News and Notes 11/15

News and Notes

From Fourth Grade

The Grand Encounter

This week the fourth graders learned about the “grand encounter” between the Native Americans and the European explorers. We put together our knowledge of the motivation and life of the explorer as well as the culture of the Native Americans. Depending on the situation, we saw how some encounters were very positive, leading to lifetimes of cooperation and success. Other encounters were difficult to learn about because they were filled with fighting and disease which lead to a major loss of life. Through these difficult topics, the fourth graders have demonstrated a strong ability to respect the study of history and the value it plays in our lives today. We look forward to learning about the next stage in the history of the United States of America!

How a Story is Built

We have transitioned in reading to a new strategy – identifying story structure. As we returned to reading narratives (stories), the fourth graders were eager to dig more deeply into their understanding of the text. We came up with three characteristics common to all stories: characters, setting, and plot. We practiced identifying these three components during our read aloud time. We also began identifying the characters, setting, and basic plot in our own individualized daily reading books as well. Understanding how a story is built, down to the most basic elements, is a great way to dive more deeply into understanding that story. These fourth grade readers are demonstrating a keen skill in identifying how a story is built.

Comparing and Ordering

As a part of our study of big numbers, this week the fourth graders practiced comparing two different big numbers. Taking two numbers with five or six digits and determining which is larger can be a complicated task. We worked together to break down the meaning of these large numbers by recalling our understanding of place value. We then looked at each place value in turn and determined from there which number is greater. By the end of the week we were able to take this important skill further by ordering multiple larger numbers from least to greatest. We also applied this skill to different meaningful contexts, like comparing the depths of different oceans and looking at mileage from different locations. This “big number” math is a very practical and essential piece of the world of mathematics and the fourth grade mathematicians are just eating it up!