Man, it has really gotten chilly outside. I am glad the kids let me play basketball with them at recess so I can keep warm. It has been a busy couple of weeks here in 4th grade. One of the highlights was our trip to the Country Music Hall of Fame on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. The kids were so well behaved and it was a real treat to hear some of their songs performed. I am working on posting some video of the songs performed that were written by the 4C/4E students.
I wanted to let you know that I will be sending home assignment summaries once a week or once every two weeks. This should serve as a guide to your child's academic progress in Math and Science. It should also keep you up to date on what curriculum we are covering. Please remember to look over and discuss your child's grades with them. Here are some other highlights:
Math
We have begun digging further into the world of multiplication. This week we laid the groundwork for the more complex multiplication problems we will be doing next week. We will be working on multiplying by one-digit (no basic facts, i.e. 345 x 7), two-digit, and three-digit numbers. My plan is to teach the students three ways to solve these types of problems. We will learn lattice multiplication, regrouping (old school), and partial products. I hope to provide some video tutorials on these methods next week. These videos will be on the blog and can be used by you or your child to gain a better understanding of each method. So check back next week to see the videos. I also must talk about the fun activity we did today. We took a break from our normal curriculum to do an enrichment activity on permutations (arrangements). The students worked in small groups to determine the number arrangements they could make using 2 colors (2), 3 colors (6), and 4 colors (24). We then did 5 colors together. Using 5 colors you can make 120 different arrangements. The cool part was that the majority of the students, in both classes, realized the pattern. The even cooler part was that when we extended the pattern, 6 colors (720), 7 colors (5040), etc. a few of the students made the connection to factorials. Once I mentioned factorials there was a collective aha! moment in the class. I was proud to be your children's teacher today. Good stuff!!!!
Science
I was quite impressed with how well both classes did on the Aquatic Plant article test yesterday. I changed up the format a little bit and the test definitely required more than the usual regurgitation of facts. The students really had to think to be able to apply the information they had learned. The most exciting thing this week has to be the aquariums. They are up and running with fish, duckweed, snails, and elodea. The kids are really jazzed about this project and curious to see how the organisms interact in the ecosystem.
Thank you for all that you do and I hope that everyone has a wonderful weekend.
Friday, December 4, 2009
Friday, November 13, 2009
Amazing Math Races
Greetings from the 4th Grade Hall,
I really hope that everyone has been able to take advantage of the beautiful weather we have been having. There are many reasons that I am thankful:
1) RECESS - This excellent weather means that the kids can get all their energy out by running and playing during our morning recess.
2) PLANT EXPERIMENTS - As I may have mentioned last week, the amount of sunlight has been a blessing for the students' plant experiments. They have been quite excited about the observations they have been able to make and the data they have been able to record.
3) HOUSE RENOVATIONS - As some of you know, my wife and I have not only decided to take on a second child, but we have decided to take on a major house renovation. The weather has been VERY helpful and I am pleased to announce that even though our freezer and fridge are in our dining room and our kitchen is out of commission for at least a month, we have a new roof and the upstairs is now framed for two bedrooms and a bath. Exciting stuff! I am telling you this bit of personal info so that if your child comes home saying, "Mr. Champion looked tired today" or "Mr. Champion seems to have a lot more gray hairs" - you will know why.
Highlights of the week:
Math
I can't say enough about how much I love doing math races with your children. I never imagined how much this simple activity would enrich your child's 4th grade year. Here are just a few of the math topics that have been introduced and reinforced during math races this year:
* Addition
* Subtraction (simple and more complex)
* Multiplication (one digit x one digit, lattice multiplication)
* Division (basic and long division with decimals instead of remainders)
* Order of Operations (Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction)
* Exponents
* Equations
* Expressions/Phrases
* Factorials - That's right - Factorials - Houston did a problem that was written using 1 x 2 x 3 x 4 x 5 x 6 x 7 x 8 x 9 x 10 x 11 x 12 as a part of the problem. I explained that this could be written in mathematical shorthand like this - 12! I am curious to see if more of these pop up as the year continues.
In Math, we have also been revisiting phrases and expressions. This time instead of just using addition and subtraction, we have added multiplication and division to the mix.
Science
I was super pleased with how well both classes did on the Acid Rain quiz on Wednesday. I really think they are understanding the study skills necessary to be successful. Besides our discussion of acid rain, the students began to design posters to share their findings from their plant inquiry projects. These will be placed in the hallway outside of my classroom, so if you get a chance in the coming weeks, please check them out.
Have a wonderful weekend!!!!!
I really hope that everyone has been able to take advantage of the beautiful weather we have been having. There are many reasons that I am thankful:
1) RECESS - This excellent weather means that the kids can get all their energy out by running and playing during our morning recess.
2) PLANT EXPERIMENTS - As I may have mentioned last week, the amount of sunlight has been a blessing for the students' plant experiments. They have been quite excited about the observations they have been able to make and the data they have been able to record.
3) HOUSE RENOVATIONS - As some of you know, my wife and I have not only decided to take on a second child, but we have decided to take on a major house renovation. The weather has been VERY helpful and I am pleased to announce that even though our freezer and fridge are in our dining room and our kitchen is out of commission for at least a month, we have a new roof and the upstairs is now framed for two bedrooms and a bath. Exciting stuff! I am telling you this bit of personal info so that if your child comes home saying, "Mr. Champion looked tired today" or "Mr. Champion seems to have a lot more gray hairs" - you will know why.
