Writing

Our current writing unit is made up of three different sections, which Lucy Calkins refers to as “bends”.  This week we began the second “bend” of our realistic fiction unit.  During this bend, students learn the stepped out process that all good authors use when writing stories.  First you rehearse your story, then you draft, next you revise, and finally you edit.  This week students spent most of their writing time drafting and revising, all the while conferencing with the teacher. 

Math

Your Fourth Grade mathematicians have been setting themselves up for success for the rest of the year.  We have spent the week reviewing place value in whole numbers and how that relates to multi-digit addition and subtraction problems.  Having a strong foundation of place value knowledge will help them as we move into decimals later in the year.  In addition to place value, we reviewed data landmarks such as maximum, minimum, median, mode, mean, and range.  We calculated these landmarks with data about our own families! 

Legare Farms Field Trip

Fourth Graders were excited to head out to Legare Farms to learn about seeds and pollinators! After discussing the importance of seeds and how fruits and vegetables have been labeled, students got to go on a seed scavenger hunt. They found many different kinds of seeds and worked together to identify what kind of plants they belonged too. Later, students discussed the importance of bees and other pollinators, such as bats, butterflies, and other insects. Fourth Graders were excited to share their bee knowledge and eager to learn more about the many different kinds of pollinators. The highlight for many of our animal lovers was the petting farm area. We got to meet Violet, the pig, and her friend Henry, the potbellied pig. There were also chickens, roosters, bunnies, and more! We were grateful the rain held off for a great day!

Important Dates:

• Monday, October 10 – Columbus Day, No School
• Tuesday, October 11 – Fall Break, No School
• Monday, October 31 – Halloween Carnival, Half Day 11:30 Dismissal