Math

Hi Parents,
Our new math program is going really well.  I am impressed with the knowledge students gained in fractions in the last unit.  Students were able to use many manipulatives and dig deeper into understanding of fractions and their relationship with decimals.  Unit 4, our current math unit, is mostly on multiplication.  This unit gives multiple ways to solve multiplication problems including partial products and lattice multiplication.  The way the unit is designed, the traditional form of multiplication that most of us learned in school, isn't introduced until fifth grade.  That being said, most of the students were introduced to traditional multiplication in third grade.  I will continue to show / model how to use traditional multiplication, but I will be teaching the students how to complete partial products and lattice multiplication.
This may be confusing for you in how to help your child.  I am including two videos for you to review these two multiplication strategies.  If you are still stuck, I encourage you to show your child how you would solve the problem and work with them using that strategy.  I think it is important for your child to see that there are many ways to solve math problems and that using any of these ways still gets you the answer.  If you child has many ways to solve a math problem, they are able to show flexible thinking and better number understanding.

Partial Product



Lattice Multiplication

Science - States of Matter

In science, we have started our States of Matter unit.  We began by learning about the different properties of matter including color, shape, size, state of matter, hardness and mass.  We learned the definition of mass, which is the amount of matter (stuff) within a substance or object.  We learned that the tool to measure mass is the balance which is measured in milligrams and grams.  In groups, we built our own balances using a ruler, paper cups, and other materials and used gram cubes to measure the mass of different objects.   The fourth graders discussed the difference between weight and mass including by watching a video of the differences between mass and weight which I'm including here!  We also learned that on the moon there is a difference between weight as compared to here on Earth, but not in mass!  We've had a very hands-on start to our fourth grade science year!
Enjoy the song - it is hard not to sing along! 

Science - Invasive Species

Hi Parents,
Our class has been talking about natural balance in an ecosystem.  We've experimented with the removal of an organism from a habitat and the disastrous results of removing just one organism.  Last week we also learned about problems with adding an organism into a habitat.  We read about how rats were accidently introduced to Hawaii and how people have tried to solve that problem by introducing another invasive species into the habitat to hunt the rats which led to even more disastrous results. 
We watched two short clips about invasive species including this one about the threat of Asian carp to the Great Lakes.

The other video is about the threat of zebra mussels.  Clink on the link about zebra mussels and scroll down to watch the video.
Please let me know if you have any information you'd love to share about invasive species with our science classes!  We'd love to have you share your knowledge with our students!

Science

Our class has been learning a lot in science class in our unit called Organisms in the Environment.   We have been able to observe our dwarf African frogs, snails, and guppies.  We have learned so much information about them.  We have discussed vocabulary such as vertebrate and invertebrate, physical characteristics and behavioral characteristics. 

We have also discussed food chains and food webs and the differences between the two.  Using a freshwater marsh as an example, we talked about the impact when one organism is removed (for various reasons).  The students learned that one small removal can have disastrous results on the whole ecosystem and the fragileness of a habitat’s natural balance. 

Ask your child to identify some facts about the different animals we have observed.  See if they can tell you by using some of the vocabulary we’ve introduced! 

 

Social Studies

Our Economics unit is moving along smoothly! We have learned about goods, services, and resources (natural, human, and capital), and have built upon that knowledge to understand entrepreneurship and consumerism. We have read many picture books to help us understand these challenging ideas, as well as used our lapbooks to pullout and record our most important ideas about a topic. In the coming weeks, we will be learning more about how consumers make decisions (wants , needs, and opportunity cost), supply and demand, spending and saving, and how taxes and money are used in a society.

Tying into our social studies unit for economics and our reading study of realistic fiction, the students are beginning the year with a book club of The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies.  The students are reading the book and having conversations about the book in a book club format.  Today we had a wonderful group of students model to the class how a conversation would work while the rest of the class gathered around them in a "fish bowl style" to note what to do during a good conversation.  All of the students did a fabulous job of asking questions, listening and responding, disagreeing politely, staying focused and good body listening.  So proud of these fourth graders! 

Character Traits!

In reader's workshop, our class has been working on identifying character traits.  We discussed how an author often doesn't tell you that a character is sensitive or evil, but instead, the author shows you through a character's words and actions.  In our discussion, the students also added a third option - a character's thoughts.  We began by discussing a character's actions and how what they do shows the type of person they are.  The students went off in their own book and identified their own character's actions and from there inferred the character traits.  Check out three students' examples of what they found!

Making Connections

Hello parents!

I apologize for the delay in posting on the blog.  Our students have been busy assessing this September.  Along with assessing, we have been busy setting up our reader's workshop.  Our first comprehension skill has been working on making connections when we read.  We began by listening to the song, "Rachel Delevoryas" by Randy Stonehill and making connections as we listened.  The students were amazing to watch, huddled over their notebooks and discussing their connections to the song.  Many made connections to their lives while others connected to books they have read.  A few students even made connections to what they've heard about in the news about bullying.