News and Notes 11/21

News and Notes

From Fourth Grade

Super Learners

As we enter the second quarter of the school year, the fourth graders have taken some time to reflect on what it means to be a super learner.  We don't want to just drift along through this time of school and learning, we want to dig deeply and richly experience the gift of education.  The fourth graders brainstormed what a super learner would be... someone who focused, tries hard, never gives up, has an "I can" attitude, and encourages other learners.  In this room full of creative and engaged learners, although we may look like your average, everyday students, we are actually super learners in action! 

Zero the Superhero (or Supervillain)

By way of finishing up our review of addition and subtraction concepts, this week we worked together to create a comic.  The comic featured Zero the Superhero and Zero the Supervillain.  In a fun and silly way, we used these comics to demonstrate our understanding of place value, regrouping, and the challenges of subtracting large numbers across multiple zeroes.  The fourth grade mathematicians have done a fabulous job recently in  explaining their thinking relating to how to subtract with regrouping across zeros.  Their increasing ability to explain their thinking and use their math vocabulary and concepts to solve problems is exciting to see!  So the next time you are faced with a math conundrum, ask a fourth grade mathematician if Zero the Superhero can help you!  Just beware that sometimes Zero the Supervillain travels close behind, trying to trip us up with regrouping tricks!

Rube Goldberg

As we continue to make our way through the exploration of simple machines, this week the fourth graders were introduced to a creative and comical character- Rube Goldberg.  We looked at some of his famous cartoons and watched video of different "Rube Goldberg machines."  We saw how people can use simple machines to create some very complicated solutions to small problems.  We even saw how students at Simonds School in past years have worked as engineers to solve problems like how to close a door with tools like levers, inclined planes, and wheels and axles.  As we learned about this fun person from history we also were inspired to plan out our own silly and complicated machines to solve our own small, everyday problems.  What fun it is to see the many applications of the simple machines we are learning about!