This Week In Fourth Grade

Welcome Back!

This week we got back into the swing of things by thinking about how we could make our community an even better place to learn to 2019.  Students brainstormed ideas and shared out.  They were asked repeatedly over the three days to reflect on how they were doing and what they still wanted to work on.  We will continue these conversations next week.


Reading Without Walls

On Friday, I explained a new reading challenge that we are starting at school.  It is called "Reading Without Walls" and comes from Gene Luyen Yang, one of the National Ambassadors of Young Children's Literature.  His challenge is aimed at having students expand their horizons by completing three challenges:

We launched this challenge in class by discussing how books can teach you about people and cultures that you may not be aware of or fully understand.  It can help us understand the differences among us and learn to empathize and respect these differences among us.  We also discussed several books that we have already read this year that are wonderful examples of this.  There is a display in the hallway that has a number of books right now that qualify for the first challenge.  This display will be updated with the second and third challenges as we go.  

Math


We did a review of multiplication last week.  Tomorrow we will do a quick "check in" on what the kids have an understanding of.  Then we will be moving on to division.  Just like multiplication, fourth graders do not need to know the standard algorithm (or the way we learned) for division.  We will be using manipulatives to "see" what it means to divide.  

Math Homework

There will be 2 things due for math homework this week.  The topic of "Which one doesn't belong" will be the same as least week.  Students will be getting the directions that include a checklist to keep them organized tomorrow.  We will discuss the homework in class as well.  If students have access to a computer, they will need to create a Flipgrid for their answer to which one doesn't belong.  This is due on Wednesday.  Then they will need to respond to 2 classmates Flipgrids by Friday.   I am attaching a copy of the homework below so you know what to look for in your child's homework folder.

Flipgrid- Which One Doesn't Belong Homework

Science

We started a new unit on Light in science.  The students are trying to help figure out what materials would be effective for making a shadow puppet.  We will be learning about transparent, translucent, and opaque materials.  Then students will determine what they think would make the best material for their own shadow puppet.