Learning Updates 2.17.12

Dear Families,

Happy Friday! I hope you have a safe, fun, and relaxing Mid-Winter Break!

As usual this has been another busy and exciting week.

Here's a shot of the ActivExpressions devices you've no doubt been hearing all about. Students are excited!

It's not just bad photography. This picture is blurry because of the frenzy of this market. Students acted as businesses or people and traded money for resources and then money for goods/services.

More blurry trade pictures. It was almost like the New York Stock Exchange in here!

Valentine's Day Math. In partners, students analyzed the data from their box of Sweethearts candies.

Sorting the candies in different ways.

Social Studies

• Started Biztown unit and students could not be more excited!
• Learned about rights and the responsibilities that go with them, free enterprise, and a bit about economics in Washington State

Math

• Worked with equivalent fractions, modeling them visually, with pattern blocks, and ultimately with a math rule (multiply or divide the numerator and denominator by the same number)
• Practiced converting fractions to decimals 

Writing

• Put writing entries in each folder in a specific order and then wrote transitions to link the pieces together
• Learned about effective ways to begin and end an essay. Our goal was to write 3-4 potential introduction and conclusion paragraphs. We'll pick the best one for our essays.

Reading

• Started a new read aloud, The Tiger Rising by Newberry Award Winning author Kate DiCamillo. Ask your student to tell you about it.
• Read a Time for Kids and practiced recording Facts/Questions/Responses we had regarding the cover story: "Goodbye Bullies"
• Examined a variety of texts and evaluated the author's purpose, our purpose, and how our purpose influences our approach as a reader

Learning Update 2/10/12

The week in pictures, from Room 264...

Art Docent. Students created the Earth and Sun, using their compasses. This links with our upcoming Space Science unit.

Splat. Students strum the bristles of their paintbrush to create a splatter effect. Big thanks to Lisa Purdon for a great lesson, and thanks to Heather Kearns for all your help!

Survey says? In addition to mini-stories about ourselves and others, and lists, we also learned about conducting research in order to support our essay claims. Full list in next picture...

Research. Students learned we can use these various methods to conduct research to support our essays. My thesis is: Young children learn many amazing things...like how to play...like how to move...like how to communicate. (Hopefully helps make my examples more clear for you)

Can I interview you? We took some in-class time for students to interview and survey one another. I've encouraged them to continue this at home, particularly over the weekend. We'll be trying to assemble these essays soon!!

King County Library Global Reading Challenge. We supported and cheered on our 7 teams of 7 fourth grade participants--49 students in all who have read 10 books (often multiple times) and trained the past couple months each Friday morning before school. Teams had to answer detailed short answer, multiple choice and True/False trivia questions about each book. The winning team will now represent our school at the district-wide challenge.

5th Grade Rockin' Snow White Musical.

The 5th Grader's put on a terrific show. The months of hard work and practice were quite evident!

 

 

Crazy Hair Day. What a spirited bunch!

A few other odds and ends

• We've been reviewing fraction and probability concepts in math
• Worked with colored pattern blocks to understand fractions better and adding/subtracting them
• In reading we've focused this week on visualizing--envisioning the text through all five senses, plus a bonus feeling sense (emotions that are evoked when we read). 
• Also worked on imagining ourselves in the "skin" of our character, envisioning things we read about in the text and also things that aren't in the text, but we picture that they are there

Learning Updates 2/3/12

Dear Families,

What a glorious, sunny day. I told the class this morning that days like this make me grateful to live in Seattle. The view of the snow-capped Olympics and the crisp, clear horizon are spectacular from our classroom.

I'm also grateful for the chance to work with our class and for all the fun and interesting things we get to learn. Here's a snapshot from this week:

The Pacific Science Center brought their mobile planetarium to Grand Ridge

Science

• We learned all about constellations. This connects with our upcoming space science unit
  
• Huge thanks to our PTSA for fully funding this great in-house field trip for all 120 fourth graders!
• More planetarium pictures here!

