News and Notes 11/14

News and Notes

From Fourth Grade

Not So Simple

In science we have begun exploring inclined planes, wedges, screws, levers, pulleys, and wheels and axles.  Although they are categorized as "simple" machines, we find that they are actually not simple at all.  This week we discovered that there are some very big ideas in physical science that you can discover by exploring simple machines.  You can learn about forces, and about work and effort.  We found that simple machines are part of much of our daily lives.  We enjoyed finding ways to make work easier by using simple machines.  We are keeping our eyes open for signs of simple machines in our lives and are excited to be collecting data about where we see them being used.  This hands-on and practical kind of science is both fun and very easy to find real-life applications for! 

Questioning Structure

In reading this week we combined our skills of asking guiding questions and monitoring story structure.  Instead of simply retelling details about the character, setting, plot, and author's message, we focused our reading on asking questions relating to these different parts of our books.  The fourth graders are digging deeper into their reading by asking questions while monitoring the structure of the story.  By practicing comprehension strategies like these, the fourth grade readers are ensuring that they really will understand what they are reading!

Estimates and Exacts

By way of application, this week the fourth grade mathematicians used their skills of rounding and estimating to help solve addition and subtraction problems.  Basically we discovered that finding an "estimated" sum or difference could help us in determining how reasonable our "exact" answer was.  Estimates are helpful in all kinds of situations we discovered.  From shopping to measurement, we found that knowing how to estimate sums and differences was an important and useful skill!

Conferences

This week many of the fourth grade families met for parent-teacher conferences.  It is such a treat to be able to share about the life and learning in fourth grade.  It was also an honor to see how involved and engaged the fourth grade families are in our work in the classroom.  Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to come in for conferences!  I know it isn't easy to make schedules work for things like this, but I can also see how beneficial it is for students to know that school and family are on the same page!