This Week in Fourth Grade

Prezi Presentations

This week students started taking their research on topics in the Southeast and turning it into Prezi presentations.  As experts on their topics, students needed to consider what information was most important for others to know and how they were going to structure this information so that it was easy to understand.  We will wrap up this project next week and hopefully students will be able to share their presentations with you soon.  Below are some pictures of students working on their presentations.

Zones of Regulation

On Monday we launched a new mini unit during Morning Meeting that teaches students to better identify their feelings.  We explained to students that it is normal for our feelings to fluctuate during the day.  The photo of the poster below explains the "zones" or categories of feelings that are common for students to experience.

We also explained that if students understand how they are feeling, they can better regulate those feelings and help themselves return to "green" which include the feelings that are conducive to learning.  To practice identifying our feelings and to introduce strategies that we could use when we are not in "green" we shared some scenarios with students and had them brainstorm strategies they could use in those situations.  We also taught the "Stop, Opt, Go" strategy as a way of preventing students from doing something in the heat of the moment.  There is a picture explaining this below.

Math Workshop

We spent some time last week learning about line plots.  We started off with a game of Minute to Win It- Dice Stacking.  We took our learning outside last week while playing our Minute to Win It game which became a little more challenging with the wind!  Partners tried to see how many dice they could stack in 1 minute over 5 trials.  We then placed all of this data onto a class line plot.  

To get some more practice with creating line plots we also held our own Standing Long Jump competition.  The kids were divided into 4 groups and they practiced jumping and measuring the length of each person's jump.  We then began the task of placing all of this data on a line plot.  For this task the students also needed to think about how they would plot the fractions on the line plot.

Writing Workshop

We began our Nonfiction writing unit last week.  We used our writing time to build our background knowledge about whales and dolphins  We tried to learn as much as we could about each mammal so that the kids would be able to make a decision about what animal they would like to learn more about through our research project.  This week the students will choose either whales or dolphins to become more of an expert on.  

                       

Math Homework

Just a reminder about math homework....it is okay if your child struggles with the math homework.  This topic came up a lot at conferences a few weeks ago.  If your child seems to be stuck or struggling with a topic you could ask your child to think about the strategies that he/she has learned in school.  We have spent a lot of time answering the question, "Where do I start?" during class this year.  This is what your child can ask him/herself when starting the math homework.  If your child is still struggling after trying out a few strategies just have your child finish as best they can.  We always talk about the strategies in class for solving the math homework.  During this time the students are able to learn from their peers which can make a difference.

Have a great week!

Jen and Jaime