Fun with Fractions

In Math Workshop, we have been been studying area models of fractions. Through homework, we have also been reviewing fraction concept using linear models (number lines) and set models (groups of objects). All of these models are important in helping to develop conceptual understanding of fractions.
The links below are helpful in reviewing some of the "big ideas" we have been studying in class. Use them to review and clarify your understanding of fractions. :-)

What are fractions?
Fractions

How can you make and identify equivalent fractions?
Equivalent Fractions

How do you find the "Greatest Common Factor" to put a fraction in lowest terms?
Greatest Common Factor

:-) Enjoy.
Students, leave a comment to share your thoughts on these Study Jams links.

Reading True Stories

Just when you thought you had nonfiction reading all figured out, in walks the black sheep of the nonfiction family -- NARRATIVE nonfiction!

Savvy readers know that narrative nonfiction is just a nonfiction text (a text designed to teach its reader) in disguise as an entertaining story.  But those same savvy readers know that a story is a story is a story, no matter whether it's true or false.  And how do we think about the stories we read?  We think about the characters!  This means we temporarily set aside all that we've learned about reading nonfiction -- boxing in main ideas of sections, listing (with bullets) the details that support those ideas, turning headings into questions, and using text features to deepen our learning -- and return to our sticky note type thoughts.

Readers should ask themselves: 

• What kind of person is this character?  What are their traits?
• What does this character want or need?
• What are their obstacles, dangers or struggles?

After we finish the text, we can use the "Somebody-Wanted-But-So-Then" one-sentence summary frame to help us focus on what this true story taught.

When we read Bamboo Valley: A Story of Chinese Bamboo Forest, we realized quickly that we needed to expand our definition of a main character to include animals, or perhaps even plants.  In this story, readers found the main character, a young panda, used his persistent, peaceful nature to overcome many obstacles to surviving alone in the forests of China.  They summarized this book like this:

The panda wanted to find a new home with water, live bamboo, and shelter, but everywhere he looked there was already another animal living there or no food, so he kept looking and walking for many miles, then he finally found a new valley with live bamboo & water.

But just thinking about what you read isn't always enough.  Just as we would ask ourselves, "Why is this important?" after we finish an informational text, we must think deeply to find the unifying ideas within a narrative nonfiction.  One strategy for digging deeper into a true story is to think about the character's choices, challenges and lessons.

Today, our readers recognized that, on a December 1st, very long ago, Mrs. Parks made a pivotal choice, or a choice that changed the course of her story, when she said "no" to not only the bus driver, but also the police officer, when she was asked to give up her seat.  Readers quickly saw that the immediate consequence of her arrest was only one of many effects of this choice.  (We learned that the word "consequence" doesn't always mean "punishment"!)  As a result of her personal choice, the women of her community organized a bus boycott, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. brought national attention to her situation, and people all over the nation sent their support to those boycotting the buses.  Ultimately, her simple choice to say "no" led to change on a national level.  To us, this meant we could make a small choice -- whether it's picking up trash on the beach or playground, or inviting someone to join us at the lunch table or on the recess field -- and know that our small choice could somehow lead to a big change, bigger than we might ever imagined possible!

Readers, we thought about so much more today.  What were some of your "take away" thoughts after reading Rosa, by Nikki Giovanni?  What do you recall about her challenges?  What helped her through these challenges?  How could we carry a little piece of this story and what it's taught us into our lives today?  Take a moment to share with the world and our Chets Creek community what lessons we could take from this remarkable story.  

Nonfiction Reading

Even little baby readers know that reading nonfiction is different than reading fiction.  I'll never forget the day that my own daughter came home with her first nonfiction book in a bag and announced, "Mommy, I can start anywhere I want to when I read tonight, because this book is NONFICTION!"

Now that we are more sophisticated readers, we know that this is only partly true.  Good nonfiction readers do begin their nonfiction reading differently than their fiction reading, but it's not really about just picking a starting point.  Reading nonfiction means thinking about the text before, during, and after our reading.