Highlights of the week:
Math
I can't say enough about how much I love doing math races with your children. I never imagined how much this simple activity would enrich your child's 4th grade year. Here are just a few of the math topics that have been introduced and reinforced during math races this year:
* Addition
* Subtraction (simple and more complex)
* Multiplication (one digit x one digit, lattice multiplication)
* Division (basic and long division with decimals instead of remainders)
* Order of Operations (Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction)
* Exponents
* Equations
* Expressions/Phrases
* Factorials - That's right - Factorials - Houston did a problem that was written using 1 x 2 x 3 x 4 x 5 x 6 x 7 x 8 x 9 x 10 x 11 x 12 as a part of the problem. I explained that this could be written in mathematical shorthand like this - 12! I am curious to see if more of these pop up as the year continues.
In Math, we have also been revisiting phrases and expressions. This time instead of just using addition and subtraction, we have added multiplication and division to the mix.
Science
I was super pleased with how well both classes did on the Acid Rain quiz on Wednesday. I really think they are understanding the study skills necessary to be successful. Besides our discussion of acid rain, the students began to design posters to share their findings from their plant inquiry projects. These will be placed in the hallway outside of my classroom, so if you get a chance in the coming weeks, please check them out.
Have a wonderful weekend!!!!!
Friday, November 6, 2009
STUFFED!!!
Greetings,
I believe I have chosen a particularly apt title for today's post. After the Pancake Breakfast (my daughter, Leland, ate a donut, a muffin, a pancake, fruit, bacon, and some eggs) and the sack lunch extravaganza - the students and I have definitely had sufficient. It has been a wonderful week. I wish we could have this amazing weather all the time. The amount of sunlight has really helped with our plant experiments. Here are the highlights for the week:
MATH
This week we focused on multiplication. Early in the week the students and I went through the multiplication tables and realized that at this point there were only 23 facts they really needed to learn. This number was based on the fact that the 0's, 1's, 2's, 3's, 5's, 10's, and 11's have already been mastered or have a quick pattern that make immediate recall easy. The students' challenge this week was to practice these facts until they were able to state the equation and product as quickly as possible. At this point I need to discuss something I shared with many of you at our recent conferences. It has to do with the best way to study basic facts. I have read some recent research that suggests a more effective way to practice basic facts. Here are the steps:
1) Give the student a basic fact (i.e. 6 x 8)
2) The student should respond by saying the factors and the product (i.e. "6 x 8 equals 48)
3) If the student gives an incorrect response, they should be given the correct answer and then they should repeat the factors and product 3 times.
Studies have shown that by having the student say the entire fact ("6 x 8 equals 48") they are better able to retain the information. We have been doing this in class and I highly recommend that this practice be adopted in your home as well.
SCIENCE
The students continue to observe and record data associated with the various plant experiments we have going on in our classroom. The amount of sunlight this week has been a blessing and has provided a large amount of growth amongst the plants. Every other day, the students gather up their plants to observe and record their data. They have been measuring (using the metric system, of course) and recording the height of their grass. In fact, many of the groups have been calculating the average height of their grass to better consolidate their data. Their have been some interesting results and I can't wait for the students to develop conclusions next week based on these results. In other science news, we have been discussing what sort of things may harm an ecosystem. This week we focused on acid rain. We have had some great discussions about this environmental issue and the kids have done a good job applying the reading for information skills we have been working on this year.
Have a wonderful weekend!!!!
I believe I have chosen a particularly apt title for today's post. After the Pancake Breakfast (my daughter, Leland, ate a donut, a muffin, a pancake, fruit, bacon, and some eggs) and the sack lunch extravaganza - the students and I have definitely had sufficient. It has been a wonderful week. I wish we could have this amazing weather all the time. The amount of sunlight has really helped with our plant experiments. Here are the highlights for the week:
MATH
This week we focused on multiplication. Early in the week the students and I went through the multiplication tables and realized that at this point there were only 23 facts they really needed to learn. This number was based on the fact that the 0's, 1's, 2's, 3's, 5's, 10's, and 11's have already been mastered or have a quick pattern that make immediate recall easy. The students' challenge this week was to practice these facts until they were able to state the equation and product as quickly as possible. At this point I need to discuss something I shared with many of you at our recent conferences. It has to do with the best way to study basic facts. I have read some recent research that suggests a more effective way to practice basic facts. Here are the steps:
1) Give the student a basic fact (i.e. 6 x 8)
2) The student should respond by saying the factors and the product (i.e. "6 x 8 equals 48)
3) If the student gives an incorrect response, they should be given the correct answer and then they should repeat the factors and product 3 times.
Studies have shown that by having the student say the entire fact ("6 x 8 equals 48") they are better able to retain the information. We have been doing this in class and I highly recommend that this practice be adopted in your home as well.
SCIENCE
The students continue to observe and record data associated with the various plant experiments we have going on in our classroom. The amount of sunlight this week has been a blessing and has provided a large amount of growth amongst the plants. Every other day, the students gather up their plants to observe and record their data. They have been measuring (using the metric system, of course) and recording the height of their grass. In fact, many of the groups have been calculating the average height of their grass to better consolidate their data. Their have been some interesting results and I can't wait for the students to develop conclusions next week based on these results. In other science news, we have been discussing what sort of things may harm an ecosystem. This week we focused on acid rain. We have had some great discussions about this environmental issue and the kids have done a good job applying the reading for information skills we have been working on this year.
Have a wonderful weekend!!!!
