Probability Terminology

The students are learning about probability and the terminology that goes along with it.  Terms we'll encounter while we look at probability include: impossible, certain, more likely, less likely, equally likely and outcomes.  To help us, we added a flip book with these terms and their corresponding definitions to our interactive math notebooks.  The students used the glossary at the back of their math textbooks to locate all the definitions.  They then created their flip book and put it in their math notebook to use for future endeavours.

Word of the Day

On of our goals in 4th grade purple this year is to build our vocabulary.  In order to do this, we need to learn a plethora of words and what they mean.  This way we can use them in our speech and writing, and if we come across them in literature we read we'll know what they mean.  We are keeping track of our "Words of the Day" on the blog so feel free to pop by and check out all the new words we're learning.

Musical

Please see below regarding information about the elementary and middle school musical:


We will hold auditions for the Elementary and Middle School Musical next Tuesday AND Thursday, February 2nd and 4th from 3:45-5:00pm. These auditions are open to all interested 1st-5th grade students. We ask that the students prepare to sing 30 seconds of their favourite song.  

As usual, these auditions simply help us with role placements. All who audition will be able to take part in the production. 

The sign up sheets will be available starting today in the front lobby after school.

Thank you!!

Miss Ward

Shared Reading

As we enter in to our last week studying mysteries in reading, students are sharing reading responsibilities.  Reading is done in our classroom as whole class, small group (shared) and independently.  In "detective teams", students read an Encyclopedia Brown mystery together and then worked to solve the mystery.  Tomorrow their deductions and solutions will be shared and we'll see who was able to solve The Case of the Tennis Racket.

Multimedia

As we learn new skills in technology, the students aim to incorporate them with curricular outcomes and learning.  Today we integrated Word and images via internet access with IPC in creating title pages for our upcoming units.  Since we don't always utilize the tech skills needed for this project on a daily basis, students are encouraged to collaborate to solve any unknown issues and to experiment with the program to find out what different elements do.  In a way, students inadvertently become teachers to one another, and explorers.

Invention vs Discovery

Students began their IPC unit on Inventions that Changed the World today.  Their first task was to illicit the difference between an invention and a discovery, and then using pictures in a powerpoint decide if certain items (ie penicillin, Americas, bubble gum) are inventions or discoveries.  Next we investigated some of the big ideas we'll be studying in this unit, and as per the other units we've worked on, the students are coming home with a sheet that they'd like to share and discuss with you.  Then, in partners, students began to find out information about different inventions and determine whether these are good or bad inventions and why.

Data Analysis

Data analysis: our next unit in math has us learning about mean, median, mode and range.  The students are starting with mean (or average): a calculated central value of a set of numbers.

To find the mean (average) you:
1) add up all the numbers in the set
2) divide by the number of items in a set

For more information on the definitions and to see some examples, please see one of the links below:

Math Is Fun - Mean

Math Is Fun - Average

We also watched a cute video that gave us information about these terms and got stuck in our heads.  Hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

Tuesday ELA Pods

During Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, our schedule allows us to have a good chunk of time for language arts pods.  On Wednesdays we have the Macs to incorporate tech into our schedule and on Tuesdays we are creative in the various tasks we undertake.

building sentencesn

response to literature questions

detective case reports

irregular past tense verb matching

Math Collaboration

4th Grade Purple is encouraged to talk about and collaborate during math.  Turn and talk, learning from one another, group work and sharing ideas are all ways students learn with and from one another.  In today's class, students worked with a  partner to solve questions about table data and then correctly construct a bar graph from it.

Sums, Differences, Products, Quotients

In our math huddle today, each student chose a digit between 3 and 9.  Due to the nature of the activity, 0, 1, 2 are too small and we wanted to use only single digits for this activity.  Then number the students chose was written in the center of a new page of their math huddle notebook.  This number then could represent a sum, a difference, a product or a quotient; meaning that students had to find equations using addition, subtraction, multiplication and/or division where the answer equaled the digit on their page.  This was a fun, challenging activity where students needed to think critically.  We also had some answers that involved multiple digits and operations, and the use of parenthesis was incorporated a few times.

Double Upload

The other day students learned how to save and upload a picture into Kidblog, followed by writing about their image.  This week students showed that they could complete this process again while also doing a second upload into the same post.  There were many days in between the first and second times uploading photos so it was great to see the collaborative process students had in helping each other when processes were forgotten.

Here a student shares how we do this:

Our blogs, where many of us had time for the second upload, can be viewed here:

Kidblog Posts

WTW Practice

We are resuming our two week practice with our spelling sorts.  Therefore, this Friday the students do not do an assessment.  Rather, they participate in a variety of activities focused on the spelling, meaning and categorization of their words.

