End-of-Week Update, 1/16

Our study of heredity really blossomed this week!  We learned about an important scientist, Gregor Mendel, who studied tall and short pea plants and discovered "dominant" and "recessive" genes.  "Dominant" genes are strong and, if they're present, they determine the trait of an offspring.  "Recessive" genes are weaker, so they only determine the trait if no dominant genes are around.  Dominant and recessive traits came to life when we created fictional worm families called "gen-o-worms!"  Sounds funny, right?  We chose Skittles to represent genes and used our knowledge of dominant and recessive genes to figure out what color head, body, and tail our worms would have.  We also learned about animal adaptations and how animals have changed over time to survive!  We researched the behavioral and physical adaptations of different animals such as the lion, the great horned owl, the poison dart frog, and the caribou (to name just a few!)  Our heredity test is Friday (1/23).  Everything we need to know is on the study guide!

In math, we learned a lot about fractions!  We learned how to compare fractions with < and >, how to put fractions in order from least to greatest, and how to place fractions on a number line.  There are so many strategies we've been learning about and practicing to help with comparing fractions!  We've been using fraction strips, number lines, benchmark fractions ("easy" fractions like 1/2 that we're really comfy with), and the E.F.R. (equivalent fraction rule).  Our fraction test is Wednesday (1/21).  Everything we need to know is on the study guide!

In writing, we've made a lot of progress with our personal opinion essays!  We narrowed the ideas we generated with our "heart maps" to one important topic.  Then, we tried to think about what we really wanted to say about our topics to write focused thesis statements.  Thesis statements need to be an opinion (not a fact), need to be about something that is close to the author's heart, and need to be strong and specific.  We spent a long time working on really making sure our thesis statements followed these rules.  Then, we worked on thinking about the 3 biggest, most important, and most convincing reasons why our thesis statements were true.  We wanted to make sure our reasons were specific, distinct (different from each other), parallel (worded similarly), and supportive of our thesis statements.  We're still working on our reasons and will fill in more evidence for our essays next week!

In reading, we've been working a lot on identifying character traits.  Authors aren't really coming out and telling us that characters are "kind," "unpleasant," or "brave."  Instead, we're finding that authors leave little "clues" such as characters' actions, dialogue, thoughts, or behaviors and we can use those clues to help us determine exactly what type of person the character is.  Check out some of the fun picture books we read as we practiced identifying character traits!  Next week, we'll be using the character trait bookmark for our at-home reading (there's a link for downloading the bookmark on the right side of the blog!)

Next week we'll be starting a new read aloud book, a new social studies topic, and a new fractions unit!  Stay tuned!  

End of Week Update, 1/9

“Tweet!  Tweet!”  there goes the whistle!  It was boot camp and Mrs. Adams was the drill sergeant.  (She seemed to like the whistle a little too much…)  You’re probably wondering what we were doing in boot camp when we were supposed to be in school.  We completed "Essay Boot Camp" this week.  We had to drop and give 50 push ups.  Just kidding!  We had to write a whole essay in one sitting!  Our goal was to go through the steps of writing an essay and remember what makes an essay an essay (an opinion, three good reasons, and examples to prove our reasons).  We wrote essays about why Kennedy School is the best.  We think they're really convincing!  We also started thinking of essay topics that are close to our own hearts.  We're trying to choose topics that we have a lot of opinions about.  We'll start planning out our own personal opinion essays next week!

In reading, we've been doing work with non-fiction reading as a way of wrapping up our latest read aloud book, Little Dog, Lost.  We were so happy at the end of the book when Mark finally gets a dog!  It got us thinking about what type of dog would be best for our families.  We researched lots of different types of dogs using non-fiction books and online resources from Animal Planet.  We tried to think of what we need in a dog and what we can offer to a dog as well as all of the other people who live in our houses.  Once we compiled our research, we started to write non-fiction essays about what type of dog would be best for our families.  We started typing them on the Chromebooks and Mrs. Adams popped in to give us feedback as we worked!  We're hoping to finish, print, and share them with you next week!

In science, we have started our unit on heredity!  We've been learning a lot this week about the difference between inherited traits and non-inherited traits.  Inherited traits are those that you're born with and you inherit from your parents, grandparents, and other ancestors.  Non-inherited traits are not inherited and you're not born with them.  We played a fun game through the American Museum of Natural History's website (http://ology.amnh.org/genetics) that helped us to figure out which traits were controlled by nature  (inherited) and which were controlled by nature and nurture (non-inherited).  Then, we discovered six cool traits about ourselves and our partners (like the V-hand sign, hitchhiker's thumb, and dimples).  We decided that these are probably inherited traits.  Finally, we looked at pictures of different animals and named traits that they inherited from their parents and traits that they did not inherit from their parents.  Next week, we'll be learning even more!