Friday, October 23, 2009
Short Week
Greetings,
I don't know about you, but the 4 day weekend could not have come at a better time. Things around the Champion home are kind of crazy (dealing with a little girl who is 4 going on 16, prepping the house for major renovations - new kitchen, 2 new bedrooms, and a new bath, and prepping for the arrival of new baby in about 4 months), so the extra days really helped. Even though it was a short week, I still feel like we got a good bit accomplished. I believe the highlight of the week was our trip to the Warner Park Nature Center. Please check out the slideshow of pictures on the side of the blog. The kids were extremely well-behaved and I think the guides were quite impressed with their knowledge of ecosystems and habitats. The guides did a wonderful job sharing their vast amount of knowledge with the students. If you have never been to the nature center I highly recommend taking the time to visit. Here are some more highlights from this week:
Math
The focus this week has been enrichment. Being that it was a short week, I didn't want to start on any new concepts. The students had fun working on their DynaMath this week. DynaMath is a publication filled with current events. The twist is that the publishers create problem-solving opportunities out of these events. The problems range from relatively simple to quite difficult. The students worked in pairs to complete this activity. We also had a lot of fun working on Math Races. The problems just keep getting, as Sam Strang put it, more and more "elaborate". I feel like the students are getting exposed to some really cool math concepts and I feel that the more exposure they get, the more likely they are to retain these more complex skills.
Science
We have begun, after our terrarium study, our study of specific ecosystems. The first ecosystem we are going to look at is the prairie. I think the kids have really enjoyed the technology connection this week. We will continue to do more with the Build-a-Prairie site next week. I have scheduled computer lab time for both classes in order to complete this project.
Thank you again for all that you do and I hope you have a wonderful weekend.
I don't know about you, but the 4 day weekend could not have come at a better time. Things around the Champion home are kind of crazy (dealing with a little girl who is 4 going on 16, prepping the house for major renovations - new kitchen, 2 new bedrooms, and a new bath, and prepping for the arrival of new baby in about 4 months), so the extra days really helped. Even though it was a short week, I still feel like we got a good bit accomplished. I believe the highlight of the week was our trip to the Warner Park Nature Center. Please check out the slideshow of pictures on the side of the blog. The kids were extremely well-behaved and I think the guides were quite impressed with their knowledge of ecosystems and habitats. The guides did a wonderful job sharing their vast amount of knowledge with the students. If you have never been to the nature center I highly recommend taking the time to visit. Here are some more highlights from this week:
Math
The focus this week has been enrichment. Being that it was a short week, I didn't want to start on any new concepts. The students had fun working on their DynaMath this week. DynaMath is a publication filled with current events. The twist is that the publishers create problem-solving opportunities out of these events. The problems range from relatively simple to quite difficult. The students worked in pairs to complete this activity. We also had a lot of fun working on Math Races. The problems just keep getting, as Sam Strang put it, more and more "elaborate". I feel like the students are getting exposed to some really cool math concepts and I feel that the more exposure they get, the more likely they are to retain these more complex skills.
Science
We have begun, after our terrarium study, our study of specific ecosystems. The first ecosystem we are going to look at is the prairie. I think the kids have really enjoyed the technology connection this week. We will continue to do more with the Build-a-Prairie site next week. I have scheduled computer lab time for both classes in order to complete this project.
Thank you again for all that you do and I hope you have a wonderful weekend.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Harris Hillman Visit is Highlight of the Week
It has been a wonderful week. I can't put into words how amazing the experience was that your children and I shared this past Tuesday afternoon. While seeing all of the children with their various disabilities was eye-opening, the empathy and compassion shown by the students was a beautiful thing to see. The performances the kids put together were awesome and please take a moment to check them out on the posts below this one. You may also check out Mrs. Earhart's performances on her blog. Here are the rest of the highlights for this week:
MATH:
We did a bit of review this week. We also added a new dimension to our daily Math Races. For those of you that don't know, Math Races is a daily activity that has turned out to be a excellent extension of our math curriculum. The way it works is that the students are asked to come up with a phrase, equation, or other representation where the value is equal to the date (i.e. all of today's values were 16). They then have 5 minutes to, taking turns, write as many of those expressions on the board as they can. The kids have gone from just using basic addition and subtraction problems, to using multiplication, variables, square roots, parentheses, exponents, division, and more. This week we added a data analysis to Math Races. Once the time limit is up, I go over the problems and discuss the more difficult ones. Then I count how many each side got correct. Finally, we add the items to a data set. The students then find the mean, median, mode, and range of that data set. The kids enjoy the competition aspect as well as investigating the data sets. It is a good time.
SCIENCE
We wrapped up our terrarium study this week. The kids had a blast pouring out the terrariums in to foil pans and were pleasantly surprised when they discovered many of their critters were still alive. In fact, some of the isopods (pill bugs) had multiplied since the beginning of the project. Many fine crickets and a few pill bugs were lost during this project, but I am sure they lived a long and full life up to this point, or at least that is my hope :) Both classes had all of their materials ready to begin their second inquiry project of the year. Unfortunately, yours truly, had the students use too much water on the first day and as a result, the experiments were invalid. However, I am going to gather up some potting soil and cups this weekend and when the students return next Wednesday, we will be ready to restart the experiments in hopes of a more successful outcome.
I hope that everyone has a wonderful Fall Break. Take care!
