Region Project

During the past several weeks, we have been learning about the states and capitals of the remaining 4 regions of the USA with facts about each region. 

This past week, students chose a region they would like to research a bit more. With their partner, or small group, the boys and girls spent 4 days researching using textbooks and websites. 

Now, they are working on typing up their research. In the next couple of days, the class will be putting their projects  together. Each team will have a chance to present their project on either the 17th or 18th. 

Leeza hero stories

The past couple of weeks, students have been working on creating and editing a story about Leeza , my dog, being a hero. This project was inspired by our small reading book group book we read, My Dig My Hero by Betsy Byars. 

The stories are going to be sent to a publisher to be published into a real book! This idea was inspired from third grade last year when Ms. Grube's class published The Adventures of Henry, but by the time I came upon this cool idea, the company had said it was too late. 

Students have been working very hard on their stories. They are at their revising stage to go onto their final draft. The company gives us 1 page for the final so it has to be exactly how we want it! Eekk!! More information regarding if you would like to order a book will be sent as an email a bit later on. 

Word Problems

On Monday we started our new math unit---Word Problems!

We began by brainstorming key words we remembered from third grade and journaling them in our math journals. 

Then, we learned a little song to help us break down a word problem.

After, we learned a little TIPS to help further assist us understanding word problems and being able to solve them. 

We'll be  working on word problems for the next couple of weeks. We started with addition and we'll move into subtraction, multiplication, and multi- step. 

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!! Thank  you very much for all the donations for our feast! We REALLY appreciated it!! Students had a great time hosting our third grade friends, eating the delicious food, chatting, watching Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, and giving their new friends a friendship bracelet they created. I, however, in the bussle of everything forgot to take a picture 😔!!!! 

We started off our day reading with our book buddies their book The ABC's of Thanksgiving. Fourth graders helped the first graders come up with with a sentence for the letter Y and Z. Then, the 4th graders made matching friendship bracelets for their first grade buddies. 

Students had the opportunity to do a "Happy Thanks-grossing" activity. They needed to come up disgusting ingredients for a meal to serve on Thanksgiving. Ask them about it, some were wicked gross. 

Frindle projects are done!

2 digit by 2 digit anchor chart

These are the visuals , in the form of an anchor chart, of 4 ways students can multiply 2 digit by 2 digit problems. 

Double digit multiplication

So far this week in math, students reviewed multiplication arrays , cuisenaire  rods, and 2 digit by 1 digit multiplication with and without regrouping. 

The next step is 2 digit by 2 digit!! 😁 We will spend the remainder of this week and we'll continue into next week working through this new concept. I plan on showing students a couple different visuals , or mnemonic devices, on how to go about solving these multiplication problems. Make sure to ask them which way they like! (Partial product window box, many zoos many animals , bow tie method, turtle head). 

Mean, Median, Mode, Range , Writing Hooks, & Book group project

This past week we worked everyday on Mean, Median, Mode, and Range. We learned a couple of riddles , watched some YouTube clips, and did a goldfish activity to help us better understand. 

During writing, the fourth graders helped me create a hook to capture my reader. Students then worked on creating their hooks before transitioning into the beginning of their personal narrative . 

For a cumulative project on our first book group reading of Frindle or Jake Drake Know It All, students worked on drive to write the main idea, a book review, and create their own new word (or science project)!

Move over place value it's time for data management and personal narratives

We finished our math unit in place value (addition, subtraction, place value, comparing numbers, and rounding). This week we will focus on finding the Mean, Median, Mode, and Range of a set of data. 

Our mini unit on government is now complete so back to personal narratives we go! Students chose a small moment seed idea and filled out a brainstorming page of their 5 senses from that small moment. Incorporating senses into our writing makes for a more interesting piece. 

Every week for spelling, students work hands on with the concepts of the unit . They work in groups, or in pairs, listening and learning the spelling pattern rules then doing activities(following the taught concepts) in their spelling notebooks.