Here are the highlights for the week:
In math we have been creating the Great Wall of Base Ten with square centimeter pieces, from 1 to 10,000, finding the area of rectangular arrays and practicing multiplication facts. In Language Arts, we have completely focused our attention on how characters' feelings change throughout the story, and how there is usually a specific event in the story that turns things around for the main character. Students have been learning and practiced identifying feelings other than "happy" or "sad". What about "discouraged", "delighted", "furious" or "annoyed"?, And what are the evidence in the story that show that the characters are having those feelings? Students have been learning the process of close reading the stories, identifying the feelings and finding the evidence. Additionally, the students have started writing their own letters to me about the books they are reading independently, so that eventually they can get a real pen-pal from another class. During Science the students have been learning all about the nervous system and how the brain receives information a creates a response or reaction to an event. We have practiced some interesting activities in the classroom to measure the speed of our responses to stimuli, like the reaction to a falling ruler between our fingers, or the speed to read color words that have different colors than what the words say.
Take a look at this week's slide show!

Learning by experimentation. That could be the summary of this week. This week the students have rolled up their sleeves and used a bunch of tools to learn about units of measurement. We have been going every day to the science room to find the mass, weight and liquid capacity of different objects, using a pan balance, platform scale, and several measuring cups. The students have tried and many times succeeded in finding the accurate measurement of a gram, a kilogram, an ounce and a pound of playdough and beans, to find measurement benchmarks, and to understand the different scales of the metric system and the standard units. For liquid capacity, the students have been calculating how many times 250 mL fit in a 1 L container. They have followed up with measurement work in their math books, and with ratio tables in their notebooks. For reading, the students have finished their first assignment on finding the main idea and important details in the story of The Hindenberg, a famous and luxurious zeppelin that went down in flames in the 1930s, and have started working on the same skill in a similar story about a war ship during WWII. The students have been fantastic managing their independent reading time to work on the assignment and also read their own choice of books. The guided reading work has been filled with interesting conversations about the story at hand. This week we have also finished a book by Patricia Polacco titled "Thank you, Mr. Falker", that has given us the opportunity to talk about character change and the different stages of the problem of the story.  We have also been exchanging letters between Mrs. Keenan's and Mrs. Rutkowski's class about books. During Science, the students have continued learning all about human and animal eyes, how nocturnal animals can see in the dark, and why when we take pictures of animals in the dark, their eyes glow in different colors.
Take a look at this week's slide show! If you don't see your child's photo in this show, it is because I had to crop the photo as the school still hasn't received your permission to publish photos of your child. If you wish to take a peek at what your child is doing in the class, make sure your fill out the form that was sent online at the beginning of the school year.
Have a great weekend!

This week the students have been working hard, and showing responsibility and ownership in completing several assignments. In math, we have been wrapping up the unit on multiplication and division strategies, practicing related vocabulary like factors, multiples, product, factor pairs, multiplicative comparisons and other, playing multiplication games during our work places time, and completing a checkpoint and an end of unit assessment (results for these will be coming home next week). During reading, we have been working on finding the main idea and supporting details of a story, and rereading for deeper understanding, and we have started a letter exchange about books with the other two fourth grade classes. Additionally, we have started reading our next chapter book, titled "Restart", by Gordon Korman, where the main character wakes up from a coma with his memories wiped off and a new chance to clear his past as a bully.
During writing, students have been creating a story inspired by the book Tuesday, by David Wiesner, asking questions about the magical event of flying frogs. Finally, during science the students have been learning about the process of seeing, the parts of the human eye, and have created a model of the eye using a lens.
Two special events that have also happened this week have been the school wide walk, and the presentation on washing hands by BVT students.
As a final note, a million thanks to those of you who bought the special prizes for my students. My Amazon wish list was emptied quickly and I received all the new rewards. The kids are excited about them!
Take a look at this week's short slide show.
​Have a great weekend!