It's a gray and gloomy Friday, but we have had a lot of fun in the classroom with our pajamas and stuffies and blankets! I even wore my bathrobe over my clothes most of the day, and it was cozy! The class was incredibly quiet and focused during both reading and writing today -- quite a feat on a Friday!

Here's the scoop:

Math this week was challenging! We moved from multiplication into division, and this always causes some anxiety! Starting yesterday, we learned about division with remainders, and that is another level of difficulty as well. It's hard to figure out the remainder, and then it's even harder to figure out how to "deal with" the remainder depending on the story context. For example, when dividing 44 by 8, the mathematical answer is 5R4, but if the story problem asks how 8 friends can share 44 crackers, you can break the crackers in half so each gets 5 1/2! This is new thinking, and we WILL all get it eventually! I try really hard not to move on until everyone feels ready, so we will take our time.

We are finishing up our first writing unit, and many of the students are sad about this! I have explained that all writers have deadlines, and that they can continue to work on their pieces from home or during our occasional free writing times. Today we learned about endings and how it is important to make sure our loose ends are tied up. Next week we will do some revising and then some editing. We will have a publishing party on Friday. I miss the days when I could invite parents to join us!

We are also finishing up our reading unit, and we will move onto non-fiction books after vacation. Today we learned about debatable ideas and how readers can debate with themselves while they are reading. The focus of our reading in Grade 4 is all about developing ideas as we read. As the students are reading, I am doing some assessments so I can give you all information about your children's decoding and comprehension skills soon!

This week the students each researched an animal and made and presented a poster about the animal's special features  -- or its body structures and their functions. After vacation, we will learn about some human organs and their functions as well.

During our social studies time, many heavy and mature issues have come up as we read picture books about a variety of topics related to race and justice. The students have brought up the notion of systemic racism, sexism, diversity, and equity. We have started SLOWLY discussing some of these issues in a measured and nonjudgmental way. Your children may come home with questions on their minds as we tackle these issues when they come up!

This week we learned 4 new vocabulary words -- all of which can be seen in our video dictionary on the google classroom. The words are livid, implore, elated, and blatant. Good luck fitting these into your dinner time conversations!

I hope you all enjoy a restful weekend. Stay safe and healthy!