In math this week, Mrs. Adams said we were starting a unit on fractions, but we didn't even start anything with fractions until Friday!  All week, we reviewed what we knew about factors, multiples, and prime and composite numbers.  On Friday, we started working with different colored fraction strips to find equivalent fractions.  We noticed that equivalent fractions had denominators (bottom numbers) that were multiples!  It started to make sense why we spent so much time reviewing multiplication concepts!  Next week, we'll do more work with fractions.

In specials this week, we were really busy!  In music, Ms. McComb started and taught us two new songs in chorus.  We also started bringing home recorders this week and we're supposed to practice 5 times a week for 10 minutes each so we can do well with Recorder Karate.  In PE, we played a Happy New Year game!  In Health, we learned about how to prevent diseases.  In Library, we read The Sweetest Fig.  And in art, we created Mexican tin folk art!

Lastly, for our first Mix-it-Up project of 2015, we met with a new partner to create a Google Presentation.  It's just like a PowerPoint presentation, but it's made in Google Drive!  We got to choose a specific topic about either Canada or Mexico to research using non-fiction books and then create slides with photos, captions, tables, headings, and sub-headings to share the facts we learned.  We're excited to finish our presentations next week and share them with each other (and you, our faithful blog readers!)

Check out the newly updated dates and stay tuned for next week's adventures!

Fairy Tale Day, 12/19!

We celebrated "Fairy Tale Day" on December 19th with our Mix-it-Up friends from Room 21.  It was a fun way to wrap up our read aloud book, The Sisters Grimm, and share the collaborative scripts we'd been typing on Google Docs with our mixed up groups!  We performed our scripts (complete with props!) in front of each other, watched a classic fairy tale ("The Sword in the Stone"), and even got to decorate our own crowns.

Check out the video below to hear our thoughts on writing and performing scripts, working collaboratively with Google Docs, and how figurative language helps us make scripts come alive!  Also, check out how many ELA standards we covered, all while having fun on "Fairy Tale Day 2014"!

MORE Division Help - 4 digit dividends!

Hello again, Room 20!  Here are two different videos explaining how to divide 4-digit dividends.  I think they will be useful for your classwork on Tuesday and your homework for Tuesday night.  Watch carefully - use these steps as you work on your classwork with your partner and your homework by yourself!

Here is one example of a 4-digit dividend:

Here's another example:

Remember, stick to 30 minutes only for your math homework, write me a note and show what work you've done so far.  Take your time and watch out for these common mistakes:

• copying the problem wrong
• messy mistakes (write neatly!)
• multiplication fact errors
• zeros mistakes
• subtraction mistakes

Division Help!

Hi Room 20!

Use this video to help you review how we've been dividing at school.  Here are some tips that you'll see in the video, but that I think will really help:

• Try using another piece of paper (a post-it or a big piece of paper) to write down your groups.  Split it into 10's (divisor x 10, divisor x 20, divisor x 30 ...) and 100's (divisor x 100, divisor x 200, divisor x 300...).  
• Remember to subtract very carefully!  This was the biggest mistake people were making in class last week.
• If you want to make your remainder into a fraction, remember to keep the BIG number the same and make the fraction by putting the remainder on the top and the divisor on the bottom.  (There's an explanation in the video if this doesn't make sense.)

Remember, you should not be spending more than 30 minutes on your math homework.  I must see ALL of the work that you do, so do not erase or forget your work at home.  If you're stressing, write me a note about what steps you think you should do and what's confusing.  We can review together at school!  NO STRESS!!!  :)

Catch up with Room 20!

Many thanks to the Franklin Veterinary Clinic for an informative and fun visit!
Read more below about their visit below.

We've been super busy since our last blog post!

Social Studies - Our Canada test is tomorrow!   We used the Chromebooks to review for the test and to explore more about Canada with a TIME for Kids website.  Check it out: http://www.timeforkids.com/destination/canada!  Now we're moving onto Mexico!  If you have any travel experiences, cultural, geographic, or other information or expertise about Mexico, let us know!  In our study of North America (Canada, Mexico, and the US), we have been learning about native tribes of people (they're called "First Nations" in Canada) that were living in North America long before European settlers came.  We enjoyed an awesome 2-hour program with Mrs. Silvia from the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology in Providence, RI.  (Thank you, PCC!)  The program was called "Dig It!" and we learned all about archaeologists and how they uncover clues about ancient peoples.  We got to reconstruct pottery, count tree rings, and dig and sift for "clues" in an archaeological site!  Check out the photos below!

