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Dear families,
This week we are back in full swing. After some adjustment on Monday, the students got back to deep learning and participation. Take a look at this week's review from my students' voices. Math, by Cora, Sam, Lilly and Violet In Math this week we have done many things. One thing we have started in math this week is geometry. We’ve been working on the different types of angles like right angles, obtuse angles, acute angles, and other more complicated ones. A right angle is an angle with the measure of exactly 90 degrees. An obtuse angle is an angle with a measure greater than 90 degrees and less than 180. An acute angle is an angle with a measure greater than 0 degrees and less than 90. An zero angle is an angle whose measure is exactly zero degrees. We have been using shape blocks to measure how many degrees an angle is. We have been using the blocks in our math pages. We also did a pre-assessment to get ourselves ready for the assessment. After we finished the pre-assessment we did a reflection sheet. The reflection sheet showed the questions and we gave the answer, and If you got the question right you put a checkmark in the box that says I can do this already, if you got it half of them wrong, you put a checkmark in I can do this sometimes, and if you got all of them wrong you put a check in I need to learn this. Once we did the pre-assessment we answered similar questions in the post-assessment, like adding with time, liters and milliliters, complete ratio tables, solve standard algorithm problems and much more. Science, by Abby Z. Emmy and Breanna This week in science we have been learning about PLTW (project lead the way). In PLTW we’ve been learning about waves and the properties of light. We are learning about amplitude, wavelength, crest and trough. The amplitude is the height of the wave, the wave is a triangular shape and if you put a ruler, you are measuring the height of the wave. The wavelength is measuring one wave to another. The crest is the highest point of the wave. Trough is the lowest point of the wave. For one of the activities we all stood up and formed a circle, we made waves like in the ocean, we had to do low amplitude, high amplitude, low wavelength and high wavelength and we found out that it’s harder to do high amplitude and high wavelength. Another thing that we have been using in science is a website called phet.Colorado.edu. This simulator can measure how long the waves are, it can also make waves, you can also change the amplitude and the frequency, the frequency changes the wavelength and makes the waves bigger. Daily 5, by Pepper, Abby S. and Emily This week in Daily Five we are working on Greek Mythological Allusions, and an organized Vocabulary checklist. What I mean by ‘Vocabulary checklist’ is a checklist with a bunch of word work/Vocabulary practice boxes that you need to complete and check off. You need to complete and check off all the boxes by the end of the week. The things we need to complete include; complete the vocabulary sheet (a sheet with questions about the words of the week), the cootie catcher (a fortune teller), postcard (a ‘postcard’ to Mrs. Willinski about a word of the week), the graffiti wall (a wall of sticky notes using the vocabulary words in separate sentences), POP (a fun game where you have to collect word cards by spelling and giving the definition of a word), and last but not least, writing word and definition in my journal. In daily five we are also learning about GREEK MYTHOLOGY. In Greek Mythology we learn about Greek gods and the allusions to them. First I will talk a little about MEDUSA: Medusa was an evil gorgon. She had snakes for hair, and in some stories she had a snake-like torso. Medusa could turn a person into stone with her eyes, so when she looked at someone, that person turned into stone. The next Greek myth is ACHILLES. When Achilles was a baby he was dunked in water that provided protection for the child. His mum had held him by the heel and because of that, the water hadn’t touched his heel. One day Achilles went into war, near the end of the TROJAN WAR someone shot Achilles in the heel and then Achilles died. The last Greek myth is PANDORA. Pandora was a gift from the gods to earth. One day Zeus sent a box to earth with an instruction “Do not open”. Pandora was longing to see what was inside the chest, when Pandora opened the box evil spirits were flying out of it! After the evil, one little cloud was hanging over the chest. The cloud was hope. Hello there this week we have learned about Mythical Allusions. We have learned that an Allusion is a figure of speech which is brief and references an event, time or place. We have learned "She opened Pandora’s box", "candy is their Achilles heel" or "that boy has the Midas Touch". Pandora’s box is a saying that means that somebody can start something that has bad consequences, but you still have hope. Achilles heel references to having a weakness, like maybe candy or playing with electronics. And Midas Touch goes to a story a wise and greedy man who was given the chance to make a wish and chooses everything he touches to become gold. That’s just some of the many allusions we have learned about and there’s probably more to learn. We all hope you like the blog!!