Sorting

Meaning & Spelling games via spellingcity.com

Spelling and math

Generating Questions

Being able to answer questions using data in a line graph is a skill the students have been working on.  Now they're turning the tables and generating questions for a given graph.  First we practiced orally with a couple of graphs as a whole class.  Next, they independently wrote a question for a graph which we show, shared and solved together.  Finally, they went on their own to do a task similar to this independently.  Using a model, share, guide and do practice for this activity helps students understand the task and learn from one another.

Students' generated questions for a given graph

ELA Pods

Wednesday mornings we often start our day with reading pods where students participate in a variety of reading, writing, spelling and grammar activities.  It's a great chance for students to use a variety of methods to enhance and showcase their learning, and allows us to work in small groups giving a better student-to-teacher ratio for instruction or proximity of assistance.

Detective Case Reports

RAZ Kids

Blogging - Free Write day

Irregular Verb practice

Keyboarding

The students are learning how to correctly type on a QWERTY keyboard.  This involves learning the correct placement of fingers on the keyboard, which fingers type which letters, how to hold our hands, and avoiding "hen pecking".    On the blog I've added keyboarding websites which the students can practice with.  Unfortunately, the programs are designed for an english keyboard (at school our MACs have an Italian keyboard) but as long as the students recognize the placement of the key, then the actual symbol on the key isn't as important (ie the ; key is different as we have ç ò @ on ours - but as long as the right pinky finger hits that key when it asks for ; then the program should work just fine for the students).

Electricity & How to Use it Safely

Students investigated what is electricity, where it comes from, how it gets to our homes and the dangers of electricity in many different places in and around the home.  They did this through an independent study on the website: www.switchedonkids.org.uk  4th Grade Purple is always engaged and on task when it comes to computer based activities, and they are very good at eliciting required information from websites.

Math Brain Break: Decomposing

Students are currently in the middle of a graphing unit in math where they are studying tables, bar graphs, line graphs and pictographs.  Today we took a math brain break from our graphing to stretch our minds in another way.  In their math huddle books, students worked on decomposing the number 15.  That means they needed to find different ways they could make 15, and today we limited ourselves to addition.  Once we figured out we could use more than two numbers added together to make the needed sum, our world was opened up and the possibilities were endless!

Sleuthing

We've started our mystery genre unit in ELA and students have taken on the roles of detectives (aka sleuths).  The morning started with learning how to fill out a Detective Case Report; an activity done in a shared method so students could learn and illicit information at the same time.  Next, in partners they read "The Case of the Missing Penny", then during the second read of this short mystery they worked on filling out the case file report.  It's tricky trying to decipher the clues from the plot but I know that these 4th grade sleuths are doing a very good job in working to solve their cases.

Different Sources of Energy

Independently, students took to our Macs to learn about the various places where energy comes from.  Going to the IPC link on the blog, students watched the video "Different Sources of Energy" and noted down the different forms they learned about.  We then collaborated on these and made a chart for our classroom.

Fire was debated after; it was natural gas misinterpreted by one ;)

Spelling Pods

The first Monday of the new calendar year = back to routine!  Therefore, this morning students jumped right back into Words Their Way (spelling) pods.  It was great to see how well they all remembered the routine and how swiftly they were prepared to start.  Great work boys and girls!

WTW sites on the blog

Journalling

Sorting new word sorts and finding the spelling patterns.

I Want to Learn

As part of our reflection, the students today thought of something new they'd like to learn to do.  This could be a whole new area of interest for them, or learning to do something new in a field they are already participating in (ex. If they already know how to play guitar maybe they want to learn a new song on the guitar).  They blogged these new items of interest on their Kidblogs AND learned how to upload a picture to accompany their writing.  I was super proud of how quickly they learned to do this.  Well done 4th Purple!! :)

(Click on the link below to read want we want to learn to do.)

I Want to Learn Posts

Goal Setting

As most adults tend to make New Year's resolutions, the students in 4th grade purple looked at making personal goals.  This morning we reflected on the past (2015) and things we did during this time, then pondered the future and made goals for ourselves.  It was great to see the students work through this reflection process - both about home and school life.

Amish Life

In IPC we're getting into our international outcomes for our Bright Sparks unit.  For these outcomes, students are comparing their life, and the impact of electricity on it, to the lives of others around the world.  Our first comparison group: the Amish.  Yesterday, students watched a video about Amish life and noted information learned from the video in the form of images.  Then, they completed a Venn Diagram comparing and contrasting their lives to that of the Amish.  It was quite interesting to see how very different their lives are than ours, yet we both sustain good living.

Welcome Back!

Welcome Back to all 4th grade purple members and their families!  I hope everyone had a terrific winter break and that it was filled with many memorable moments.  We are ready to get back to academics today and to start us off we eased into the learning process with a reflection activity.  Students brainstormed different aspects of their break through a "snapshots" activity, which they then narrowed down to one topic and turned into a writing piece.  It's great hearing about the students' breaks and seeing the enjoyment on their faces when talking about what they did.  I missed them tremendously and it's great to have them back again. :)