P.E. Lab was a total success!

Yesterday we had our second P.E. Lab of the year.  We spent the morning at Wrightsville Reservoir canoeing and playing disc golf.  This was such a wonderful opportunity to build transferable skills, build some physical skills, and have a wonderful time outside!  There are a few photos in the photos tab to check out.

Also, we have started investigating the world of decimals!  Our bridge to this world is money, we have been working to add together different coins in our monetary system.  Today a student observed "Hey!  When you add these together it is just like adding regular numbers, but instead of 100, it is just 1!"  What a wonderful observation.  We also started work multiplying some decimals, again based on money.  We were working on things like: Jack has 17 quarters in his pocket (man that must be heavy!), and he found 5 more on the street.  How much money does he have now?

After our trip to the State House last Friday we have been investigating things that we saw there that stuck with us.  A few students are interested in learning about the statue of Ceres, some have focussed on the catamount, others are looking into George Dewey, while still others are investigating the Vermont timeline mural that we saw! 

As we get ready for summer, families sometimes want some summer practice to help their students skills stay sharp.  If you, or your student, are interested in this, please let me know and I will get things organized.

-Dave

Published final drafts!

Hey there, we have been working hard on writing some fractured fairy tales!  We have used traditional fairy tales as the inspiration for these, and the adaptations we are making is to the characters.  Our characters are the Vermont state fish, the brook trout!  The stories and characters that the students have come up with are wonderful.  We have also taken this opportunity to fully publish these stories, you will see them coming home as bound, hand illustrated volumes!

We have also been working a lot with fractions of like denominators.  We are multiplying them by a whole number, as well as counting by them in a large group.  We came to a consensus that we could simply use some of our multiplication knowledge when dealing with fractions, and that the reason the numerator changes and the denominator stays the same (when multiplying fractions by a whole number) is "the denominator is how many parts it takes to make a whole, and the numerator is how many parts you have."

Tomorrow we will be travelling to the State House and Vermont History Museum.  We are looking forward to seeing the inner workings of our Capitol building, as well as the wonderful exhibits at the museum. 

Next week is P.E. Lab and we will be going to the Wrightsville Reservoir for some canoeing and disc golf, and the following Monday we will be going to Boulder Beach with our buddies! 

Rube Goldberg machines....

...Boston information and more!  This has been a busy week for us here in 4th grade.  We have done a lot of work with fractions, designed Rube Goldberg machines, done some SBAC assessments, and greened up!  Our fraction work has taken to the place of adding and subtracting fractions with like denominators (3/4 + 4/4 = 7/4).  We have worked to build the understanding that the denominator notes how many pieces a whole is split into, and the numerator denotes how many of these pieces you have.  It was a bit of a mind-bender to see the concept of a numerator greater than a denominator, but we are starting to see the light, as well as understand how to translate these improper fractions into mixed numbers.  As we gear up for our trip to Boston we are heavy into scientific inquiry.  We are working on understanding different simple machines (lever, pulley, inclined plane, and the like) and incorporating these into some Rube Goldberg machines!  The beauty of work like this is the design and test process, this refinement is where students really sharpen their skills of problem solving, collaboration, and application of knowledge.  This was also our first week of SBAC assessments.  I must say that students took this work very seriously and put their all into these assessments.  We have two days left next week which will focus on math.  We also spent a little time greening up around our school, this was a nice time for all as we spiffed up some of the road frontage, and spent some wonderful time outside.

Finally, please keep your eyes open for some materials coming home this week about our upcoming trip to Boston!  All students will bring home a letter outlining what to bring.  This letter will also give a general schedule that will be solidified more when we get to the museum.  Also, if you are one of our chaperones there will be an additional letter, with contact information for me and Robin, as well as some other odds and ends.  Also, if your student still needs to bring in a permission form you will receive an email from me this afternoon (Friday), please try to get those in by Monday! 

Thanks and have a great weekend,

Dave

Boston Information Coming Home...

...as well as some classroom updates. 

First off, I will apologize for the lack of posts in the past month. Throughout this month we have seen a bunch of strong work here in our classroom.  We have worked on adding fractions with like denominators, designing and testing bridges that can span a 24 inch gap, reading intensely in books of our choice, and identifying different topics that we can write about to express our opinions and hope to convince our readers of something. 

We practiced adding fractions with a common denominator by changing our unit.  For instance often times the unit we use is one, therefore we count by one.  However if we change the unit to five, we can quickly see that what used to be "one," is now 1/5.  We used this idea to practice using different denominators, and different numerators, and add them together.  In the forthcoming week we will be working on what to do with the improper fractions that we get as a result of this addition.

Our bridge work led to lots of reflection and refinement in design.  We had bridges that held pounds of added weight, while others simply held their own weight, all of these met the learning intentions for this project, as the goal was to span a gap of 24 inches.

Also, please keep your eyes open this afternoon for some paperwork coming home about our Boston Trip.  Two forms will be coming home, one is a general permission form with emergency contact information and things like this, everyone should fill this out.  The other form is for prescription and/or over the counter medication.  If this one applies to your student please fill this form out as well (this latter form needs to be filled out even if you will be chaperoning with your child).  We also will be making some distinctive t-shirts to wear on our trip so we can easily spot each other.  For this we ask that everyone bring in a white t-shirt that is 100% cotton, and has been pre-washed.  We will collect these shirts throughout next week, and will be decorating them on the week of May 7th.  Also if any of you who are chaperoning need access to a plug in the night for a CPAP machine, please let me know so we can plan accordingly.

I hope you have a great weekend,

-Dave

A quick note from the library:

From the library;

The wet and mud of Spring often results in wet and muddy library books.  We will encourage students to wrap library books in plastic bags during wet Spring days and will help out with this as much as we can. If you have some plastic bags that you would like to donate to this effort, please send them in with your student. 

Thank you!

 - Arlyn and Mrs. Badger

Happy Spring!

We are cruising into spring!  We are working on division during math, reading a beautiful book and learning about characters and theme in reader's workshop, writing our opinions, and so much more.  We have also begun to do some serious reflective work.  We are thinking about some of the standards that need to be met in fourth grade, and thinking about our progress toward them.  Students use evidence, exemplars and each other in this reflective work.  This reflection will serve as the basis for our student-led conferences that are coming up in a few weeks.  Speaking of those, there is a link to a live sign up document on the top of this blog, and I will be sending a paper copy home this afternoon.  These conferences are a little different and we can accommodate up to four students and families in each time slot.  Please sign up for the time that fits your schedule best!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and see you all April 6 for our conferences.

Dave

Sign up for Student-led conferences

Spring Student-Led Conferences

Below you will find the link to a sign up for  parent-teacher conferences this spring. You can also find this link on the conferences page of my (this) blog. Please note, you should be able to just add your name write to the document, please do so.   I look forward to meeting with all of you. Our Spring conferences are a bit different than our fall ones as they are led by students. If you would like a little private time to chat with me, that can easily be arranged, please just let me know.  Otherwise sign up for the slot that fits your schedule best!

Please note: There can be up to four conferences happening in the room at one time.

Thanks,

Dave

Link to Student-Led Conference sign-up