Math

• Took the Unit 6 assessment
• Also took the Mid-Year assessment. We use this to assess the effectiveness of math instruction across the district. Therefore it won't be going home, but parents can make an appointment with me to see their child's test.
• Started Unit 7 on Fraction and their Uses; Chance and Probability
• Reviewed basic fraction concepts

Reading

• Finished our first field test curriculum, where we studied determining importance (finding the main idea)
• Practiced coding and identifying "what I think is important" and "what I think the author feels is important."
• Began field testing our second comprehension resources curriculum.
• Began to identify text features and their function in non-fiction texts by reading a portion of a book about the first complete Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton ever found

Writing

• Spent a good deal of time talking about, studying and practicing writing mini-stories. These often begin with a reference to the thesis and supporting reason. Then students make a transition such as One time... and they tell a short anecdotal story that is angled toward "proving" that supporting reason. Finally they finish up with a sentence or two that explains how the story proves their point.
• Also talked about how essayists incorporate outside sources, in particular, other people's stories as evidence
• Finally, studied MLK's "I have a Dream" speech for the way that he used lists. Talked about how essayists use parallelism in lists to support their claims, ie Let freedom ring from...Let freedom ring from...Let freedom ring from.

Social Studies

• Students researched notable figures in Washington State history and presented their learning to the class. We all took notes on each figure.
• Watched film called Pioneer Journey and used it to study how Native American and Pioneer interactions in the West

Presenting about their notable figure in WA state history.

Learning Update 1/27/2012

Dear Families,

It's been another busy week here in Room 264. It feels good to be back in the swing of things and back to our routines. Here's a bit about what we've been up to...


Art Docent: Big thanks to our Art Docent, Lisa Purdon. We had a couple of great lessons. Using clay, students made a dragon mask, in line with our later studies this year of the Pacific Rim. Lisa fired the masks in our kiln and then we had one more lesson involving glazing the masks. We'll have a quick final lesson where we add decorations.

Art Docent Lesson. Glazing our clay masks. Students learned what you see is not what you get--read the label. Purple actually looks pink as you paint it on!

FQR. Students compare notes on their fact/question/response charts during our reading materials adoption field test.

Coding text. Partners work together to show their thinking on a Revolutionary War text and map of Paul Revere's ride.

Math

• Went from using full circle to half circle protractors for measuring angles
• Worked with map coordinates, scale, and the global coordinate grid system--ie. latitude/longitude
• Extended our partial quotients division algorithm to two digit divisors, ie. 160 / 12

Reading

• With my involvement on Issaquah's Reading Materials Adoption Committee, we have the great privilege over the next few weeks to field test, or try out, four potential comprehension resources programs. One or more of these will be the standard for whole class instructional lessons next year. We're getting a sneak peek and the chance to try these great resources, which align with our current reading standards and goals for fourth grade.
• Focused on finding the main idea
• Practiced using an FQR chart to record facts, questions & responses (our thoughts) from non-fiction, historical fiction, and our own independent reading texts
• Learned to code text, showing evidence of our thinking, ie questions, background knowledge, paraphrasing, important information, etc.
• Practiced using an important information/interesting details/my thinking chart to pull important details from a non-fiction text on the revolutionary war

Writing

• Learned about different ways to support a thesis statement claim, ie kinds, parts, reasons, ways, or times
• Learned that the three ways should be categories, they should be different, and something students know a good deal about/are interested in/can write lots about
• Held a thesis clinic as a class, looking at boxes (thesis statements) and bullets (supporting reasons) that were working well and ones that needed some tweaking. We brainstormed ideas, setting each student up for success with topics and reasons they'll be able to write knowledgeably about in the coming weeks

Social Studies

• Read, discussed and wrote about the clash of cultures in the 1800s between Native Americans living in WA and Europeans who were here for trading and trapping
• Partner read about fur trapping and mountain men, discussed the Hudson's Bay Company
• Students began to research a notable figure in WA state's early history. They worked collaboratively and took notes in preparation for a short presentation with their group next week

Learning Updates 1.13.12

Happy Friday!

Here's the latest from our classroom. Monday is a holiday--Martin Luther King Jr. Day and so we'll resume school on Tuesday.

Researching & taking notes on explorers of Washington State

Presenting explorer research to the class

Taking turns writing information under the document camera so the rest of the class can record too

Communication Game. Trying to sign "fish" by wiggling silently on the ground

More sign language. Afterward, students came up with ideas for how to improve silent communication: drawing, facial expressions, props--actual things Lewis & Clark did too. What the "listeners" often heard and later reported to the class was hilarious!

