Our Week In Review

We accomplished a lot of things this week in Room 24!

In math we have started to talk about strategies for solving multiplication facts.  Some of the  strategie we have discussed are:

• Memorizing ~ the best way to memorize facts is daily practice.  Many children find that the best way to do this is to practice for 5 minutes nightly.  Students received an optional practice chart.  If this is filled in completely and signed, students will earn extra credit.
• Repeated Addition  ~ 2 x 3= 2+2+2  ~ 
• Adding on Addition ~ 7 x 6 ~ if you know 7 x 5 is 35, then add 7 more to get 42
• Break apart the factors ~ 
• Traditional
• Tricks to solving 9 facts  ~ Ask your child to share these!
• We created some rhymes for  a few facts for extra credit.  These may help you remember!
• 9 and 7 like to be free, 9 x 7 is 63 ~ Jake
• 9 and 9 are having fun, 9 x 9 is 81 ~ Lily, Tanmay, Dhashadyu 
• 9 and 9 have a ton of fun, 9 x 9 is 81~ Sameen
• 4 and 7 are great, 4 x 7 is 28 ~ Brendan
• 7 x 8 likes to pick up sticks, 7 x 8 is 56 ~ Derek
• 7 and 8 did some tricks, 7 x 8 is 56 ~ Nate
• I've got 6 and I've got 4, Multiply them together and get 24 ~ Sarah
• 6 and 4 will mean no more, 6 x 4 is 24 ~ Katherine
• 4 and 7 are running late, 4 x 7 is 28 ~ Will
• 9 and 7 broke their knee, 9 x 7 is 63 ~Shreya
• 9 and 9 are almost done, 9 x 9 is 81 ~ Charlene
• 6 and 4 went out the door, 6 x 4 is 24  ~ Ilana

We have also started learning some new math games to go with our multiplication study.  

In reading we have finished reviewing basic strategies for reading.  Students will be "asking questions" on their reading logs this week.  Many of the children have signed up to do book talks.  We love hearing about the books that others enjoyed.  It gives us an idea about books we might like.

Stay tuned for our first Interactive Read Aloud.  We plan on beginning on Tuesday!  

In writing, we have finished our goals and our bio poems.  We also created "heart maps".  We will refer back to our heart maps throughout the year to help guide our writing.  

This week we also reviewed some other strategies for generating ideas for writing.  We have completed some "quick writes" about important people in our lives.  Next week we will "try on" some story ideas about important places and about turning points.  We will begin drafting toward the end of the week.  During poetry workshop with Mrs. Williams, we have continued to learn about Walt Whitman.  We will begin writing list poems next week. Today we got to write one about Mrs. Merten.  

We have been learning about the globe and about the hemispheres in social studies.  We will be moving on to latitude and longitude next week.  We will also begin our first science unit.  We will learn about the water cycle, complete some experiments and create our terrariums.  

We have almost finished our Puff Mobiles, and they all move!  We have been busy testing them and choosing our "puffers".  For some of us, the hardest part of this was compromising!  Mrs. Merten is proud that we have all worked at this.  We will be racing against the other fourth graders next week.  

From the Teacher's Desk:

I'm looking forward to seeing many of you at Open House next Thursday night.  I will be in my classroom at 6:30.   Please see your child's backpack for a notice about letting me know if you are not receiving our emails. I will be sending an email out next week regarding parent/teacher conferences.  This year, sign up will be done electronically.  

Science in Review

This week we began discussing several topics in science. We started learning about how scientists use specific guidelines to conduct experiments.  We are practicing these guidelines, the Scientific Method, while observing an experiment with grass seed.  Your child can tell you the steps we have taken, including what the only variable is in this experiment.  We all made hypothesis and we will be collecting data in the next few weeks.  Later in the week, we reviewed the water cycle and discussed water on Earth.  We created our terrariums using soil, rocks for drainage, plant clippings(thank you for sending those in), and water.  Inside our mini-ecosystems, we can already see the water cycle in action!  We can't wait to see how our terrariums do over the next few weeks!

planting grass seed

Measuring the water for the grass

counting the grass seeds

counting the grass seed

planting grass seeds

It was great to see so many of you at Open House last night!  I hope that you were able to get a tour of our classroom.  I know that the children were proud to show you all that they have done this year.  If you haven't signed up for a conference in December, please contact me at your earliest convenience to schedule this.