Hello! It's hard to believe we just had a vacation -- once we are back in the classroom, it feels like we never left. We have worked hard this week, and we have 6 more weeks to go. I can't believe that the time is going by so fast.

Here's a quick rundown on the week:

Math -- We are still working on multiplying and dividing large numbers. The students ALL have good and efficient strategies for solving multiplication problems, and I am really excited about that. The bigger issue is that many of them still don't know their math facts, and that makes their answer incorrect despite the strategy being efficient. I know that memorizing your math facts is BORING, but I highly recommend that they all find ways to get those facts into their memories so they can access them fluently when necessary.  We just circled back to division with large numbers today. We are solving problems like this:

The apple orchard picked 1,548 apples. They can put 6 apples in each bag. How many bags of apples can they fill?

Here's how we solved it today, after asking if they could fill 100. How about 1,000? How about 200?

6 X 100 = 600

6 X 200 = 1,200

6 X 50 = 300

6 X 8 = 48

6 X 255 = 1,548

So the answer is 258 bags with one apple left over. We are working to use what we know about the magical 10 and 100. If we can multiply something by 10, then we can multiply it by 5 by halving it. Then we can multiply it by 15!

Reading -- We are getting ready to launch our final unit of the year, which will be a genre-based book group unit. The students will get to choose what genre they want to read, and then they will read with friends, jot their ideas, and get together to have discussions. I think they will enjoy this, and it will give them more practice with coming up with IDEAS about characters.

Writing-- We finished our essay unit this week! I'm impressed with the literary essays the class wrote, and particularly with their ability to find and use quotes to prove their opinions. Good for them! Today we did our final assessment, and I am looking forward to reading their essays over the weekend.

Science-- We have started the second and final bend of our energy unit. This unit is all about stored energy. We are making a variety of fun manipulatives that use rubber bands to store energy. Next week we will try out the rubber band roller cars we made today, and we will also use "bumper coasters" and marbles to learn about energy transfer. I hope the rain lets up so we can do some of this outdoors!

I was out yesterday for a medical appointment, and I will be out again on Monday for a personal day. I am never out so often, and I apologize for the 2 days so close together. I look forward to seeing the class on Tiesday.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Happy Friday! And happy vacation! We are all certainly ready for a little break. This class has worked hard all week, and they are ready to rest and play. Here's the rundown for the week:

Math: This week we continued practicing a variety of strategies for solving double digit multiplication problems. We added a new strategy, which the class named "landmarking." This means changing one number to an easier number before multiplying, then compensating by adding or subtracting. Here is an example:  22 X 18 can be changed to 20 X 1 8 (because we all know how to multiply by 10, and therefore by 20!) 20 X 18 = 360. Then we need to compensate by adding in the final two groups of 18, so 22 X 18= 396. This is tricky for some, but fortunately math is flexible and we all find the strategies that work best for us!  We also learned to solve 4-digit by 1-digit multiplication problems. For this, we simply use expanded notation and multiply each part separately. Ask your children to show you an example!

Reading: We finished up the week by reading our choice books and jotting ideas about our reading. This class really enjoys reading, and I can always count on them to be totally focused during reading time. I hope they will read over vacation!

Writing: We are still working on our literary essays. I was hoping to finish up this week, but I think we need one more week after vacation to get completely finished. This week, the class learned how to select the best quotes from their books to prove the points they are trying to make in their essays. Providing evidence for your thinking is a critical writing skill, and really a critical life skill as well!

Social Studies: We finished our very quick unit about Vermont's geography, and I am impressed with how much this class learned! They all know where the major mountains and rivers are located, and they can label many important landmarks on the Vermont map! 

Our new vocabulary words this week were ornate, jovial, jubilant, and versatile. Unfortunately, they didn't all make it into the visual dictionary, but that is okay! You can use them at home, and that will make a huge difference. I caught a few students using jovial in their essays, and I was jubilant!

I hope you all enjoy a wonderful week with your children. I will miss them!

 Hi Families,

What a gift of nice weather we have had the past few days! I have tried to get us outdoors as much as possible. Between all the supplies we need and all the insect life that scares some people, it has been a bit of a challenge, but we have persevered!

Here's the rundown on the week:

Math -- We are fully involved in our final  multiplication and division unit. In this unit, students learn a variety of strategies for double digit multiplication and division with larger numbers. Here is a chart that shows the strategies we have learned. so far. As you can see, we don't teach the standard algorithm that we all learned when we were in school. Instead, we teach the students to think about how to use their multiples of 10 to solve these equations. It seems like it's much harder, but it really gets at their understanding of place value. They are getting it!

