This Week in Fourth Grade...

We hope you enjoyed the vacation week!  It is always nice to see the kids rested and ready to get back to working hard!  

Homework
Homework will now be emailed out to families each week.  There is a link to the packet in the email in case your child forgets or loses the homework.  This week's homework is due Thursday.  This is different than it has been, so please help your child plan out when he/she will get the work done.

Math Workshop
We will be starting our next unit in math this week.  We will be learning about fractions.  This is huge building block for future math!  We will be spending a lot of time using manipulatives as we become more comfortable with fractions.  Putting these manipulatives (fraction tiles) in the hands of the kids will help to deepen their understanding.

We have also been spending a lot of time explaining our thinking around the math problems that we are solving. Our focus has been on using specific math vocabulary and trying to be specific in the steps that we are taking towards solving a problem.  

A great way to incorporate both fractions and explaining your thinking at home would be when you and your child are cooking.  Having discussions around doubling a recipe and how your child would do that will help to reinforce both skills.  Another way to reinforce this would be if you are measuring out an ingredient that requires 1/2, you could ask your child other measuring cups that could be used that would also equal 1/2.  

Reader's Workshop

We wrapped up our unit on fiction and are moving into non-fiction this week.  Students will review strategies they learned in earlier grades to support non-fiction reading and will learn new strategies to help them grow as readers this year.  We will also be integrating our non-fiction learning into our social studies unit on the regions.  Students will be utilizing what they learn to help them with some mini research projects on various regions of the United States.

Journey to Ellis Island
We recently wrapped up our unit on immigration.  Students worked in groups to write a journal entry from the perspective of an immigrant traveling from Russia to Ellis island in the early 1900's.  Each group focused on a different aspect of the journey.  After the entries were finished, students "antiqued" them and hung them in the hallway for all to enjoy.  Below are some pictures of the finished products!

Valentine's Day

We had a great time exchanging valentines and participating in the newspaper dance!  Below are some pictures of the festivities.

This Week in Fourth Grade

Valentine's Day!
Our class list went home last week with your child.  We will hand out Valentines on Thursday.  If your child needs supplies to make cards, please let us know.


Homework
Math homework will be coming home again this week.  There will be one page due by Wednesday and one page due by Friday.  Your child will not be doing a Flipgrid this week.  Please help your child plan out the days/afternoon that they have time available so that they can turn their homework in on time this week.  Each page has a checklist that your child should be filling out as they complete each step.  Please encourage your child to complete the checklist as they work through the homework.

Here is a link to this week's homework:

Explaining My Thinking Homework

Author's Craft

We wrapped up theme during reader's workshop this week and will learn about author's craft next week.  We launched author's craft a little over a week ago by considering an "author's" choices in a short film entitled Ian.  Students watched the film and considered the repetition, symbolism, and actions of the characters.  We learned that authors do not make any choices on accident.  All of those choices serve a purpose and tell us something as readers.  I am including the link of the film below.  It covers the topic of exclusion and is an important one for our students to consider!

https://youtu.be/KsjVUJMWzks

Regions

The blue team prepared to learn about the regions by learning about some of the vocabulary they will encounter.  Partnerships were each assigned a different word and were in charge of creating a four square vocabulary poster that would help teach others about their word.  Students were responsible for learning each other's words so that they could participate in a vocabulary matching competition on Friday in the cafeteria.  Students hopped, leaped, and danced through the cafeteria as they worked with their team to match definitions to pictures and vocabulary words.  Next week the green team will participate in these same activities.  Below are some pictures of the four square activity and matching game.

Math Workshop

We started our days with math last week as a community during our community meeting time.  Students worked together to describe properties of different shapes.  They were able to practice using the vocabulary that they had learned last week.  They also started a "Naughty Puppy" project during community meeting.  Students needed to work together to create an enclosure in the shape of a quadrilateral for Daisy the puppy.  They had 12 feet of string, tape, yardsticks, rulers, and measuring tape to help build their enclosure.  

This week they will begin to look for properties of their ideas in the form of parallel lines, perpendicular lines as well as a review of the perimeter of the enclosure.  We will come back together to share out our best ideas for Daisy's enclosure.

During Math Workshop last week students learned how to measure angles.  They had lots of practice with using a circle protractor and a half circle protractor.  We were even able to make connections between math and what students have learned in Phys. Ed.  We had discussions about what it means to do a 180 and a 360 in PE.  It all started to make sense for the kids, which is what we are looking for!

Writing Workshop

Last week students learned about what it means to describe using our senses.  We spent a lot of time looking at our own stories and finding places where we could describe not only what we see but what we would hear, taste, touch, or smell in that part of our story.  Towards the end of the week students worked together to describe with specific details what they see in a picture.  They will be presenting their detailed paragraphs to their classmates this week.

This Week in Fourth Grade

Go Patriots!

Fingers are crossed over here making it very difficult to type this evening!  Regardless of the excitement, we had a very productive week in fourth grade.

Wrapping Up Theme

We are wrapping up theme this week by creating a library of common themes in our minds that we can refer to as we experience different texts.  Last week, students learned how to write about theme by including important events from the beginning, middle and end of the text.  We also learned how to better summarize our evidence and then include a quote from the text that goes with what we are writing about.

Valentine's Day

We will be sending out class lists this week for Valentine's Day.  We will exchange Valentines with both homerooms on Thursday, February 14th.  There are 42 students altogether.  We are happy to provide students with the supplies to make homemade Valentines if you choose not to spend money on store bought ones.  Let us know if your child would like to go this route.

Math Workshop

We started our unit on Geometry last week.  The kids got lots of practice with the vocabulary that goes along with this unit.  To practice using this vocabulary, the kids became pirates last week.  They had the job of hiding pirate treasure and then creating an island full of geometry.  Be sure to ask your child what his/her pirate name was!  We ended the week using Nearpod.  The kids were able to show off what they learned last week through this interactive website.  

This week we start to measure and create angles using protractors.  The kids will get to use what they learned about angles last week as they measure angles this week!