Math with Justin

Fourth graders have been working hard on their multiplication and division skills. As students work to master multi-digit multiplication, and long division with remainders, they also have started to learn about factors and multiples. Understanding of factors and multiples will not only deepen our students understanding of multiplication of division but it will also help inform our future work on fractions. Looking forward, our learners will be taking what they have learned and start applying it to real world problems including multiple steps and bar models for visualization. If you’re child is looking for a fun way to practice their math skills, encourage them to spend a few minutes on https://www.prodigygame.com/ and/or https://www.mathplayground.com/

students work on bar models on the Math in Focus Ed: Your friend in Learning website

Judaic Studies with Phyllis

Humanities with Hilary

Dear 4th Grade Families,

What an exciting year this is, with our election. It is something these students will remember for the rest of their lives, like when we think about where we were when the Challenger exploded! While it is filled with anticipation and anxiety, we have enjoyed our explorations of the electoral map. We’ve been dissecting the counties, and what the percentages mean. We’ve talked about how these last six states — Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Alaska, and North Carolina — could switch between who has the most votes at any minute … and then switch back hours later! No matter which candidate wins, the most important thing is that every citizen has their vote counted and that their voices are heard.

In reading, we are continuing book clubs and getting more into the encounters between communities during Colonial America. This week, a job  the students practices was passage performer. Here, they had to read aloud one paragraph from the chapter that they found, and use expression as the speak. When a reader can bring expression to their story, as they say it out loud, it shows a level of understanding of the text. Another job is word wonderer, where students found words that they were unsure about and — in their book club groups — worked together to discover their idea of the definition using context clues.

We are almost done with our mini-writing unit! We have been working on writing persuasive, opinion letters to politicians. Students have chosen who they want to write to, which includes Senator Kamala Harris, President Donald Trump, Senator Mitch McConnell, Governor Andrew Cuomo, Vice President Joe Biden and Mayor Bill De Blasio. Some of the topics the students feel passionate about are free college, stopping climate change, prohibiting plastic, health care, and to stop using the electoral college. We used some previous knowledge of opinion writing, by taking what we learned in third grade — using hooks; writing an intro and conclusion; having body paragraphs; using persuasive and strong language — and adding on the knowledge about counterclaims. These are so amazing and I cannot say it enough … this class has grown SO MUCH as writers since this time last year. They amaze me ALL of the time!

Finally, we are in the midst of our 13 Original Colonies unit, right now for Social Studies. So far, we have: learned the colony names; worked on our mapping skills and how to use/make a legend; investigated their social class system for each section of colony and compared it to our school hierarchy; took research notes while watching a video about who founded each colony and WHY; and discussed the different governing systems for each section of the colony. We even had a debate, where we were characters living in New England, and deciding if we should raise taxes to build a new meeting house. You can watch the video from 4A here! https://youtu.be/ZNvLVTW7Tdo

Shabbat shalom, everyone!

Music with Heidi

Each fourth grader began composing an 8-bar introduction to their own original song in Bandlab. To do this, they chose a genre of music and arranged musical loops/patterns that pleased their ear. Some finished this assignment in class; others planned to continue their work at home, since we didn’t have class this Tuesday. I’ll be sending out a reminder note to students to finish their Intros and submit them to me by the end of this weekend, so I can take a listen before class this coming Tuesday. The intros I’ve heard so far are inventive and impressive!

Art with Iviva

Students have spent the past two weeks thinking about flags, starting with viewing several colonial flags and making new flags representing themselves through icons of activities they like, and the stripes and colors of flags in countries they and their families are from. This week, students who had finished flags earned choice time for their hard work and focus, and many made abstract drawings, made a second flag, or continued weaving.