Happy Halloween!

We've had a fun day on Fifth Avenue as we try to contain some of our excitement and continue working and learning together. ;)

Our morning began with a fun drawing activity in Art.  Picture spooky houses and graveyards with interesting names on tombstones!  In math it was business as usual as we continued working with equivalent fractions.  We are using fraction strips as a resource.  (see below)

We spent the rest of our morning with some "Halloween" related ELA activities.  We did a close read with a non-fiction text about Bats and answered text-dependent questions.  During writing, we started a creative writing story with Spooky Story Starters while listening to Halloween music and eating brownies.  Then off to recess, lunch and PE/Music!

Have fun and be safe tonight!  (And no homework to worry about) ;)

Term 3

This week marks the beginning of Term 3!  Time is flying!  Lots of fun things are happening in room 227 :)
I will update our 'curriculum' tab with Term 3 skills/standards/etc soon... ;)  In the meantime, here's what we are up to right now:

This week we will be doing close reading on informational texts within Reading and Social Studies to learn about the French and Indian War.  Some guiding questions you may want to ask your child at the end of the week are:

• What was the French and Indian war?
• What are some of the causes of the French and Indian war?
• What kind of effects did it have on the colonists?

In math we jumped into fractions.  We began talking about how we use fractions in our everyday lives.  Some questions you can ask your child:

• What are fractions and how can they be represented?
• How are fractions used in everyday life?
• What are equivalent fractions? (for example, 2/4 is the same as 1/2)

In Science we will begin our unit on Light and Sound.  We will be investigating the nature of light using tools such as mirrors, lenses and prisms.  We will be identifying materials that are transparent, opaque and translucent.

Also in ELA we started our Term 3 Reading Contracts.  We worked in small groups today to go over the expectations of these contracts as well as the book choices, mapping out a timeline to complete them by the December 5 due date, and setting some goals for our reading.   Please know that the Reading Contract is expected to be classwork; not additional homework for your students.  We allow time in class to work on these as they are doing independent reading.  Books your child reads in their small groups (LINKS, EIP, Classroom) are also allowed to 'count' as a Reading Contract book; I don't want to add 'extra' reading on them!  Below is a chart summarizing these discussions today.

Heritage Center Field Trip

Last Friday 4th grade took a walking field trip to Adair Park for a [COLD!] morning of presentations.  We witnessed exhibits and 'testimonies' of historical figures such as Harriet Tubman, a Revolutionary War soldier and a woman representing a Native American clad in animal derived clothing.  From an archaeologist we learned 'projectile points' and how they were used for weaponry from the tribes in and around our region (we also learned how to make a fire!).  We were able to step into the Mary Gay House and the Swanton House, Decatur's oldest standing building.  We learned of the homes history of being the only two structures still standing post civil war.  Check out some pictures below :)

Thanks for supporting our field trip!

Friday Field Trip

"Our field trip is tomorrow," the kids keep saying. :)  And they are right; the day has come for us to enjoy the activities planned by the Heritage Center as we join the rest of F.AVE fourth graders at Adair Park for our History Adventure.  This will be a walking field trip so please make sure your child is dressed in comfortable shoes for walking as well as warm (I hear we have a cool day ahead of us tomorrow).  We will rotate through six stations tomorrow as we experience the lives of Revolutionary War Soldiers, Harriet Tubman, Early Native Americans and more.  We are looking forward to our adventure!

Info:
We will leave school between 8:15-8:30 to walk to Adair Park.  We will have a police escort and police officers will be stationed along our walk.
We will stay together as a class throughout the activities.
We will head back to school when the activities end around 10:30 (we anticipate being back at school by 11:00).
Lunch at school as usual at our normal time (12:30-1:00)

Phases of the Moon (and more)

Science was yummy today as we reviewed the Phases of the Moon!

Also keeping us busy learning today was a fun lesson on Order of Operations in Math (Pardon My Dear Aunt Sally!!!) ...

...as well as a review in Social Studies comparing colonial regions...

Class Learning Update

We've been busy this week!

ELA: We have worked hard on revising and editing our narrative writing pieces.  We used ARMS and COPS to help us remember all the parts of these writing stages!

In math we have practiced and practiced our division standard, NBT.6.  We have learned 3 methods for solving division problems: 1. standard algorithm 2. partial quotient 3. area model.  We have worked with one digit divisors and up to 4-digit dividends.  Once each student found their favorite method they were begging to make up problems for extra practice and to challenge each other!  YAY!  Here are some screen shots of the methods (sorry they aren't the best/clearest!)

Here is an organized example of student work; showing their division problem solving in 2 ways:

In Social Studies we have been working on Colonial America.  We have identified and labeled a map of the 13 colonies as well as discussed (and listed) the individual states within each region (New England, Middle/Mid-Atlantic, Southern).  We have also been learning about the life in each region (reasons for locating there, resources available that lead to jobs, etc, geography and climate).

In Science we have presented our Solar System models and moved on to the moon!  We have learned about the moons in our Solar System (there are over 100 moons; only 3 in the inner planets; only 1 for Earth, 2 for Mars; Mercury and Venus are the only planets with no moons!).  We will study the Earth's moon and explain the sequence of the phases of the moon.

Enjoy the weekend!  We are looking forward to our Lemony Snickett visit Monday morning and our Field Trip Friday!!!!!

Solar System

Astronomy has been super fun to study!  The class has really gotten into the features and characteristics of the planets and have worked hard with their research.  They have come very involved with the Solar System and it showed through their presentations.  Their creativity and hard work was evident as each group (or individual) shared their work.  Solar Systems complete with the sun and 8 planets (in order- some even including all of the moons!), Kuiper Belt, Astroid Belt, Dwarf Planets and even Hubble and Comets adorn our class science wall and the wall outside of our room.

Next up, the moon!