I really enjoyed meeting with parents at our conferences. Students learn best when they have a strong team of parents and teachers working together for them. Parents, please feel free to contact Heidi or me any time you have a question or a concern.
We are finishing up our Animal Adaptations unit. The weeks before and after Thanksgiving will be devoted to our final projects and activities. Students will be designing their own animal by focusing on adaptations for survival. This should result in some interesting animals! Students will work in partners to make a poster and write paragraphs to picture, name and describe their animal and its adaptations.
In math we continue to build understanding and skills for multiplication. Students should be working on memorizing multiplication facts. If they have their facts memorized they will have more mental energy for solving more complex problems.
On a final note, the fourth grades will be performing a skit about a bullying machine at an assembly on November 30th. They will need a gray hooded sweatshirt. If your child doesn't have one please let us know and we will provide one for them. If your child has and extra gray hooded sweatshirt and is willing to share it, please send it in.
Enjoy your holiday!
Linda
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Blog Alert!
Welcome to my first blog! I hope this will help me to keep you informed about our work in math and science in fourth grade this year.
Math and science are my favorite subjects to teach! I am the math teacher leader for the Hartford School District at the elementary level so you know math is important to me. We finished our first unit in math which was all about developing a visual model to help understand multiplication and division. Did you know that the dimensions of a rectangle and the area of a rectangle are the same as the factors and product in a multiplication problem? We have also begun learning our multiplication facts. My goal is for everyone to memorize these facts by the December break. Our next math unit is about place value and multiplication of larger numbers. We just got started. Pretty soon your child will be able to show you how we use the area model to help us understand multiplication.
I love math but science is my other favorite! I especially love the unit we are currently working on. We began learning the inquiry process through activities using real animals. We asked the question, "Do crayfish prefer to be alone or together?", made predictions based on our observations of the crayfish, set up a "fair test", gathered evidence and wrote a conclusion. What do you think the answer is? You can ask your student what our evidence showed. Next we worked in small groups to ask a question about an animal that we found at the Dothan Brook. We followed the inquiry process again with support from our peers. We will be incorporating inquiry into science whenever possible. We are currently studying animal adaptations.
Math and science are my favorite subjects to teach! I am the math teacher leader for the Hartford School District at the elementary level so you know math is important to me. We finished our first unit in math which was all about developing a visual model to help understand multiplication and division. Did you know that the dimensions of a rectangle and the area of a rectangle are the same as the factors and product in a multiplication problem? We have also begun learning our multiplication facts. My goal is for everyone to memorize these facts by the December break. Our next math unit is about place value and multiplication of larger numbers. We just got started. Pretty soon your child will be able to show you how we use the area model to help us understand multiplication.
I love math but science is my other favorite! I especially love the unit we are currently working on. We began learning the inquiry process through activities using real animals. We asked the question, "Do crayfish prefer to be alone or together?", made predictions based on our observations of the crayfish, set up a "fair test", gathered evidence and wrote a conclusion. What do you think the answer is? You can ask your student what our evidence showed. Next we worked in small groups to ask a question about an animal that we found at the Dothan Brook. We followed the inquiry process again with support from our peers. We will be incorporating inquiry into science whenever possible. We are currently studying animal adaptations.
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