the cool experiments conducted in front of them, especially those that contained fire!
I am happy to see that many students are continuing to take advantage of the optional challenge homework that is offered each week.
Thank you for meeting with me to discuss all of the successes your child has made so far this year in fourth grade. I am fortunate to have the opportunity to work with such a wonderful group of students and families.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Dates to Remember:
December 5th-9th:Holiday Gift Fair (during recess)
December 22nd:Holiday Party
December 23rd :Early Dismissal
December 24th- January 2nd: Winter Recess