Math - We finished our study of multiplication and took our first online test!  We learned how to multiply using the Windows method and the area model.  These are two ways to multiply that involve breaking up numbers into tens and ones and finding partial products!  We have been working hard on reading, thinking about, solving, and checking our answers to word problems.  Sometimes word problems are not what they seem!  Sometimes we do a ton of work and then never really answer the question!  We've been working hard on doing thoughtful math work.  This week, we're starting with division.  We worked on division fact families and extended division facts.  We are continuing to practice our multiplication and division facts daily!  We're working on getting multiplication and division facts through 12x12.  We can do it with daily fact practice!

Writing - We have done a lot of work with our fiction stories and are now starting to draft!  We looked carefully at some "expert" fiction leads in published picture and chapter books.  We tried to write some "inspired" leads based on the ones we really loved.  Next, we'll be drafting our fiction stories using our timelines and planning boxes!  Stay tuned - these stories are going to be epic!  With our mix-it-up groups, we're working on writing scripts of our favorite scenes from The Sisters Grimm.  We've been collaborating using Google Docs and are working on including stage directions, lines for each character, and similes!  We can't wait to finish typing our scripts and presenting them to our classmates.

Reading - Now that we're done with The Sisters Grimm, we're starting a new read aloud book, Little Dog, Lost.  We did some pre-reading activities and learned that the book is about a stray dog and a boy that really wants a dog but can't get one.  We had a special visit from the Franklin Veterinary Clinic to help us learn more about pet ownership and stray animals!  It was a fun and informative presentation - check out the pictures below!  We're starting to read Little Dog, Lost this week - can't wait to tell you about it!

End-of-Week Update, 11/14

Congratulations to all of our Room 20 Student Council candidates -
Conor, Isabella, Destiny, Shaw, Joey, Tanaya, Anurag
Audria, Alex, Dora, Kelli, Emily, and Emma!
Also, big congratulations to Audria for being elected as Room 20's representative!

What we've been up to:

It's been a busy couple of short weeks in Room 20!

In math, we've been working on multiplication a lot.  We have been multiplying by multiples of 10 and 100 and using our basic facts to solve trickier multiplication problems all the way up to 4-digit by 1-digit and 2-digit by 2-digit products!  We've been using the area model (see the photos below) to illustrate our multiplication work with base-10 blocks and shaded grid paper.  We've also used the Windows Method to show our partial products.  We're getting pretty quick and accurate at multiplying big numbers!  Now we're working on avoiding careless errors (like copying mistakes or addition mistakes), practicing our facts (through 12 x 12!), and reading and thinking about multiplication word problems carefully before solving.  Our multiplication test is this Friday!  Mrs. Adams says that the biggest thing we can do to prepare is to practice our facts!

In writing, we've been working on our fiction pieces!  We chose seed stories, developed our characters, identified the theme of our stories, and planned the scenes in our stories using a comic strip!  We storytold our drafts to a Mix-It-Up partner and we're ready to start drafting soon!

In reading, we've been really busy with finishing up The Sisters Grimm.  We've been working on collecting more evidence for our theme posters and we read the last chapter with Miss Farrell's class on Friday!  We loved that Granny Relda and Mr. Canis were alive, that Daphne and Sabrina's parents are alive, and that Puck is moving in (even though Sabrina isn't too happy about that).  We started our latest "Mix-It-Up" technology project with Miss Farrell's class.  We're cooperatively writing scripts of our favorite scenes from The Sisters Grimm using Google Doc's.  Since all the group members can type in the same document at the same time, we can write the script together!  We can't wait to finish writing our scripts so we can start practicing and perform them soon.  Stay tuned!

In social studies, we've been continuing our study of Canada - including the five different climate zones in Canada, some important industries in Canada's economy, and the First Nations (Native American) tribes of Canada.

One more full week until Thanksgiving and we're going to be really busy!

What's coming up:

• Haffenreffer Museum presentation - Thursday, 11/20.  Be sure to ask your Room 20 student all about this first of four outstanding enrichment programs brought to 4th grade by the PCC!
• Multiplication test will be on Friday, 11/21.  Use the purple study guide (2-sided) to help your child prepare for the test.  Mastery of basic multiplication facts is essential!  Keep up that fact practice at home - at least 10 min a day!