Topic 4 began this week with the exploration of mental math. Students practiced a variety of strategies to add and subtract mentally. On Tuesday we used rounding to estimate sums and differences, and on Wednesday and Friday students looked carefully at strategies for adding and subtracting larger numbers accurately. Students have a quiz on Topic 4 next Thursday.
Writer's Workshop
Our focus this week in writer's workshop was on generating narrative story ideas. We talked about how important people, places, and things as well as strong emotions can be a sources for our story ideas.
Constitution Day
We celebrated Constitution Day (Tuesday 9/17) and as a grade students learned about what the Constitution is and why it is so important to us. We also developed a class Constitution together, by first looking back at the questions students answered on the first day of school and developing a short list of rules that we will need to follow. Each student signed his/her name to these rules "ratifying" it as a class constitution.
Science/ PBL
We kicked off science this week with our Engineers in Residence! Two engineers (one a former Kennedy ladybug!) visited 4th grade to introduce the Engineering Design Process and to tell us about what engineers do on a daily basis. Students have been assigned their first engineering task of the year: to design a wind powered Puff Mobile. Students had a chance to apply their cooperative group skills that we reviewed and practiced last week in a new group task. After identifying the problem and brainstorming ideas, groups began to illustrate a detailed plan before building.
We kicked off science this week with our Engineers in Residence! Two engineers (one a former Kennedy ladybug!) visited 4th grade to introduce the Engineering Design Process and to tell us about what engineers do on a daily basis. Students have been assigned their first engineering task of the year: to design a wind powered Puff Mobile. Students had a chance to apply their cooperative group skills that we reviewed and practiced last week in a new group task. After identifying the problem and brainstorming ideas, groups began to illustrate a detailed plan before building.
Our Engineer in Residence meeting with students to discuss their ideas on how to solve the problem.
Students practice effective collaborative communication: each student has a chance to share his/her idea while group members listen and respond.
Dancers of the Week
Students practice effective collaborative communication: each student has a chance to share his/her idea while group members listen and respond.
Social Studies:
This week we also began our first social studies unit of the year, in which students gain a deeper understanding of the globe and how to read and interpret maps. Students will use the skills learned in this unit throughout the entire year as we later explore Canada, Mexico, and the Regions of the US.
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