Writing -- we have been working hard on our literary essays. This means we have discussed what that even means, seen a sample of one, and worked on coming up with a thesis to write about. Some students are writing about picture books (which I highly recommend because it's much easier to find quotes!) while others are writing about chapter books.  Their theses are mostly about character traits ("Sally is brave because she___________and because she _________________.") Some are writing about the theme of the book or how a character changes from the beginning to the end.  Although we spent a lot of time writing persuasive and opinion essays, this sort of literary analysis is different! We are working hard!

Reading -- we are still reading on our own and in small groups, remembering to jot our ideas about the characters, the setting, or anything else we think about. These kids love to read, and I am always thrilled to see them get lost in their books.

Social Studies -- we spent some time this week learning about maps in general, and the Vermont map specifically. We have learned what states (and country) surround us, what major rivers and mountain ranges exist in Vermont, and which counties surround Chittenden County. We have looked at a lot of different kinds of map (precipitation maps, population maps, topographical maps, etc.) and we are getting really familiar with our state.

New words this week were limber, cordial and abundant. Enjoy getting those into your daily conversations!

Thanks to those of you who have signed up for conferences. I look forward to talking to you about your child! These are not mandatory conferences, so just sign up if you feel the need.  If you need help with signing up, let me know.

We will have one more busy week next week before a well-deserved vacation! In the meantime, I hope you all enjoy a lovely weekend.

 Hi Families!

Last Friday, our day ended with a power outage, so I never got the opportunity to send a blog post. I meant to do it once I got home, but of course I got distracted... Sorry!

It's been a busy week here. I am so attached to this class and feel so much pride in all of the work they've done during this difficult year. They are resilient and flexible and earnest -- and they are learning so much in spite of the challenges of masks, desks in rows, etc. What a group!

Here's what's been going on:

Math: We are finished with our fraction unit! The final assessment was today, and I was pleased with the results. Yesterday we made a list of all we have learned, and it's a long list: equivalent fractions, placing fractions on a number line, adding and subtracting fractions and mixed numbers, multiplying fractions by whole numbers, and so much more!  Wow! They should all be very proud of all they have learned.  Next week, we will begin our final multiplication and division unit, learning long division and also double digit by double digit multiplication. Stay tuned!

Reading: We finished up our social issues book clubs last week. Once again, I am impressed with how much the class learned about ways to identify the issues in books, and at their desire for justice and equity in general. They expect the world to be a good place, and I love that about them! We have talked a lot about how so many fiction books have social issues in them -- they should be able to continue this work on their own. This week, and for the next 2 weeks, we are just free reading. I am reminding them of all the strategies I have taught them so far this year, and they are choosing to read whatever books they want. While they read, I am conferring with them individually and working with some students in small groups. In preparation for report cards, I assessed each reader and I feel like they have all made so much progress in their ability to read and comprehend!

Writing: I feel like I am beating a dead horse, but we are STILL working on our essays. We finished up our opinion essays, and everyone wrote a persuasive essay in two weeks. We printed those today and shared our favorite parts. For the next 2 weeks, we will write literary essays, using some of the same strategies to write about books. They are all getting SO good at finding a thesis and at using paragraphs.

Science: We did a very quick unit about natural resources and how humans use them to make electricity. Last week, the kids all researched one renewable and one nonrenewable resource, and they compared their pros and cons. This group is all set to save the planet!

Social Studies: Today we started a new unit about Vermont's geography. We discussed a variety of landforms and what they look like. Next week we will begin looking more closely at the map of Vermont.

Here are a few more important notes:

Report cards come home on Monday. Since we were in the middle of the fraction unit when the trimester ended, the scores for that part of the math section will be only a partial score -- you will see an updated score in the final report card.

Conferences: We are holding parent conferences at the end of April. These are optional, of course. I will be sending home more information about them and  how to sign up next week.

Masks: Please remember to pack extra masks for your children. We are going through them really fast here at school, and I notice the students needing new masks after every recess and PE class. Having a few extras in their backpacks would be wonderful.

4th Grade Celebration: Thank you to all of you who have reached out to Miss Fecura about the Memory Book. I think we have plenty of parents working on that, but we will reach out again as soon as we know more about how we plan to celebrate the 4th graders at the end of the year (COVID protocols permitting!)

I think that's everything. Please, as always, be in touch if you have questions about anything. We are a team!