4th Grade Updates

4th Grade

As we roll into a new month, I wanted to let you know where we are heading in NTAG.  For reading, we are finishing up the mythology unit and The Lightning Thief activities.  We will have a focus on writing, specifically examining how animals used in stories can affect how the story is written or the outcome of the story.  This will be done in conjunction with students' reading curriculum and activities in their homeroom as well.  We will also be reading various Tall Tales, and learning about the similarities and differences between tall tales, myths, folk tales, and legends.

In math, we are continuing to pretest each unit before it is taught.  The pretests have questions from each lesson in the unit, so students may flex in and out of math enrichment depending on the level of mastery for the day's lesson.  By doing this, we are ensuring that students are being enriched when they already know the day's teaching, and are receiving instruction on concepts they are less familiar with.  Unit 4 in math has to do with decimals, so we will be working on an enrichment lesson from Ed Zacarro's Challenge Math book using decimals in real-world problem-solving situations.

During 21st Century Skill time, we are working on our research skills, by working on "History Mysteries."  We are working on mystery inventions currently.  Students received 10 riddles about mystery inventions that have helped shape America.  They have to pick out key words and clues and use their research skills to solve what the mystery invention is.

As we finish an activity, we have been writing reflections using growth mindset questions, based on Carol Dweck's book Mindset.  Their reflections have been an invaluable piece of learning for them!

As always, if you have questions, please don't hesitate to contact me!

21st Century Classrooms

I have been at an education conference the past two days, and this video 21st Century Education resonated with me.  Often times in my class, you don't see me talking at the students, but rather with them, and asking them to research, learn, and create on their own.  You see, the person who is asking the questions is doing the learning, so I ask students to create their own learning questions to guide their study.  Through conversations we have and feedback, hopefully their learning grows, and they become motivated to seek out new information.

CONFERENCE NOTES

Parent-Teacher Conference notes are being sent home beginning today.  Please take the time to fill them out, and return them, regardless if you choose to have a conference with Mrs. Van Manen or not.

Thank you so much!

Engineering A Rocket Capable of Carrying a Payload

Here are some pictures of 6th graders engineering a rocket that is capable of carrying food to a country in need of humanitarian aid.  They are developing a prototype of their rocket.  They are thinking about aerodynamics, trajectory, and how can it safely land.