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Dear families, Read this week's blog post through my students' voices. Have a fantastic spring break! Math, by Pepper, Emily and Abby S. Hello, hola, and Bonjour! In Math we are working on arm spans, hand lengths, line plots, bar graphs, tables, and last but not least words for analyzing data! Which include; minimum, maximum, range, mode, and median. When we are talking about the minimum we are basically saying, “The smallest element of a set.” So in a set of numbers like: 2 3 3 5 7 8 8 and 10 the minimum would be 2 because it’s the smallest. When we are talking about maximum we are basically saying “ the largest element of a set.” So the opposite of minimum. Example: in a set like this; 2 3 3 5 7 8 8 the maximum would be 8. Another thing that’s very important when talking about analyzing data is the range. The range is; The difference between the greatest and the least values in a data set, Example: 4 6 7 8 8 11 13 {13 - 4 = 9} So the range would be nine. The word Mode is also important when we talk about analyzing data, The word Mode means: the value (or values) that appear most often in a set of data. Example: 4 6 7 8 11 11 13 It would be 11 because there is more elevens than any other number. And last but not least, Median; the middle value of an ordered set of numerical data in a set with an even number of data points, the median is the average of two middle points. Example: 4 6 7 8 8 11 13.We have also measured our hand spans and arm spans. We had organized that data beginning with a table. It organizes the data by putting the students name on one side and their arm length on the other side. It wasn’t organized in any way, which made it hard for us to find the maximum and the minimum. After learning a couple different ways to show it, we decided the easiest one had been a line plot. We all wrote our name on a sticky note, we made a line plot that went from 50-63 inches, we had put x’s on top of the length we had. The mode had been 53 inches which had four x’s. Arm span is another way of saying “the length between one hand to another.” Tip: when measuring your arm span you always start with your middle fingers because they are the longest finger on your hand. For example if you measure your left palm and your other palm you’re not going to get the right answer, you’ll always get a shorter answer because they are closer together than your middle fingers are. Hand spans are a little easier to understand because you only have to measure from your thumb to your pinky finger and that’s how long your hand span is! Tip: round the measurement to the nearest half inch of the ruler you’re using. Anyway we always have fun! Trickster Tales Celebration, Emmy and Bree This week we had a celebration for finishing our Trickster Tales writing that we worked on for 10 weeks guided by our writer-in-residence Motoko. Motoko presented a slideshow of the drawings we made. From each class there was two students who shared a bit of their story, from our class, it was Cora and Steven who shared, from Mrs. Keenan's class, Jackson and Madi shared, from Mrs. Rutkowski's class, Giana and Josh shared. After, the parents came upstairs so they could hear the other students’ stories. Daily 5, Cora, Sam, Violet and Lilly (and guest poets :) In Daily 5 this week we’ve been doing a few different things that include, Word Work, Greek Mythology, and Poetry. This week in Daily 5 we have been sort of finishing up our poetry. We aren’t completely done with poetry but we are finishing up the important things in it. If you choose poetry in Daily 5, you can either cut and glue poems you need to put in your poetry journal, or write your own poems. In daily 5 this week we started working on Greek Mythology. We are doing an assignment on Greek Mythology. We have to read a book about a Greek hero and then we have to answer a few questions. You also have the choice to do it independently or with a partner of your choice. We were assigned books on Greek Mythology in Epic and we are able to choose any you would like. The options are Achilles, Icarus, Pandora, and many others. The assignment requires you to write about which story you chose and answer questions about the characters, setting, plot, and theme. The words of the week for Word Work are enlarge ( means to grow bigger ) investigate (to look more into a subject) procedure (a way of doing something) and typical (what you do in your everyday life.) (Mrs. Willinski: To celebrate National Poetry Month, your children have been creating amazing poems in their journals. A few of them have volunteered to share in this blog. Enjoy!) Colors By Emmy Red orange, yellow, green, blue and purple all the colors of the rainbow. If you look around you the colors they're sounds. The colors are apart of everything your dreams too. Love I red orange are butterflies, yellow is the sun, green are leaves, blue is the sky and purple are flowers in the leaves with the sun right on her with the sun in the sky and the butterfly flying so high in the sky loving his life. The Best Shot! By Matthew Ukpo Seven seconds on the clock then I made my shot. And instantly my team is on top, now four defenders towards me. They all flop, as the announcer observing saying can he be stopped! When my team wins I barely have a thought all I know is I’d worked a lot. Dreams By Breanna Romano Dreams Dreams are your imagination playing tricks on you One second you could be in the sky floating on the clouds and the next you could be swimming in the ocean with mermaids or on a tropical island. Your dreams are beautiful Blue By Abby Zalenski Blue is the sound of water dripping from a waterfall. Blue is a taste of cotton-candy it feels light and soft in your mouth The Window By Abby Zalenski It’s dark and black there’s a shadow behind the window black and scary I see I get out of bed and under my feet