First: Happy Valentine's Day to all!
Our class had a super time ... we had a LOT of fruit.. so much that I had to send some of it home. Many thanks to those that sent some in. The children really enjoyed their fruit kabobs, especially the chocolate dip. C&C also brought cookies to share, but we ran out of time and stomach space, so they agreed that we'd share them on Monday - an extension to V-day treats!
It's been a busy few weeks. I've really pushed the kids quite hard and it's still not done yet! Here's a run-down of what's been happening:
Math:
We've been intensely working on addition/subtraction with 3 or 4 digit numbers with regrouping. Many of them are either over the "hump" or just nearing the peak of the "hump" of subtraction. By "hump", I mean the part where they are struggling to understand what is happening when they are "borrowing" (we now call it REGROUPING, because really, it's not borrowing, there is no returning of numbers!!) to subtract but are very close to being able to work out problems without any adult prompting of what to do.
Some children have also been exploring polygons - what regular polygons and irregular polygons are. We also had to briefly review the 3 kinds of angles (acute, right and obtuse) during that conversation. They discovered that regular polygons are:
- 2-D
- have an even number of sides
- have an even number of angles
- is an enclosed shape.
We also did an activity where they were given a irregular polygon and they had to use the pattern blocks to figure out how to build the irregular polygon. I tried this activity during a professional workshop - it was not easy! The purpose was to challenge them to move the shapes around to places where they might not expect them to be and to also be willing to rotate them. A lot of spatial thinking involved!
For other groups, we have been starting to work on the concept of multiplication and it's meaning. We represented multiplication through "groups of". In fact, I will NOT be letting the grade 3's talk about "times" until they are very solid on the concept of "groups of". We talked about examples such as:
There are 5 table groups in our class, each table group has 4 students - this means that there are 5 groups of 4. We modelled it with blocks and then proceed to experiment to see if we could re-arrange the "students" and have 4 tables of 5. What do ya know, it does! From there, the idea of either skip counting or repeatedly added is reinforced. If it's 5 groups of 4, that means we had 4 five times: 4+4+4+4+4.
For those that are a little more confident in "groups of", they started to work on representations with arrays. As a class, we talked about where we might see arrays in real life:
- windows on a building - perhaps 4 floors of 5 windows each - a 4X5 array
- muffins in a tray - maybe 4 by 3 array
- eggs in a cart
- rows of people in a theatre
Those children were then assigned a number and asked to find all possible arrays using that number. For example, whomever had the number 3, had to use square grid paper to cut out a 3X1, 3X2, 3X3...3X10 arrays.
In the coming weeks, some students will start to explore single and double digit division, single to double digit multiplication, perimeter and area, and everyone will continue to work on addition/subtraction and we will also begin working on fractions. For some students, we continue to work on the concept of patterning - defining a patterning, extending a pattern, identifying it's core.
Reading:
As many of you know, our focus lately has been on non-fiction text features. I don't know if the kids perceive this as "reading", but it really is a reading skill! As they go up in the grades, there will be a greater and greater demand in reading non-fiction text, particularly when they hit grade 5. It is important that they understand the different parts of this genre as it will help them to better comprehend or, to even know where to look in order to figure out what they are reading about. Before we created our foldable non-fiction text booklets, we went through each feature and glued a small summary about it into our reader's notebooks.
In the coming weeks, we will turn our attention back to the genres from the 30 day book challenge and will also begin to work on questioning and inferencing as reading comprehension skills.
Writing:
We've had many mini-lessons that have focused on a number of writing strategies:
- Stretching sentences - using question words to help us make our sentences longer and more
- Word choice - we explored quotation marks and at the same time slid "tags" in there. We looked at how using words other than "said" when a character is talking can change the entire mood of a sentence:
- Example: "Come to house" said the boy vs. "Come to my house" whispered the boy vs. "come to my house" snickered the boy.
- Introductions (aka Super Ways to Start) - we examined a number of different strategies to write an introduction. We talked about how the introduction is a "snapshot" of the entire piece of writing
- Conclusions (aka Wrap Around Endings) - we learned that the conclusion is also a revisit of the introduction using different words. Sometimes, we can include our own emotions to make the conclusion feel "final"
We also learned about "recounts" and how it's basically a retell of something that has happened. This could be from the news, the radio, someone talking on the phone about something that happened recently, something you write in your journal, etc.
We identified the introduction, conclusion, body, action words (verbs) and time words that were used to write a recount.
From there, expository writing was introduced. When we finally did our bubble gum writing, everything kind of "magically" fell into place. The children were all quite comfortable writing introductions and conclusions. They worked very well in "stretching sentences" and using great adjectives and verbs. We took the time to go through the writing process - brainstorming, drafting, revising, editing and final drafts. Although their pieces were short, they were very concise and used some excellent language - I was very impressed with a lot of their writing!
Science:
Grade 4's are finishing up their unit on Science. We will have our presentations next week. This week was just too short and too busy! Next week, we will also begin our unit on light and sound.
Grade 3's - will continue to work on structures. There is a bridge building competition that is hosted by the Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of BC each year. It is my HOPE that we can complete our unit in time to potentially enter any interested students in this competition. It is being held on Sunday, March 17th in North Vancouver. No details have been released, but I will keep you posted!
Socials:
Grade 3's are finishing up their unit on Canada. Next week, I will be introducing our Heritage project. Part of the project is exploring their own family histories and part of it will be learning research skills and applying these skills to research pioneer life.
Grade 4's are still working on First Nations. This is actually a HUGE part of the grade 4 curriculum - the bulk of it! I'm planning a field trip on UBC's museum of Anthropology in order for us to examine the importance of the Cedar tree to the First Nations groups in BC. I've been on this field trip before and it is an excellent one (fascinating as well) - a great learning opportunity for not only the 4's, but the 3's as well.
We've had quite a number of students off sick this week. I hope that they all have a wonderful weekend but also get some time to rest and either get healthy or keep healthy! :)