MATH:
We did a bit of review this week. We also added a new dimension to our daily Math Races. For those of you that don't know, Math Races is a daily activity that has turned out to be a excellent extension of our math curriculum. The way it works is that the students are asked to come up with a phrase, equation, or other representation where the value is equal to the date (i.e. all of today's values were 16). They then have 5 minutes to, taking turns, write as many of those expressions on the board as they can. The kids have gone from just using basic addition and subtraction problems, to using multiplication, variables, square roots, parentheses, exponents, division, and more. This week we added a data analysis to Math Races. Once the time limit is up, I go over the problems and discuss the more difficult ones. Then I count how many each side got correct. Finally, we add the items to a data set. The students then find the mean, median, mode, and range of that data set. The kids enjoy the competition aspect as well as investigating the data sets. It is a good time.
SCIENCE
We wrapped up our terrarium study this week. The kids had a blast pouring out the terrariums in to foil pans and were pleasantly surprised when they discovered many of their critters were still alive. In fact, some of the isopods (pill bugs) had multiplied since the beginning of the project. Many fine crickets and a few pill bugs were lost during this project, but I am sure they lived a long and full life up to this point, or at least that is my hope :) Both classes had all of their materials ready to begin their second inquiry project of the year. Unfortunately, yours truly, had the students use too much water on the first day and as a result, the experiments were invalid. However, I am going to gather up some potting soil and cups this weekend and when the students return next Wednesday, we will be ready to restart the experiments in hopes of a more successful outcome.
I hope that everyone has a wonderful Fall Break. Take care!
Friday, October 9, 2009
Statistics Abound!
Greetings All,
Everyday I am reminded why I am so glad I took the opportunity to teach 4th grade. It is so refreshing to be teaching skills that are new to not only your children, but to me as well. It is a great deal of fun. This week was a perfect example. Mean, median, mode, and range (check out the fun video in the links section) have been the focus of our math work this week. Statistical analysis has always been a fascinating component of mathematics and the students did a wonderful job catching on. We used real data, as well as some fictional data, to help reinforce how to determine mean, median, mode, and range. A highlight of the week was when we had an Ensworth High School student, Noland Moorer, come to visit. He designed two fun math activities for the students. He first played bingo using mental math and then he passed out mini bags of Skittles (a big hit by the way) and had the students do a statistical analysis (finding mean, median, mode, range) of the Skittle colors. They first did this in their small groups and then they worked as a class to do an analysis for the entire class. Finally, yesterday we did some work creating data sets to analyze by rolling dice. One data set was made up of the girls' rolls and the other was made up of the boys' rolls. We did this several times to look for patterns. The students then worked with a partner to create and analyze their own data sets. It was after observing this activity that I felt comfortable assessing them with a small quiz today. The mean of the class scores on the quiz was 88%.
In Science we spent the majority of the week preparing for our next inquiry project. Last week the students worked on their materials list, procedures, and hypotheses. This week they designed ways to record their observations and data. They also brought in all their materials and prepared their containers for planting. On Monday we will plant the seeds and begin observing and recording. I am very interested to see the results of these experiments. I am really proud of how the students have started to apply their science process skills independently.
As I stated in an email sent today, I have sent home a collection of papers with your child today. Please take the time to go over the each paper with your child. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thanks for all that you do and I hope you all have a wonderful and relaxing weekend.
Everyday I am reminded why I am so glad I took the opportunity to teach 4th grade. It is so refreshing to be teaching skills that are new to not only your children, but to me as well. It is a great deal of fun. This week was a perfect example. Mean, median, mode, and range (check out the fun video in the links section) have been the focus of our math work this week. Statistical analysis has always been a fascinating component of mathematics and the students did a wonderful job catching on. We used real data, as well as some fictional data, to help reinforce how to determine mean, median, mode, and range. A highlight of the week was when we had an Ensworth High School student, Noland Moorer, come to visit. He designed two fun math activities for the students. He first played bingo using mental math and then he passed out mini bags of Skittles (a big hit by the way) and had the students do a statistical analysis (finding mean, median, mode, range) of the Skittle colors. They first did this in their small groups and then they worked as a class to do an analysis for the entire class. Finally, yesterday we did some work creating data sets to analyze by rolling dice. One data set was made up of the girls' rolls and the other was made up of the boys' rolls. We did this several times to look for patterns. The students then worked with a partner to create and analyze their own data sets. It was after observing this activity that I felt comfortable assessing them with a small quiz today. The mean of the class scores on the quiz was 88%.
In Science we spent the majority of the week preparing for our next inquiry project. Last week the students worked on their materials list, procedures, and hypotheses. This week they designed ways to record their observations and data. They also brought in all their materials and prepared their containers for planting. On Monday we will plant the seeds and begin observing and recording. I am very interested to see the results of these experiments. I am really proud of how the students have started to apply their science process skills independently.
As I stated in an email sent today, I have sent home a collection of papers with your child today. Please take the time to go over the each paper with your child. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thanks for all that you do and I hope you all have a wonderful and relaxing weekend.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Harris Hillman, Equations, and Crickets - Oh My!
It has been a fun-filled week. The students are super excited about their upcoming trip to Harris Hillman. Any free moment they get, they are getting with their groups to work on their music/dance/skit routines. We have four groups in our class and the songs they have picked are: Smooth Criminal, You Belong with Me, Celebration, and Let's Get Crazy. I will post a slide show with some photos from their practices very soon. The students are welcome to bring props, costumes, etc. to school to help them practice. The students may also need to work together outside of school before the October 13th trip. This is not required, but I have been told that it has been a very common practice in years past. I have made the students aware that they should plan ahead and not try to organize an after school meeting the day of said meeting. Here are the rest of this week's highlights:
Math
As you should know, we have spent this week working with phrases and equations. I LOVE teaching algebra. It is so much fun to isolate variables and balance equations. We did a lot of work with finding the value of phrases and setting up equations to continue patterns. Unfortunately, we were not able to complete the football rankings this week, but they will back next week. Next week we are going to do more work with statistics and learn about mean, median, range, and mode. In addition to the previously mentioned skills, we have also spent some time working on basic facts. I am asking that all students continue to practice their addition, subtraction, and multiplication facts as much as possible. I am adding some new links to the blog. These links are to math sites that might be a fun way for your child to work on their facts. Be sure to check them out.