I see some glass that scares me and noises I look out the window to see my dad is trying to scare me. Red By Jake Stone Red is like a taste of strawberry Jolly Rancher Red is like the smell of sweet Red is a beautiful color Red feels like a bumpy road Red is the sound of cake Dogs By Abby Zalenski Cuddly, soft playing, barking, running run and play as you Pups Two Voice Poem By Abby Zalenski I am a monkey I am a panda High in the trees Laying on the ground And I’m a panda I hate the sun I love the sun I’m as lazy as a pig I’m fun as a roller coaster WE ARE TWO OPPOSITES I’m a monkey I'm a panda Life of a Book By Emily Moore Crumpled and rumpled, shipped and ditched the life of a book is hard to accomplish, I wait on the shelf that nobody goes to but the few people that come look at me and turn away to isle three where books of all kinds get taken away while I lay here day after day. Maroon By Emily Moore Maroon is like a mood, sort of red sort of purple. Now red is the color of madness, and purple is a mix of sadness and sleepiness. Maroon is like waking up and going to work and finding out that you forgot something and you don’t quite know what that “thing” is. Maroon is like smelling a fire and the slightest crackle you get from it. Maroon is rough yet soft to the touch. Yellow By Pepper Langley Yellow, Yellow is the sound Of birds tweeting in the morning Yellow tastes like biting into a vanilla cupcake or like a sugar cookie. Yellow is the feeling of sand between your toes. Water By Pepper Langley Water is a wet, flowing liquid that runs faster than any human, water can be warmth like a hot tub in the winter or chilling like the ocean in the summer. Water is water Too Fast By Pepper Langley No, life’s too fast I was seven then blinked and three years had past Being a kid goes by way too fast So make sure you enjoy it while it lasts My Best Friend By Abby Stover They can rise me high as the sky are as low as you can go but no one is alone cause if you're down I’m around if your mad I am so sad if you're mine I’m as happy as if just ate pie! Other Classroom Events, Pepper and Abby Stover This week we went on a walk to the Taft Library, the Book Club was organized by Mrs. Zalusky and Mrs. Desruisseaux. The library is so close to our school that we can walk there! When we got there a nice librarian greeted us at the door, we went in and sat down, we noticed that there were six books on the table in front of us. The librarian explained that she was going to give us a short summary about each book (without spoiling it) and later we would get to pick which book we want to read in a book club. The books on the table were “El Defo”, “Land of Stories”, “Save Me a Seat” , “The One and Only Ivan”, “The Wild Robot”, and “Because of the Rabbit”. “El Defo” is a book about a bunny who is born almost deaf in one ear and had to get a hearing aid but the thing is she really hates the way it looks, but it’s the only way she can hear so she has to keep it on. But one day she imagines this cool version of herself that still has the hearing aid, so she tries to be more like that version of herself and ends up liking her hearing aid after a while. “The Land of Stories” is about two kids who fell into this magical storybook and now they’re stuck in the book so they go on an adventure trying to get back to the real world but they end up meeting a lot of fantasy characters like Little Red Riding Hood and Goldilocks. It’s a great fantasy book. “Save Me a Seat” is about one ordinary boy and the other is from India. He had just come to start a life in America. They had nothing in common until a class bully targeted both boys and they worked with each other to cope. “The one and only Ivan” is about a gorilla named ‘Ivan’ that was captured, then put in a zoo in a mall. Ivan was a very talented gorilla. He knew how to do many tricks, but he needed more space to live. One day he escapes the mall, and the book is all about his life. “Because of the Rabbit” is about a girl named Emma. Emma had been homeschooled her whole life and had never been to school. One day she decided that she wanted to try out public school. Emma’s dad worked to help wild animals. One day he had gotten a call about a wild rabbit stuck in a mean lady’s yard. (That call came in the night before Emma started 5th grade) Emma’s dad immediately went to help the rabbit, but the rabbit wasn’t a wild rabbit it was a pet rabbit who lost it’s owner. Emma’s dad tried so hard to find who the rabbit belonged to, but he couldn’t. Eventually the rabbit became Emma’s pet and best friend. It wasn’t the best friend Emma had imagined but it was even better! “The Wild Robot” is a book about a robot named Roze who ended up on deserted island because of a boat crash. Roze eventually understood how to communicate with those around her. She learned to develop feelings for the creatures and the wild life. Which book would you choose for the book club? This week we also had community reader come and read to us. His name is Sean Nicholson who read the book “What the Road Said ” by Cleo Wade, with illustrations by Lucie De Moyencourt. The story is about a little boy who lives in the city and a road appears out of nowhere. One day he asked the road questions like “ How do I start?” “What if I get scared?” The road would answer “ The road smiled and said you have already started” and “ That is okay. You are brave.” We think the theme of the story is about even if you are scared, afraid or confused you can move forward and be a leader. Thank you Mr. Sean for reading this to all of us! (Mrs. Willinski: I think you will agree with me that my students are amazing writers. Take a look at this week's slide show!) |
AuthorHello! My name is Esther Willinski, and I am a fourth grade teacher in Massachusetts. Join us in our journey through 4th grade! Archives
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