Hello wondeful fourth grade families!
Week 3 was a very busy week indeed. We went to computer lab Monday, library on Friday (my homeroom), had a Severe Weather Drill, and Back to School Night all crammed in there. Whew, I'm ready for the weekend.
FYI, my homeroom: I did not like library on Friday. It is just too much on a day when we already have Flex Friday and Morning Assembly. So, we will now go on Tuesdays, 11:10 - 11:50am instead.
Math:
This week we discussed rounding and estimating. This was mostly review for students, but it is still a tough skill at this age. This was the first drop in homework grades that I've seen so far. Rounding can seem very straight forward, but occasionally we see some numbers that throw kids off, like rounding 95,421 to the nearest ten thousand. The ten thousands has the digit 9, so rounding up means we have to go into the next place value... the hundred thousands. Therefore 95,421 rounds up to 100,000. This blows 4th grade minds..... So we will keep on practicing.
I also introduced two new place values, the tenths and hundredths. We talked a lot about "the world between two whole numbers" and mainly focused on understanding the value of decimals and how to read those numbers correctly.
Next week, we will continue practicing these two topics and introduce adding and subtracting decimals.
Science:
This week was all about inquiry and the scientific process. We set up several different investigations using Skittles. The students learned to ask worthwhile questions, create a hypothesis, research a topic, create a plan or procedure to test a hypothesis, collect and organize data and finally draw conclusions. It was pretty great! Ask them about what happens when you soak a Skittle in water.
Do me a favor, see if they can tell you about the constant variables used in each investigation and the dependent variables we changed.
Next week, we will start discussing matter.
Well, that sums it up. I thank all of you that attended Back to School Night. If you have any questions, please let me know.
Enjoy this lovely, cool, rainy weekend!
Cheers,
Raven Reaves
Week 3 was a very busy week indeed. We went to computer lab Monday, library on Friday (my homeroom), had a Severe Weather Drill, and Back to School Night all crammed in there. Whew, I'm ready for the weekend.
FYI, my homeroom: I did not like library on Friday. It is just too much on a day when we already have Flex Friday and Morning Assembly. So, we will now go on Tuesdays, 11:10 - 11:50am instead.
Math:
This week we discussed rounding and estimating. This was mostly review for students, but it is still a tough skill at this age. This was the first drop in homework grades that I've seen so far. Rounding can seem very straight forward, but occasionally we see some numbers that throw kids off, like rounding 95,421 to the nearest ten thousand. The ten thousands has the digit 9, so rounding up means we have to go into the next place value... the hundred thousands. Therefore 95,421 rounds up to 100,000. This blows 4th grade minds..... So we will keep on practicing.
I also introduced two new place values, the tenths and hundredths. We talked a lot about "the world between two whole numbers" and mainly focused on understanding the value of decimals and how to read those numbers correctly.
Next week, we will continue practicing these two topics and introduce adding and subtracting decimals.
Science:
This week was all about inquiry and the scientific process. We set up several different investigations using Skittles. The students learned to ask worthwhile questions, create a hypothesis, research a topic, create a plan or procedure to test a hypothesis, collect and organize data and finally draw conclusions. It was pretty great! Ask them about what happens when you soak a Skittle in water.
Do me a favor, see if they can tell you about the constant variables used in each investigation and the dependent variables we changed.
Next week, we will start discussing matter.
Well, that sums it up. I thank all of you that attended Back to School Night. If you have any questions, please let me know.
Enjoy this lovely, cool, rainy weekend!
Cheers,
Raven Reaves