Weekly Update

We had a pretty busy week in Room 21! On Tuesday, we had the wonderful news that Mrs. E. Williams had a baby boy named Benjamin! We all agreed that he was a very cute baby!!

Here's some other highlights of our week.

Math: We wrapped up the division unit early in the week and spent a couple of days reviewing before the test on Friday.

Reading: When we started our nonfiction unit this week, it was great to see how much the class remembered about nonfiction from 3rd grade! First, we talked about how important it is to make connections between what you already know and care about to the text. In addition, we've been looking at the text to identify what its structure is (cause/effect, problem/solution, etc.) which can help them understand the important information.

Social Studies: The class has some background knowledge about our new unit, Canada. A few students had traveled there and it was interesting to hear about their experiences. They also had A LOT of questions and are motivated to learn about their neighbor!

Science: We did a couple of activities this week that focused on the impact of weathering and erosion on our land. In the first activity, the students were given 3 samples of sand from different parts of the world and asked what differences they noticed. We then had discussions about why the colors and textures were different. It was interesting to hear them talk about how climate and types of rocks could be the reasons. In the second activity, in order to understand how waves can cause erosion, the students made a model of a beach being eroded by ocean waves. They even had houses on the beach and were so surprised to see how beach erosion impacted them!