Festival of Trees

At the Warner Town Hall every December there is a special kind of gathering.  A whole collection of creatively decorated Christmas trees are put on display to demonstrate the spirit of the holidays.  The businesses and organizations across the town take part in this special holiday event.  The students at Simonds School are responsible for decorating one of the trees.  This year's theme was Inspiring Joy.  The fourth graders enjoyed creating some "gifts" to hang on the tree, with the help of some generous classroom volunteers.  This week we were able to take a little walking tour of the Festival of Trees.  What a great way to enjoy the spirit of the holidays!

Simple Machines

The fourth grade scientists have been learning about forces, motion, and simple machines.  Recently we took a little bit of time to have a free exploration time.  Check out all the great contraptions that the fourth grade scientists created using their understanding of physical science!

News and Notes 12/13

News and Notes

From Fourth Grade

Perfection and Practice

Although it certainly isn't always true, the old saying “Practice makes perfect” is a good way of looking at many important foundational skills. In math this week the fourth graders reviewed and practiced their addition and subtraction computation skills. Starting out these lessons, it was evident that the fourth grade mathematicians had already invested much time and energy over the past few years to the subject of addition and subtraction. We quickly reviewed the meaning of regrouping and connected our recent study of place value to our work on addition and subtraction. The fourth graders were then asked to dig more deeply into their understanding, not only applying their computation skills to finding sums and differences of number problems, but also making connections to other recent math subjects including: applying a variety of problem-solving strategies, rounding and estimating, and solving multi-step problems. Although we are still learning and sometimes making mistakes, the fourth grade mathematicians are certainly demonstrating how practice makes our work more perfect!

Characters in Conflict

In reading workshop this week the fourth graders worked on applying multiple comprehension strategies to a single text. We began by asking questions and wondering about the text. As we read, we focused on asking questions related to the structure of the story. Once we started to hear our questions answered, we identified which questions were answered directly and then which questions we had to make inferences to answer, those questions which were answered more indirectly in the text. The fourth graders did a great job of balancing these different reading skills. In the end we had many days of great dialogue about the text. The next step is for us to be working even more diligently on applying these strategies to our independent reading!

Hour of Code

In honor of Computer Science Education Week, our fourth graders took some time to learn about computer programming this week. Using a very exciting and user-friendly online resource called “Hour of Code” (www.code.org), the fourth graders discovered the basics of computer programming. As our education continues to become more and more intermingled with our technology, it is essential that our students be familiar and skilled with technology. This Hour of Code challenge was one small and fun way to help our students see how computers work and how they can become computer programmers, even in fourth grade!

Engineering Club- NASA Rovers

During lunch and recess on Mondays, a small group of fifth graders have been participating in "Engineering Club."  The first challenge we tackled this fall was the NASA Rover challenge.  The fifth graders were given a limited list of supplies and were told to design a moving rover.  The following video shows the end results of their hard work and creative efforts!

News and Notes 12/6

News and Notes

From Fourth Grade

Mental Math

“Show your work.” “Find the exact answer.” These are the kinds of things that students are used to hearing in math class. This week, however, they were presented with a seemingly contradictory list of directives: “Don't write any work, and find the approximate answers.” In our latest math unit we are exploring addition and subtraction of whole numbers. As a piece of this unit, we are looking at how mathematicians can manipulate numbers in their heads and solve problems using different “mental math” strategies. The fourth graders were all very vocal about their concerns when they were asked to try to solve some addition and subtraction problems without showing any work. Adding to their confusion was the direction that their solutions didn't have to be exact. Skills like rounding and estimating to find sums and differences are essential to success in math. We talked this week about how a good mathematician will know how to solve problems using the paper and pencil methods, and will also know how to get an estimated answer in their head using rounding and other mental math strategies. These mental math strategies include things like breaking apart numbers into more user-friendly pieces, and adding or subtracting a small amount to make a problem more manageable. With each passing day, the fourth graders opened their minds up to the possibilities of trying to solve problems using mental math strategies. We will continue to practice these skills throughout the year, finding different opportunities when estimating, rounding, and mental math problem-solving will be helpful in real and practical ways.

Persuasive Arguments

Rhetoric, logic, and persuasive arguments were the topic for this week's writing adventures. The fourth graders have entered the world of persuasive writing and seem to be thoroughly enjoying the study. This week we just scratched the surface of this deep field of writing. We looked at the definitions of key words and identified the difference between arguing with someone and debating with them. We also discussed how a persuasive argument should be composed. We determined that we should have a strong opinion statement followed by multiple supporting details and ending with a strong restatement of the opinion in our conclusion. We practiced these skills both orally and in written form on various topics such as the best school events and the best kind of dessert. As we dig deeper into the world of persuasive writing, watch out for the persuasive skills of these fourth grade debaters.

Not So Simple

This week the fourth grade scientists continued with their exploration of simple machines. We did experiments to learn more about screws and levers this week and discovered that these simple machines aren't actually so “simple” after all. We identified how these machines make work easier by spreading the effort over a longer distance. From simple machine building toy sets to a life-sized book lifting machine, we have enjoyed creating simple machines in our classroom. We have also enjoyed being able to use different online resources to explore more about the physical science behind and practical applications of simple machines.