Math

• We worked more on the partial quotients division method, introduced the U.S. Traditional method of multiplication, studied degrees and angles, and practiced using a half-circle protractor

Reading

• Read and discussed about petroleum and oil spills. Students took a quick quiz
• Read about explorers who came to WA state
• Continued reading and discussing Horse's Tale

Writing

• Learned about conversational prompts (sentence stems) like "For example..." "The reason for this is..." etc. for pushing our thinking deeper
• Looked back through our essay and narrative writing for great thoughts that could become a thesis
• Brainstormed thesis statements and held a thesis clinic where students helped each other revise thesis statements to be stronger and more clear

Social Studies

• Small groups read about various explorers, presented that information to the class, and we all recorded the information
• Examined, analyzed, discussed, and responded in writing to actual explorers' journal entries from Lewis & Clark's corps of discovery group
• Played a hilarious and fun sign language communication game--ask about this! The game simulated the difficulty of the communication between Lewis & Clark and the Native Americans they encountered

Learning Updates 1.6.2012

It's hard to believe it's already 2012. We started off the new year with a number of new units of study. Here's an important announcement before I tell you about the week:

Biztown—a highlight of the year for our fourth graders. The Disneyland of economics simulations.

Want to join us? Volunteer slots are filling up fast! We can only take a small number of volunteers from each class.

• Mandatory parent volunteer training, Thursday February 9^th in the Grand Ridge Multipurpose room, 6-8pm (for all parents who have not been to Biztown before)
• Biztown field trip, all day Friday March 16^th

If you would like to join us or have questions, please email our Biztown field trip coordinator, Michael Herzberg at herzbergm@issaquah.wednet.edu

 

Math

• We began Unit 6 this week: division, map reference frames, and measures of angles
• Practiced solving multiplication and division story problems, talked about division strategies
• Learned the partial-quotients algorithm of division. As I told the students, if this method had been around when I was a student it would have been my favorite!

Reading

• Revisited and worked some more on our Mountain Language program
• Talked more about thinkmarks (recording our thinking about our books on sticky notes and bookmarking them in our books). We pruned out thinking that wasn't very deep by revisiting notes we've written
• We'll do some reading response writing with one of these thinkmarks soon!
• Started a new read aloud: Horse's Tale, focused on short historical fiction vignettes through Washington's history from 1890s to 1980s. We've already had some great discussions.

Writing

• Started our new essay writing unit
• Learned about ways to generate ideas for essay entries
• Wrote short entries comprised of an observation--something students notice, and then their thinking about that

Social Studies

• Began our unit on early Washington State History
• Read, took notes, and wrote about early Paleo-Indians that lived here over 12,000 years ago. Compared coastal and plateau Native Americans of Washington
• We'll take an open book quiz on this reading from our book on Monday (chapter 2)

Learning Updates 12/16/11

Dear Families,

Happy Holidays! I hope you enjoy a safe, fun, relaxing time with friends and family during this holiday break.

This week we finished our time in 2011 with another action packed week.Check out our all the great pieces students wrote, published and shared at our Author's Chair!

Below, please enjoy the pictures our class selected and captions that students wrote today during our writing time--they're now all accomplished Bloggers!

We celebrate our second Author's Chair by doing a toast and raising our cups of apple juice in the air.

Death. A dead fish lies on the ground, unconscious, with an upside down snail accompanying him. We're watching the decomposition process in one of our ecocolumns.

Author's Chair. This author presents his dramatic story while the class listens quietly.

Pushing buttons. Last Friday evening we had a special visitor after hours. William came to check out the classroom and our technology.

Math

• Reviewed and finished Unit 5, took the final test and an open response
• We'll start Unit 6 when we resume school in January

Reading

• Read a Time for Kids edition about the coolest inventions of 2011. Students wrote opinion journal entries about which invention was most important/why
• Learned about thinkmarks (like a bookmark, but tracks your thinking). Students practiced writing their thinking on sticky notes and placing those in the book. This will lead us to some deeper thinking/written reflection in the near future.
• Met with our 2nd grade reading buddies in Miss Evanger's class

 Science

• Finished our STC Ecosystems unit (the one with ecocolumns). Students analyzed/discussed the findings of their pollution experiments and extrapolated to what the effects might be on columns that actually contained animals
• Watched/discussed a short film and a written piece about Chesapeake Bay--a real ecosystem with pollution problems
• Took some end of unit ecosystems and engineering assessments

Writing

• Published personal narrative pieces from our second unit of writing in a picture book format (Read them all here)
• We held an author's chair and students shared their work with the class