We’ve had an exciting week in Fourth Grade. The routine of our class is really starting to flow, and everybody is learning the ways of life in middle school with its increased levels of both expectation and opportunity. We’ve jumped right in with both feet, and I want to share with you what we have been up to and some of the upcoming learning adventures we have on tap.
In math, we have continued our review of past concepts. Our recent focus has been on addition and subtraction, where we have worked on concepts such as subtracting across zeroes, adding and subtracting numbers into the 10,000’s, and investigating place value, rounding and estimation. Each week we try a new style of word problem, and this past week’s style was using a model to solve perimeter calculations. The children had a lot of fun using a computer program to help create the models to solve these word problems. For example, if a farmer wants to create a rectangular pen for his goat, with a length of 16 feet and a width of 12 feet, we were able to use this program to create a model that helped us calculate the total perimeter of the pen.
In reading, we have been enjoying our first class novel, Poppy by Avi. The story has generated fantastic discussions on plot and the characters. During this time, the students have been particularly interested in the villain of the story, Mr. Ocax. He is an owl who is the “protector” of the mice. He has told the mice he will protect them from other dangerous beasts, such as porcupines, but you can only imagine how well this is working out for the mice! We have had a grand time discovering Mr. Ocax’s true motives. Mr. Ocax has inspired us to learn more about owls, and we will be working with Mr. Gore to dissect owl pellets to learn more about what owls eat. Some of these pellets were collected locally, so it will be especially interesting to learn what our owl neighbors are eating – perhaps it’s more than just mice.
In writing, we have most recently been working on creating a bio poem that we will be sharing with our special guests on Grandparents’ and Grand Friends’ Day this upcoming Friday. A bio poem is a free form poem that tells more about its author, including things that they like to write, things they might say, information about their family and where they live, and even includes a line that the writer translates into a foreign language of his or her choosing. Some of the students are really looking forward to putting the French they have been learning with Madame Barlow into their poems! In our discussion of how to create a bio poem, we used me as the example. I let the students dictate what we would include in the poem based upon what they know about me. This was a particularly animated conversation, and they were especially excited to include my love of wearing unusual ties! We are using this a jump off point into a greater discussion of poetry where we will try our hands at other styles such as limericks, diamontes, acrostics, haiku and others in order to create our own collection of original poetry. We have also explored other poets, and we will present two poems – one by Shel Silverstein and the other by Jack Prelutsky – on Friday.
Finally, in social studies, we have been studying all of the different parts of maps, including the legend, keys, and scale. We have used that knowledge to create “pirate-style” maps of our school playground. It is our hope when the weather clears up that we will be using these maps to search for “hidden treasure” on our playground. Additionally, we are now working on a group project in which the children are working together in small groups to brainstorm about and create a map of an imagined, fantastical place, and are having a lot of fun with it while incorporating all of the essential elements of a map. Look for these in the near future on our bulletin board just outside our classroom. We also have a fun social studies activity planned for Grandparents’ and Grand Friends’ Day. It should be an interesting and interactive experience for all.
We’re looking forward to seeing everyone next week. Have a great weekend!