Science
Crickets were the focus this week. The students did really well creating Venn Diagrams to compare and contrast isopods and crickets. I loved watching how excited they were to observe the crickets through their hand lenses. It was great to see them identifying the parts of the cricket and asking questions about its behavior. This week we also began to work on a new inquiry project. We have four groups in each class that will be setting up the following experiments:
* Does amount of water affect growth rate?
* Does type of liquid affect growth rate?
* Does type of light affect growth rate?
* Does amount of light affect growth rate?
* Does water temperature affect growth rate?
* Does type of soil affect growth rate?
These projects are designed to have the children learn about the scientific process through actually experiencing it, rather than reading about it in a book. They learned a great deal from the paper airplane projects and I can't wait to see what they learn by doing the previously mentioned experiments.
I hope that everyone has a wonderful weekend!
Math
As you should know, we have spent this week working with phrases and equations. I LOVE teaching algebra. It is so much fun to isolate variables and balance equations. We did a lot of work with finding the value of phrases and setting up equations to continue patterns. Unfortunately, we were not able to complete the football rankings this week, but they will back next week. Next week we are going to do more work with statistics and learn about mean, median, range, and mode. In addition to the previously mentioned skills, we have also spent some time working on basic facts. I am asking that all students continue to practice their addition, subtraction, and multiplication facts as much as possible. I am adding some new links to the blog. These links are to math sites that might be a fun way for your child to work on their facts. Be sure to check them out.
Science
Crickets were the focus this week. The students did really well creating Venn Diagrams to compare and contrast isopods and crickets. I loved watching how excited they were to observe the crickets through their hand lenses. It was great to see them identifying the parts of the cricket and asking questions about its behavior. This week we also began to work on a new inquiry project. We have four groups in each class that will be setting up the following experiments:
* Does amount of water affect growth rate?
* Does type of liquid affect growth rate?
* Does type of light affect growth rate?
* Does amount of light affect growth rate?
* Does water temperature affect growth rate?
* Does type of soil affect growth rate?
These projects are designed to have the children learn about the scientific process through actually experiencing it, rather than reading about it in a book. They learned a great deal from the paper airplane projects and I can't wait to see what they learn by doing the previously mentioned experiments.
I hope that everyone has a wonderful weekend!
Friday, September 25, 2009
Week in Review
Hello all,
I must say that I had some of my best moments as a teacher this week. It was a week that I felt everyone was excited about what we were learning which lead to some great discussions and lessons. I also started to feel that most, if not all, of the students have finally realized that fourth grade is a different bird than third grade. With this realization, the students have started to work harder and I have seen the results in their recent assessments. For example, the average grade in both classes on the Ecosystem quiz last week was an 82 (B-), while the average on the Isopod quiz today was a 93 (A). I have also seen an improvement on a lot of the classwork and homework assignments. It has been an awesome week in math. I have absolutely loved teaching the kids about expressions, phrases, and equations. They have really caught onto the concepts and I can't wait to build on that success next week.
I did have an interesting moment mid-week when one of the students asked, "Why do we have to learn this?", as we discussed isopods. I didn't respond by saying, "You just do!", like some of my teachers might have done, but I did take the time to discuss my thoughts with the students. I explained that they probably won't need to know that an isopod is a scavenger in order to become a successful banker, lawyer, athlete, etc. However, I went on to explain that we study isopods because roly-polys are a good organism to integrate into the terrarium, and we use terrariums because they are an excellent (and fun) way to build the skills involved in the scientific process. I shared a laundry list of other skills that we used or learned about during our study of isopods:
* study skills
* reading for information
* observation
* recording data
* making connections
* questioning/hypothesizing
In short, our content that we use is a springboard to mastering a wide variety of skills that will not only make them better learners, but better thinkers. After my soapbox moment, I felt good that children understood my point.
Finally, we spent the afternoon talking about our upcoming trip to Harris Hillman. For those of you who don't know, Harris Hillman is a local school that provides education to children with a wide variety of physical and mental disabilities. Our fourth graders, over three trips, will be forming a relationship with these students. The first trip will involve a "show". The students are going to work in groups of 3 or 4 to put on a routine, skit, etc. that is set to a positive, upbeat song. I have seen these performances in year's past and they are wonderful. I am really looking forward to sharing this opportunity with your children. It is opportunities such as this that make me thankful to be a part of the Ensworth community.
I hope that everyone has a wonderful, and hopefully dry, weekend. Thank you again for all that you do.
I must say that I had some of my best moments as a teacher this week. It was a week that I felt everyone was excited about what we were learning which lead to some great discussions and lessons. I also started to feel that most, if not all, of the students have finally realized that fourth grade is a different bird than third grade. With this realization, the students have started to work harder and I have seen the results in their recent assessments. For example, the average grade in both classes on the Ecosystem quiz last week was an 82 (B-), while the average on the Isopod quiz today was a 93 (A). I have also seen an improvement on a lot of the classwork and homework assignments. It has been an awesome week in math. I have absolutely loved teaching the kids about expressions, phrases, and equations. They have really caught onto the concepts and I can't wait to build on that success next week.
