The Fourth Grade Times

We learned double-digit by double-digit multiplication, using the standard algorithm. That’s the way our parents and teachers learned how to multiply, but we got there by learning different steps, like the Box Method, the FOIL Method, and the Four Subproblem Method. Starting as soon as we got back to school after the break, we started geometry, speficially polygons. A polygon is a shape with no rounded sides, all the sides have to connect, and there can’t be a line through the shape. We are also learning a lot of fancy polygon words like isosceles, equilateral, scalene, and quadrilateral.

We are still working on our reading group books. Ms. Search and Mr. Patti’s reading groups are reading From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, Ms. Papini and Ms. Franklin’s groups are reading A Wrinkle in Time, and Ms. Picower’s groups are reading The Boy Who Could Fly Without a Motor. We are learning new vocabulary words from these books–ask us about them! We also finished our latest Book Talk book, George Washington’s Socks. We are now starting a new one, Run Away Home.

This month in reading, we finished The Sign of the Beaver as our Book Talk book and we are excited to start our next one! In our reading groups we already started new books last week. Instead of all the groups reading one book, each group has a different book. Mr. Patti and Ms. Search’s group are reading From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, Ms. Franklin and Ms. Papini’s group are reading A Wrinkle in Time, and Ms. Picower’s group is reading The Boy Who Could Fly Without a Motor. 

As many of you know already, we finally went on our big trip to Plimoth Plantation! We were really excited to see the plantation and all of the things we had been learning about so far. We took a bus and it took 4.5 hours. We visited an english settlement with actors. Then we went to the Wampanoag settlement with real Native American people. They had a lot of animal skins and we got to sit with them and learn more about their culture. Then we took a bus to the Plimoth Sands Motel. We had some down time in our room that we really enjoyed and we then we had a pizza party. After, we went to bed. The next day we had breakfast at the hotel and then went to see the Mayflower II and Plimoth Rock. We also went to a grist mill and met the miller there. He showed us how to mill corn and he was really cool! Since we got back from the trip we have been making a mural in the class that shows all the differences between the Settlers and the Native Americans. We loved social studies this month!

In art this month we are taking photos and transforming them on white paper. To do this, we add other things to the picture that would and could have been there already. We all really like transforming the pictures because its really fun to add different things and use our creativity. Another thing we did was bend and cut paper into different shapes. Some people made faces, too. People made loops, mountains, houses, towers, and much more. In one half group, they made a 36 inch tower out of one twelve inch peice of paper! It was so cool! Art is one of our favorite periods.

This month in music we have been reviewing a lot of the songs we learned a few weeks ago so we can do them really well. We can definitely tell that we are getting better since we first started! It was hard at first, but we have improved a lot! We also learned some new songs like Jingle Bells  and Little Dreidle. We like playing holiday songs. In the beginning of recorder class Ms. Heidt makes us echoe what she is playing. Sometimes she sings and we have to echoe her, too. We learned a lot in recorder this month!

This month in math we’ve been learning about double digit multiplication with arrays and boxes. We label the boxes with different multiplication sentences. For instance, 16×8 is split ino 10 and 6. Then we do 10×8, and 6×8. If you multiply all the math sentences and add the answers all together to get the one big answer. Then we do it with bigger two-digit numbers like 36×18. We have been practicing this a lot and we are all getting really good at it! We have also been playing math fact games, like Around the World, Multiplication Bingo, and Guess My Factor.  We even had an activity called “Multiplication Madness” where the entire Fourth Grade rotated through multiplication activites.  It was fun! 

We had a lot of fun in computer this month doing new typing games with Mr. Nixon. Mr. Nixon is really nice and we got to know him more because he went to Plimoth with us. One of the new typing games we really liked involved blowing up sharks by typing words on the screen. We also learned the proper way to put a lap top away in the bin, which we learned is important.  Mr. Nixon recommends typing games to us because it helps us learn how to type better and faster. At choice, we can go use programs like Kid Pixs, Google Earth, and Miniclip. We also learned more about microsoft word, Powerpoint, and graphing programs.  We also go on websites to learn more about Jamestown and Plimoth. Computer has been great and we really look forward to it every day.

We started the year reviewing subtraction with regrouping.  Then we moved on to area and perimeter!  We measured the area and perimeter of our feet, and we arranged chairs after reading Spaghetti and Meatballs for All.  Now we are learning about multiplication.  We are making sure we know all of our math facts so that we can move on to double-digit multiplication.  We can’t wait!

In morning meeting, we sit on the rug, greet each other, and do activities. We had different jobs that we do, and sometimes, we play games together. We also share about what’s going on in our lives outside of school. A few days a week, we sing a song that we get to choose. It’s a lot of fun!