Brain Breaks

When a long afternoon hits, meaning we don't have any specials, 4th grade purple takes a brain break every so often to rejuvenate ourselves.  Learning can become stagnant if we don't mix things up every so often, so doing Zumba on GoNoodle helps us get oxygen to our brains, boosts our energy and gets us ready to keep on learning.

Food Chains

4th grade purple are learning about food chains in their IPC unit on Nature of Life.  Over the last couple of days they've done a variety of activities, some of which have included: a vocabulary matching task, a powerpoint presentation, a Bill Nye the Science Guy video, and reading a non-fiction article about food chains.  Ultimately we've learned that all food chains start with the sun and plants.  Plants are very important to the food chain as without them humans would not be alive as we both eat them and eat the animals that depend on them for their survival.

Bill Nye - Food Web

Adding Decimals

Students looked at how to add decimals today.  First, we took a horizontal equation and attempted to correctly write it vertically then add it.  Next, we took the different answers and placed them on the board.  Then, students voted on the correct answer and volunteers came up to state their reasoning as to why they chose that answer.  Through our dialogue, opinions changed and through proofs students all came to a consensus as to how to write the equation and why, thus deriving at the correct answer.

Food Chains

Students used the following link today to glean information about food chains.  In partners, students read through the website, opening and exploring various tabs, and noting information about producers, consumers, and more!

The Food Chain

Parent-Student Conferences

Parent-student conferences are next week and the students were busy getting ready for them today.  Each student is finding work that represents various aspects of their learning, and are getting the information down to share with their parents.  They are very excited to share their learning and achievements to date with their families.

Fractions as Decimals

Today students learned how to make fractions into decimals when the denominator is not 10 or 100.

Students discovered that in order to do this you need to make an equivalent fraction with a denominator or 10 or 100.  So students had to analyze the fraction and decide whether the current denominator was a factor / multiple of 10 or 100, and then work to convert that fraction into an equivalent one and follow up with then making it into a decimal.

I was pleased at how well the students applied their previous knowledge to this task and took to being able to grasp this concept quickly.

Città dei Bambini Field Trip

Students in 4th grade went on a field trip today that involved elements and topics from our last unit: Inventions That Changed the World.  We boarded Cairo Car and headed to Città dei Bambini.  Here, the students were separated into two groups: one group did a workshop on Leonardo da Vinci, an inventor we studied in our former IPC unit, and the other group got to explore the science based activities in the centre.  After an hour, the groups switched so that students could participate in all aspects of the trip.  It was a great day!  The students seemed to have a lot of fun and were very well behaved.  I am a proud teacher! :)

The students blogged about their trip on Kidblog this afternoon.  Feel free to peruse our writing to see all that we did and learned today.

Città dei Bambini blogging

IPC - Article Reading

Students do a lot of learning through non-fiction in 4th grade.  One way they do this is by reading articles that fit our IPC units topics.  This week we read articles that pertain to our Nature of Life unit, and did so in two different ways.

The first article we read about was "Monarch Butterflies."  The students listened as I oral read the story and we discussed the information together.  They then partnered up, reread the article and answered questions pertaining to the information found in it.

Next, students were put into three groups, with each group getting an article about an adaptation that animals use.  In their groups they read the article by taking turns aloud.  Some groups started answering the accompanying questions and they'll also do a summary of their adaptation to share with the class.

Comparing Decimals

Students are getting to the point in their math decimals unit where they are comparing fractions.  Therefore, they are looking at 0.1 more/less and 0.01 more/less, along with then increasing this amount to find numbers that fit their clues.  Today we introduced this concept using place value mats, with places consisting of tens, one, tenths, hundredths, and place value chips.  First we practiced building given numbers using these tools, and then we extended this knowledge of find more and less than numbers with clues.  Using manipulatives helps us build our understanding of the concept, and to see it visually before we enter the abstract math world.  Comparing numbers will also have us ordering and using our >, <, and = signs again.

Butterfly Scavenger Hunt

In IPC students are learning about life cycles of different animals.  One fun learning task they took on was finding out information but doing so through an informational scavenger hunt.  Cards were placed throughout the hallway; each one containing a different piece of information.  Armed with a question sheet, the students took to answering questions by finding the correct information card.

Comparing Decimals

Students had an introductory lesson on how to compare decimals today.  We started by comparing tenths to tenths, then hundredths to hundredths.  We found that comparing decimals is just like comparing whole numbers: pay attention to the place value of each digit.  Students extended their comparison to comparing decimals with similar tenths but different hundredths, and hundredths to numbers with only tenths.  We realized that it's not hard; we just have to remember that 0.9 is equivalent to 0.90 and this knowledge helps us in our comparisons.

Musical Chairs

Book week continues at ISG and today was musical chairs.  Similar to a regular game of musical chairs, students danced around a group of chairs to lively music until it stopped.  Once the music stopped they froze in front of a chair, picked up the book that was on that chair, sat down and started to read it.  This was a GREAT way to have some fun while testing out different books.  Some students even found books & series they hope to read soon in the future.  Thank you to Ms Ilaria and the parent volunteers for setting up and running this fun activity for us.

Animal Life Cycles

In our current IPC unit, students are studying Nature of Life: animals, habitats, growth, life cycles, adaptations, etc.  Today we read a non-fiction story about various animals, focusing mainly on differences between birth and hatch.  I love how inquisitive the students are and that they just want to know so many things within our study units.

One of today's tasks was that, after reading, students broke into groups to reread an article and illicit information about aspects of animals life cycles.  The conversations that I heard between students was great as they worked to locate evidence for their answers.

Decimals

This week the students have been learning about decimals.  We've started out with tenths (the first place value after the decimal point).  The students have learned that we use a base 10 system so our magic number is 10 (that's how many fractional parts are in a tenth), how to convert a fraction to a decimal and vice versa (both improper, mixed and regular fractions), how to read and write in words a decimal, and how to accurately place it on a number line.

In a World of Fantasy

Students are starting their fantasy genre unit in language arts - reading this week.  Students are in various groups which are each reading a different novel based on our genre.  Today students did an initial activity with predicting and questioning, along with other pods of read to self, grammar based activities on subject and predicates, and some journalling as we're always practicing our writing skills.

Family Bingo Night

FYI 4th Grade Purple families.  Sounds like a fun night!