Week of January 30,2012
In fourth grade this week…
ILA
In language arts the children focused on finishing their three point essays and starting new essays. They also worked on proper capitalization, comma placement, and verbs. The children continue to work on their biography projects. Next week, they will start their written reports and presentation visuals. This project will be done completely in class, no homework required. On Thursday, I had the opportunity to attend a wonderful workshop about the SMART Board. I learned many new and exciting things I can use to enrich my lessons. I can’t wait to share them with the children! I also enjoyed speaking to those of you who already had conferences. Thank you for your dedication to your children and collaboration with us. I look forward to speaking with those parents I have not yet seen.
Science
In science, we continue our unit on electricity and magnetism. This week we attempted to build a flashlight. During our experimentation we realized, after some trial and error, that the bulbs we used were possibly not the right type. This activity was a great example of how real scientists work, using trial and error, and not always having their experiments work. We spent time discussing the possible errors, and what we could do next week to try the experiment again. It was great to see the children using their knowledge of circuits to perform this task. This week we also spent time doing technical reading and answering questions. I was impressed with the children’s ability to read some quite advanced reading and decipher difficult questions.
Math
This week, we learned how to findthe LCM (least common multiple) by listing all the multiples of numbers we multiply. After identifying the least common multiple, we applied thenumber as the LCD (lowest common denominator) and practiced addition offractions with uncommon denominators. We continue our focus on evaluatingour own work to independently check for mistakes. Your children have worked hard at IXL Math, and are mastering specified topics. I am impressed with the determination and diligent work ethic they put into their individual self-assessments. As of this week, the class spent 369 hours on IXL Math.We practiced 435 skills, have 100% student participation, and completed over 58,730 problems. We have great news in fourth grade! Thanks to the PAcommittee, we have two new Kindles in our classroom to be used as hand-heldSMART Boards.
Social Studies
This week in social studies, we completed our independent research on European explorers by presenting ourposters. Students presented the chronology of the expedition, whosponsored the trip, motives for the voyage, and the impact left on the settlement. Students independently recorded notes on each presentation tocompare explorers in a premade matrix. During the presentations, studentstook notes on how their explorers impacted history, their motives for the exploration, timelines for the expeditions, and the routes discovered. We created a fourth grade paper to feature news reports on our explorers’ expeditions. We also continued our independent current events study. Students enjoy learning about what is happening in the news. They especially love getting the chance to speak in front of their peers. They ask insightful and creative questions about each article. Articles and summaries are due every Wednesday. The focus of our summaries is based on the 5-W’s and H(who, what, where, when, why and how).
Have a wonderful weekend, and we can' wait to get back to work on Monday!