I did have an interesting moment mid-week when one of the students asked, "Why do we have to learn this?", as we discussed isopods. I didn't respond by saying, "You just do!", like some of my teachers might have done, but I did take the time to discuss my thoughts with the students. I explained that they probably won't need to know that an isopod is a scavenger in order to become a successful banker, lawyer, athlete, etc. However, I went on to explain that we study isopods because roly-polys are a good organism to integrate into the terrarium, and we use terrariums because they are an excellent (and fun) way to build the skills involved in the scientific process. I shared a laundry list of other skills that we used or learned about during our study of isopods:
* study skills
* reading for information
* observation
* recording data
* making connections
* questioning/hypothesizing
In short, our content that we use is a springboard to mastering a wide variety of skills that will not only make them better learners, but better thinkers. After my soapbox moment, I felt good that children understood my point.
Finally, we spent the afternoon talking about our upcoming trip to Harris Hillman. For those of you who don't know, Harris Hillman is a local school that provides education to children with a wide variety of physical and mental disabilities. Our fourth graders, over three trips, will be forming a relationship with these students. The first trip will involve a "show". The students are going to work in groups of 3 or 4 to put on a routine, skit, etc. that is set to a positive, upbeat song. I have seen these performances in year's past and they are wonderful. I am really looking forward to sharing this opportunity with your children. It is opportunities such as this that make me thankful to be a part of the Ensworth community.
I hope that everyone has a wonderful, and hopefully dry, weekend. Thank you again for all that you do.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Pill Bug Extravaganza
Today was an exciting day in our class. The pill bug observations were a blast. The kids really got into using the hand lenses and did an excellent job studying the characteristics and anatomy of this interesting isopod. Be sure to check out the slideshow.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
4-Earhart CFS Week 2 Rankings
1. Florida (1)
2. Texas (3)
3. Alabama (7)
4. Texas Tech (12)
5. Kentucky (6)
6. Oklahoma (17)
7. Notre Dame (13)
8. Pittsburgh (15)
9. USC (2)
10. Arkansas (11)
11. Michigan State (8)
12. Mississippi (13)
13. LSU (10)
14. North Carolina(14)
15. Vanderbilt (5)
16. Tennessee (4)
17. Florida State (16)
18. Georgia (18)
2. Texas (3)
3. Alabama (7)
4. Texas Tech (12)
5. Kentucky (6)
6. Oklahoma (17)
7. Notre Dame (13)
8. Pittsburgh (15)
9. USC (2)
10. Arkansas (11)
11. Michigan State (8)
12. Mississippi (13)
13. LSU (10)
14. North Carolina(14)
15. Vanderbilt (5)
16. Tennessee (4)
17. Florida State (16)
18. Georgia (18)
4-Champion CFS Week 2 Rankings
1. Florida (1)
2. Texas (4)
3. Nebraska (10)
4. USC (2)
5. Auburn (8)
6. Alabama (9)
7. Penn State (7)
8. Boise State (15)
9. Notre Dame (6)
10. Oklahoma (17)
11. Vanderbilt (3)
12. Pittsburgh (13)
13. Ohio State (12)
14. Tennessee (5)
15. North Carolina (14)
16. Mississippi St. (11)
17. Florida St. (16)
18. Georgia (18)
2. Texas (4)
3. Nebraska (10)
4. USC (2)
5. Auburn (8)
6. Alabama (9)
7. Penn State (7)
8. Boise State (15)
9. Notre Dame (6)
10. Oklahoma (17)
11. Vanderbilt (3)
12. Pittsburgh (13)
13. Ohio State (12)
14. Tennessee (5)
15. North Carolina (14)
16. Mississippi St. (11)
17. Florida St. (16)
18. Georgia (18)
Friday, September 11, 2009
An Awesome Couple of Weeks
Greetings,
First of all, I love teaching your children. We are having a wonderful time and getting a lot done. I am really enjoying 4th grade and I, like your children, seem to be making a smooth transition from 3rd grade. Here are the highlights of the last couple of weeks. I hope to add some photos soon. Don't forget to check out Ms. Earhart's blog as well to see what the kids are doing in Language Arts and Social Studies.
Math:
As you know we spent a good amount of time on place value and rounding. We have now moved on to more complicated addition and subtraction. I am really pleased with how well both classes have been catching on. I hope you have had a chance to see the Champion Football Rankings that were previously posted. This is a math project that we will work on throughout the college football season. We will be learning about statistics, graphing, and other skills as the students track and rank a select group of college football teams. We had a great discussion about what some of the issues are with the "human" polls (biases, misinformation, etc.), so we decided to use statistics to make a more objective ranking system.
Science:
The terrariums are a huge hit and I am very pleased with how careful and responsible the children are being as they observe and care for their terrariums. Today and Monday the students are sharing the posters their Paper Airplane Experiment groups designed to show the scientific process they followed during their experiments. I have been unbelievably impressed with the quality of work each and every group has put forth. They have really set the bar quite high for themselves.
Thank you again for everything you do and have a wonderful weekend.
First of all, I love teaching your children. We are having a wonderful time and getting a lot done. I am really enjoying 4th grade and I, like your children, seem to be making a smooth transition from 3rd grade. Here are the highlights of the last couple of weeks. I hope to add some photos soon. Don't forget to check out Ms. Earhart's blog as well to see what the kids are doing in Language Arts and Social Studies.
