This Week in Fourth Grade

Calling All Mystery Readers!

A notice was sent home on Friday asking for Mystery Readers to join us on Friday, December 21st.  We have attached the information below.

Mystery Reader Information

Can You Help?

We are looking for a volunteer to help us put up some new bulletin boards in our hallway.  If you are available for an hour this week to help out, please let us know.  


Mean Words

This past week students participated in an activity where they shared unkind words about a doll that Mrs. Leger had brought in.  Each time a student shared an insult, he or she would squirt some toothpaste out of a tube.  At the end, students were asked to put the toothpaste back into the tube.  After many unsuccessful attempts, students came to the conclusion that it couldn't be done.  The connection was then made that the toothpaste is like their words: once those words are out of their mouth, they can never be taken back.  The damage is done.  Some brave students then shared some of the damage that has been done to them when unkind words have been said to them in the past.  It was a powerful message to everyone.

The next day, students learned some strategies that they could use if someone ever does say something unkind to them.  We will continue with these lesson next week by focusing on bystanders and how they can feel empowered as well.
we began discussing how students can respond if someone is ever being mean to them.


Character Change

Students continue to think about how characters change in books.  They learned to use a story arch to track this change and partnered up to read numerous picture books and track the characters' changes in these books.  Below is the story arch students are using and pictures of students hard at work.

Math Workshop


Last week we started multiplying 2 digit by 1 digit numbers.  To help all students understand what multiplying these numbers looks like, we used base ten blocks and the area model.  We spent the week solving these problems with base ten blocks, drawing a picture to represent our thinking, and turning the pictures into number representations.  Once students were comfortable with representing their thinking with the blocks they started to realize that it wasn't very efficient.  Students were making sense of their learning and making connections throughout the week, and it was amazing to see their thinking and understanding evolve throughout the week.  

     Representing our thinking
with base ten blocks.

We became more
efficient with
drawing the base ten blocks.

Numbers were the
most efficient.

On Friday we were able to apply our learning with a Math on the Move activity.  Students completed a number of exercises for 15 seconds, and then had to determine the number of exercises they would be able to complete in one minute. They were excited to be able to see math in action!