News and Notes 12/5

News and Notes

From Fourth Grade

Celebrate Reading

This week the fourth graders celebrated their out-of-school reading successes.  In honor of the more than 8,000 minutes they have read out of school, the fourth graders participated in our first Ready, Set, Read Day of Celebration.  When asked how the students would want to celebrate their reading milestone, they all agreed that a day full of "just reading" would be their preference.  So, that's what we did!  We dressed like some of our favorite book characters, we wrote alternative endings to familiar stories, we read with family members and friends, and we listened to read alouds.  Basically we just enjoyed reading.  Many thanks to families who visited for our monthly family read together time after family lunch.  Also, thanks to Ms. Simpson who made a surprise guest appearance as our mystery reader.  What a great day of fun and celebration and learning!  We are certainly looking forward to the next chance we have to commemorate our learning in such a remarkable way!

Big Multiplication

Somehow the size of a number can cause a math problem to drastically change in difficulty.  In many ways the basic concepts that apply to numbers in the tens apply to numbers in the ten millions.  But it just doesn't always seem to feel that way.  This week the fourth graders were presented with some "big" multiplication problems.  Instead of multiplying a single-digit number by a single- or double-digit number, they were asked to multiply it by a number in the thousands or millions.  What we observed after a while, using our place value smarts, was that the process is the same no matter how many zeros are in the numbers.  By the end of the week we were multiplying many of these "big" multiplication problems in our heads in a matter of seconds.  With just a little bit of thinking, some multiplication snap facts, and a good foundational understanding of place value, these fourth grade mathematicians are proving themselves to be very capable with multiplication problems of all sizes!

Reading is Good!

Throughout our Day of Celebration, the fourth graders wrote down ideas defending the importance of reading.  Here are a few of their thoughts on why reading is good:

·         You can use your imagination when you read.

·         It gives you something to do!

·         You can learn when you read.

·         You can feel successful when you read a book.

·         Books can make you happy.

·         Books can help you learn new words.

·         Reading is entertaining.

·         Reading will help you with a better future.