Math:
As you know we spent a good amount of time on place value and rounding. We have now moved on to more complicated addition and subtraction. I am really pleased with how well both classes have been catching on. I hope you have had a chance to see the Champion Football Rankings that were previously posted. This is a math project that we will work on throughout the college football season. We will be learning about statistics, graphing, and other skills as the students track and rank a select group of college football teams. We had a great discussion about what some of the issues are with the "human" polls (biases, misinformation, etc.), so we decided to use statistics to make a more objective ranking system.
Science:
The terrariums are a huge hit and I am very pleased with how careful and responsible the children are being as they observe and care for their terrariums. Today and Monday the students are sharing the posters their Paper Airplane Experiment groups designed to show the scientific process they followed during their experiments. I have been unbelievably impressed with the quality of work each and every group has put forth. They have really set the bar quite high for themselves.
Thank you again for everything you do and have a wonderful weekend.
Week One Champion Football Rankings
It was a lot of fun doing all the statistical calculations this week. I have found that point differential is a great way to reinforce how negative numbers work. Anyway, here are the rankings for this week. There has been a slight change of plans. Instead of listing the human poll and stat-driven poll, we have decided to add each team's ranking from both polls to determine their CFS (Champion Football Series) ranking. Here are this week's rankings:
4C Week One (previous ranking)
1. Florida (1)
2. USC (3)
3. Vanderbilt (9)
4. Texas (2)
5. Tennessee (13)
6. Notre Dame (17)
7. Penn State (6)
8. Auburn (11)
9. Alabama (5)
10. Nebraska (16)
11. Mississippi State (12)
12. Ohio State (10)
13. Pittsburgh (8)
14. North Carolina (14)
15. Boise State (15)
16. Florida State (unranked)
17. Oklahoma (7)
18. Georgia (4)
4E Week One Rankings (previous ranking)
1. Florida (1)
2. USC (8)
3. Texas (3)
4. Tennessee (14)
5. Vanderbilt (unranked)
6. Kentucky (12)
7. Alabama (2)
8. Michigan State (10)
9. Notre Dame (13)
10. LSU (5)
11. Arkansas (15)
12. Texas Tech (7)
13. Mississippi (6)
14. North Carolina (11)
15. Pittsburgh (unranked)
16. Florida State (unranked)
17. Oklahoma (4)
18. Georgia (9)
4C Week One (previous ranking)
1. Florida (1)
2. USC (3)
3. Vanderbilt (9)
4. Texas (2)
5. Tennessee (13)
6. Notre Dame (17)
7. Penn State (6)
8. Auburn (11)
9. Alabama (5)
10. Nebraska (16)
11. Mississippi State (12)
12. Ohio State (10)
13. Pittsburgh (8)
14. North Carolina (14)
15. Boise State (15)
16. Florida State (unranked)
17. Oklahoma (7)
18. Georgia (4)
4E Week One Rankings (previous ranking)
1. Florida (1)
2. USC (8)
3. Texas (3)
4. Tennessee (14)
5. Vanderbilt (unranked)
6. Kentucky (12)
7. Alabama (2)
8. Michigan State (10)
9. Notre Dame (13)
10. LSU (5)
11. Arkansas (15)
12. Texas Tech (7)
13. Mississippi (6)
14. North Carolina (11)
15. Pittsburgh (unranked)
16. Florida State (unranked)
17. Oklahoma (4)
18. Georgia (9)
Preseason College Football Rankings
These rankings were completed by the students on Friday, September 4th. The students ranked each team based on what they knew (or didn't know) about each team. Each week the classes will generate a human poll and a stat-driven poll. The human poll is self-explanatory, but the stat poll uses the following stats as decided by the classes: point differential, total yards, and turnovers. Please note that each student chose a team to be included in the rankings. They will record and track (with graphs) their team's statistics throughout the year. Here are the preseason polls:
4C Preseason Poll
1. Florida
2. Texas
3. USC
4. Georgia
5. Alabama
6. Penn State
7. Oklahoma
8. Pittsburgh
9. Vanderbilt
10. Ohio State
11. Auburn
12. Mississippi State
13. Tennessee
14. North Carolina
15. Boise State
16. Nebraska
17. Notre Dame
4E Preseason Poll
1. Florida
2. Alabama
3. Texas
4. Oklahoma
5. LSU
6. Mississippi
7. Texas Tech
8. USC
9. Georgia
10. Michigan State
11. North Carolina
12. Kentucky
13. Notre Dame
14. Tennessee
*The rankings are short a few teams due to student absences*
4C Preseason Poll
1. Florida
2. Texas
3. USC
4. Georgia
5. Alabama
6. Penn State
7. Oklahoma
8. Pittsburgh
9. Vanderbilt
10. Ohio State
11. Auburn
12. Mississippi State
13. Tennessee
14. North Carolina
15. Boise State
16. Nebraska
17. Notre Dame
4E Preseason Poll
1. Florida
2. Alabama
3. Texas
4. Oklahoma
5. LSU
6. Mississippi
7. Texas Tech
8. USC
9. Georgia
10. Michigan State
11. North Carolina
12. Kentucky
13. Notre Dame
14. Tennessee
*The rankings are short a few teams due to student absences*
Friday, August 28, 2009
Another Solid Week
Greetings,
First of all, I want to let you know that I enjoyed meeting with you all on Tuesday evening. I felt like I sped through a lot of it, so please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions you might have. It has been a busy week and the kids have had a lot of fun today with getting a casual day AND getting to vote for Orange and Black captains for the first time. Here are some more highlights from the week:
MATH
We have spent the last week working on place value. This has included focusing on using different ways to write numbers (expanded form, standard form, word form), identifying places, identifying values, comparing numbers, and ordering numbers. The students really seemed to enjoy the place value game they played using dry erase boards, dry erase markers, and nine-sided dice. I really feel that this did a wonderful job reinforcing the skills we have been focusing on.
