Berkshire Country Day School - 13 Ways of looking at a Fraction

13 Ways of looking at a Fraction

Dear Families,

The distance lab in the Learning Commons is such a great learning environment and the 4th graders took great advantage of it this week to continue our study of improper and equivalent fractions, along with mixed numbers, common factors and how to put fractions in their simplest form. We’ve used… fractions strips, fractions pieces, cuisinaire rods, numbers lines and the ever popular pizza pie; not quite as many ways as Wallace Stevens looked at a Blackbird, but give us time.
After watching a few different videos showing different ways to compare fractions, the kids went to work on putting fractions in their simplest form, and saw that all that work learning multiplication really does pay off!

The Valentine’s party was great fun. Thank you to all the parents who provided the goodies to make it special. It knocks me out to see how genuinely appreciative they are for each and every card they receive and how much work and care goes into their preparation. There are a couple of shots in the slide show that show just how excited they were to share their cards with each other.

We continue to work away at the geography of the USA, the poetry of our reading book Locomotion, atlases, spelling rules, map keys, and keyboarding skills.
I have worked hard to make sure desks and cubbies stay (somewhat) clean, coats are always picked and everything that is used is then put away. These habits contribute to a general respect of our classroom, our school and the teachers and staff that work alongside them to keep it the special place it is.

Thanks to Neal for bringing in his math games from home and to all the parents who were able to sneak away from work and visit the classroom for Bring a Parent to School Day. It makes me proud to see how proud they are to share their work with you.

Enjoy the long weekend!
Best, Katharine