What impressive islands! I loved seeing all the creativity and hard work that the students put into this project. We have them displayed in the hallways and frequently hear "oooh" and "ahhh" as people walk by.
4M was humming this week with researchers! Everyone continued to read their chosen biography and take notes. As they finish their note-taking, we will move on to coding the details into three main ideas ( Childhood, Adult Life, Accomplishments ) and then selecting the most important details to write into paragraphs.
"Wow!" "I never knew..." "It's amazing that..." These are all things our inner voice says when we learn something new while reading. When readers pay attention to these these types of thoughts, they can identify that they are reading new information. We also practiced "merging" what we already know about a topic (our schema) with new facts.
In math, we learned about true and false numbers sentences and how to use a variable to write an "open" number sentence. On Tuesday, students worked in small groups with globes, measuring tapes, and a map scale to find the distances between cities and on Wednesday, they solved number stories about traveling between cities. Would we rather fly through Amsterdam or Rome on our way to Cairo, Egypt? We also continue to focus on multiplication facts and the relationship between multiplication and division. Visit Mrs. Doyle's website (using the Foster School link) to find a variety of online math games for all levels. Our Unit 3 math assessment will be on Monday, November 3rd. A study guide will go home next week as well as important vocabulary words.
4M scientists dissected lilies on Friday! They were able to take the flower apart and clearly see how it is designed to help the plant produce seeds. Parent help was essential for this activity to run smoothly! Thank you to Andrea Eckert, Stephanie Jones, Julie Donahue, and Kristen Walker for coming in to help with this lesson.
Thank you to all the parents who have signed up to help with the lily dissection, Halloween party, math games, and photocopying. I added another column to the Math Games sign-up for a second parent to help. This second column is optional, but if you are free, there is always a place for another adult!
Ask Your 4th Grader!
- Is 63/9 = 10 a true or false number sentence?
- How is the flower designed to help the plant produce seeds?
- What does your inner voice say when you read new information?
- How is it going with your biography research? What have you learned about the person you are researching?