Our Week in Review

This was a busy week in room 24!  We began the week with our Reading portion of the MCAS.  Mrs. Merten was very proud of us!  We all arrived to school on time, and worked hard!  There is no more MCAS testing until the math portion in May.

In Reading, Miss Boulay began reading Love that Dog, by Sharon Creech with our class.  We loved learning about Jack and how he grew to LOVE poetry.  We'll be reading Hate that Cat, the sequel, also by Sharon Creech next week, and will be writing some poetry inspired by some of the poets in these books.  While reading these books, we were able to watch the main characters, Jack and Miss Stretchberry, change.  We discussed how the characters changed throughout the school year, and the reasons we thought they were changing.  

In Math, we have been working on elapsed time ~ how to determine how much time has passed for a given event.  We have discussed ways to solve these problems, including creating a number line.  If you notice your child using a number line while working on these types of problems, that is what we've done here at school!  Today we worked in centers to solve real world problems about the passing of time.  These are a challenge, but the children are doing a great job with them.  We will have an assessment of this topic, with a review of graphing, toward the end of next week (tentatively scheduled for Thursday).

We have continued on our trip throughout the US with the study of the Midwest.  We will be learning about the geography/climate of this region, along with important people, natural resources, and Native Americans.  We also expect a visit from Mrs. Silvia, our anthropologist in residence from the Haffenreffer Museum, after vacation.

In Science, we continue to study the weather.  We will begin learning about WILD WEATHER next week.  This topic seems to be the most exciting for the children. We will use what we've learned throughout this unit to learn about hurricanes, blizzards, tornadoes, and thunder storms. 

Class Update

Mystery Skype
Last week, we had our Mystery Skype visit with a mystery fourth grade class from the Southeast.  We enjoyed answering questions about Massachusetts, and asking questions to guess the state.  Our new fourth grade friends were from FLORIDA!  It was very interesting to see and hear from these students.  Here we are skyping.  We are hoping to skype with fourth grade classes from the midwest, west and southwest.  Stay tuned for more updates!

We used atlases to find the geographical clues.

As we got answers to our questions, we kept track on the board.

ELA Update
As you know, we took our Long Composition portion of the MCAS on Monday. It was a long day, and I was proud of how hard the students worked.  We have also been working on test taking strategies in order to prepare for the Reading portion of the MCAS, which is next Tuesday and Wednesday.  The students are working very hard with this!

We have also been working on our newest unit ~ Mythology.  Our class is really enjoying learning about the Greek Gods and Goddesses!  So far, we've learned about Pandora, Theseus, Zeus and Hades.  We will extend our learning during our poetry workshop with Mrs. Williams and Miss Decker.  Students will have the opportunity to write myth poems.

Bleddyn and David have been working on an author study about Carl Haisaan, an author of realistic fiction books that they enjoy.  They worked together to create a power point presentation about these books, and shared it with our class this week.  They did a great job!  Below is the presentation ~

Math Update
In math, we have continued to work on measurement, with the study of area and perimeter.  We have really made the connection to the real world with this unit.  Students this week have been working on creating a "home" for a Ladybug.  Students were given room sizes and had to work in groups to create a design for a "Ladybug Garden".  Below are some photos of the students working in their groups and then later sharing their ideas with someone outside of their design group.  I've also included a few designs.

This design had a larger hallway, and smaller rooms ~ but the rooms were at least as large as the requirements.

This design created a large area outside of the rooms, so the ladybugs  wouldn't "bump into each other" when coming in and our of their rooms.  

Social Studies/ Science Updates

In Science, we are continuing our study of weather.  We are currently learning about clouds and wind.  Our test is tentatively scheduled for April 4th.

In Social Studies, we have been continuing our tour of the US. Students finished their Washington, D.C. projects, and did a great job! We have finished our study of the Southeast region, and will take our test on Thursday.  We will begin our study of the Midwest next week.

Speeches

Today the students presented their St. Patrick's Day Speeches to our class.  They have shown so much improvement with public speaking this year!  Below are some pictures and videos of today's speeches.

And in chorus this afternoon, the fourth graders sang this Irish song.

Our Week in Review

What a week we had!  After a snowstorm on Friday, the weather really turned around and was fabulous!  Last week, you may have seen your child creating a puzzle piece with his/her picture on the face.  We took all of the pieces from the fourth grade and made a bulletin board in the lobby. The title is We Stand Together Against Bullying.  It is really fun to see our faces as we walk in every day!

This week we wrapped up the first part of our measurement unit.  So far, we have learned about linear measurements, liquid measurements and measurements of weight.  We have learned about these both in customary and metric units, and we have done conversions of these types of measurements.  We have our measurement test tomorrow.

math centers

math centers

math centers

math centers

math centers

Today, March 14, is Pi Day (3.14).  We celebrated this unique day with some really fun activities.  First, we all colored a race tag with our racing number (everyone was 3.14).  We raced around the gym until our class ran 3.14 miles.  We used a ruler as a baton, and had to solve a math problem to participate.  All of the answers to the problems were 3.14.  Thanks to Mrs. Walmsley we had an accurately measured race!  Our class finished our race in 26 minutes and 42 seconds.  Way to Go!

We even had some students come to school dressed in "PI" clothes!

Mrs. Merten videoed our "baton handoffs" today.  Here we are passing the baton ~

We also were invited to bring circle snacks to school today.  In math, we created 3 line plots.  We plotted our circle snacks, our favorite dessert pie, and our favorite dinner pie.  Pizza Pie was the favorite!

We also were treated to an awesome presentation by Mrs. Henrichon.  She works for the National Audubon Society, and she came to talk with us about animals of the Northeast.  This was a great presentation!