SCIENCE
We began our prep work for our terrarium and aquarium projects. The kids did an excellent job marking and cutting their bottles. We will start working on building our terrariums next week. We also finished up our paper airplane experiments. Ms. Earhart's students did their experiments in the gym and my homeroom did it in Frist Hall. I loved walking around and hearing all of the great "science speak" coming from the kids. I am eager to design another inquiry project that we can do later in the quarter.
Thanks again for all that you do and have a wonderful weekend.
First of all, I want to let you know that I enjoyed meeting with you all on Tuesday evening. I felt like I sped through a lot of it, so please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions you might have. It has been a busy week and the kids have had a lot of fun today with getting a casual day AND getting to vote for Orange and Black captains for the first time. Here are some more highlights from the week:
MATH
We have spent the last week working on place value. This has included focusing on using different ways to write numbers (expanded form, standard form, word form), identifying places, identifying values, comparing numbers, and ordering numbers. The students really seemed to enjoy the place value game they played using dry erase boards, dry erase markers, and nine-sided dice. I really feel that this did a wonderful job reinforcing the skills we have been focusing on.
SCIENCE
We began our prep work for our terrarium and aquarium projects. The kids did an excellent job marking and cutting their bottles. We will start working on building our terrariums next week. We also finished up our paper airplane experiments. Ms. Earhart's students did their experiments in the gym and my homeroom did it in Frist Hall. I loved walking around and hearing all of the great "science speak" coming from the kids. I am eager to design another inquiry project that we can do later in the quarter.
Thanks again for all that you do and have a wonderful weekend.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Welcome to 4th Grade!
Greetings,
Well, it has been a week filled with new and exciting challenges for both your children and myself. I am quite thrilled to be teaching 4th grade and I appreciate the students' hard work this week. This blog is intended to give everyone who views it a taste of 4th grade Math and Science. I won't be updating each day, but will add posts on a weekly basis. Check out what has been going on this week:
Math
I think I threw the kids for a loop on the first day with our discussion of the binary (or base 2) number system. My intention wasn't to confuse, but just to make them think about numbers in a different way. We also started our work with "big numbers". A goal for 4th grade is to master place values up to trillion. I used a fantastic website (see the links section of the blog) to help the students visualize such big numbers. We will continue to work with large numbers next week by starting to order and compare these numbers. The students have also enjoyed the Math Races we do each day at the beginning of class. I will be curious to see which side, boys or girls, has been victorious the most times at the end of the year.
Science
I couldn't be happier with the things we have accomplished in Science this week. One of the goals we have for the kids this year is to gain a better understanding of the scientific process. From observing to questioning to hypothesizing to experimenting, we want the students to really grasp these steps and take ownership of their design. In order to move towards that goal, we have been working on paper airplanes this week. Tuesday, the students spent part of the class exploring paper airplanes by using different weights, materials, throwing styles, etc. From this exploration bloomed many wonderful questions like: "Which type of paper would work better?" or "Does how hard you throw it make a difference?" or even "Does weight affect how far the plane goes?". The next step was to determine which questions were testable. After that we discussed how to isolate variables by keeping everything else the same or constant. Today, the students worked in their lab groups to fill out the materials and procedure part of their lab reports. I am looking forward to next week when the students actually test their hypotheses by doing their experiments.
Thank you again for all you do and I look forward to seeing all of you on Tuesday night at 7:00 for Parent Night. Have a great weekend!
Well, it has been a week filled with new and exciting challenges for both your children and myself. I am quite thrilled to be teaching 4th grade and I appreciate the students' hard work this week. This blog is intended to give everyone who views it a taste of 4th grade Math and Science. I won't be updating each day, but will add posts on a weekly basis. Check out what has been going on this week:
Math
I think I threw the kids for a loop on the first day with our discussion of the binary (or base 2) number system. My intention wasn't to confuse, but just to make them think about numbers in a different way. We also started our work with "big numbers". A goal for 4th grade is to master place values up to trillion. I used a fantastic website (see the links section of the blog) to help the students visualize such big numbers. We will continue to work with large numbers next week by starting to order and compare these numbers. The students have also enjoyed the Math Races we do each day at the beginning of class. I will be curious to see which side, boys or girls, has been victorious the most times at the end of the year.
Science
I couldn't be happier with the things we have accomplished in Science this week. One of the goals we have for the kids this year is to gain a better understanding of the scientific process. From observing to questioning to hypothesizing to experimenting, we want the students to really grasp these steps and take ownership of their design. In order to move towards that goal, we have been working on paper airplanes this week. Tuesday, the students spent part of the class exploring paper airplanes by using different weights, materials, throwing styles, etc. From this exploration bloomed many wonderful questions like: "Which type of paper would work better?" or "Does how hard you throw it make a difference?" or even "Does weight affect how far the plane goes?". The next step was to determine which questions were testable. After that we discussed how to isolate variables by keeping everything else the same or constant. Today, the students worked in their lab groups to fill out the materials and procedure part of their lab reports. I am looking forward to next week when the students actually test their hypotheses by doing their experiments.
Thank you again for all you do and I look forward to seeing all of you on Tuesday night at 7:00 for Parent Night. Have a great weekend!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