PREview, PREdict, PREpare

We've learned that nonfiction readers spend time before they ever begin reading the main text previewing the text.  They focus on the text feature, which includes photographs, captions, diagrams, charts, maps, headings, footnotes, text boxes, and more.  We use these text features to get an idea about the topic of the text and predict what main ideas we'll learn about.

Taking it a step further, we've learned that sometimes readers can rephrase subheadings into questions, giving us a guiding purpose for our reading as we move throughout the article or book.  As we read, we'll carry these questions in our mind, looking for the answers.

Stop and Think

Reading nonfiction means stopping and thinking many times throughout the text.  As we come to the end of a section, we should stop to ask ourselves, "What did I just learn?"  We can take this time to jot a quick main idea in the margins or box the main idea phrase in the text.  The best readers might also underline the key words in supporting details, helping them hang onto their learning as they read.  

Good readers will also ask, "How did this section fit with other sections I've read?"  This second step helps us to recognize how the author has organized the text.  Is the author writing to describe?  Are they comparing and contrasting more than one idea or topic?  Am I reading about a cause and its effect?  Is that cause a problem?  If so, did they also write about the solution?  Does this text teach about a series of events that happen(ed) in a particular order, or sequence?  Understanding how a text is structured gives us a glimpse into the author's purpose and helps a reader to understand the most important ideas of the text.

Think Back, Write Long & Talk

Good nonfiction readers do not just read texts and walk away.  The best readers know that they're really reading nonfiction to become experts.  The goal is to truly learn from our nonfiction reading.  Learning means the knowledge you gain from a text becomes YOURS forever and always.  In order to achieve this level or understanding and forever knowing, good readers will think back on all that they've read, asking questions like: What is the author's big idea?  What do I think the author really wanted to teach me?  What does that mean?  Why is this important?  

Two strategies for helping readers reach these deeper understandings are writing and talking.  By putting what we've learned into our own words, orally or on a page, we're truly making it our own.  

Readers, what are some strategies you've enjoyed learning and practicing for nonfiction reading?  What is something you've learned about how reading nonfiction is different than reading fiction?  How can these nonfiction reading strategies help you in your fiction reading?

Multiplication Strategies are Evolving!

Our work with multi-digit multiplication has certainly made progress since school started in August. Here is a review of the development of this learning trajectory:

Multiplication Cluster

This strategy of decomposing one of the factors has empowered students to learn how to solve problems using mental mathematics. It has reinforced the concept of multiplication in that one factor represents the size of groups while the other factor represents the number of groups.

Open Array Model 

This model has been fantastic as we have made sense of multiplication with larger factors because it has helped us not lose sight of the value of each factor and it has enabled us to decompose BOTH factors and keep track of finding all of the needed partial products.

Transition to the Traditional Algorithm

Recent efforts in math have been to use this model (which also decomposes both factors like the open array does) to understand how and why the traditional algorithm works. With this model, we practice multiplying in the same order that is used with the algorithm, but without the succinct regrouping. *Notice that the SAME four smaller problems solved here match the four smaller problems in the open array model above. These SAME four smaller problems are also calculated in our heads when using the traditional algorithm (below) too!

This transition strategy is a current focus during small group center time (when they work directly with me using the white boards). The students are catching on VERY quickly! It's quite impressive!!

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Later in the school year, we will connect all of the above pieces to this famous and widely-used strategy:

Traditional Algorithm

Aah......our final destination. Once students feel they are ready to exercise this strategy, they must be able to explain it to me!

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Can you see how all of these strategies are related? :-)

Deep conceptual understanding is realized when one can solve a problem in multiple ways and make connections between strategies and models in how they are related and why they work. Mathematical conversations have never been more fun!

Partial Quotients

Some of you have been wondering about the Partial Quotients method for solving division problems (also known as Russian Peasant).

This method is important because it draws upon important ideas in multiplication (the inverse operation of division). Did you know that multiplication is also referred to as "repeated" addition? Well, division is also referred to as "repeated" subtraction.

635 is the DIVIDEND of a division problem. It represents the TOTAL.

15 is the DIVISOR.

In this division problem, the question we are trying to answer is "How many groups of 15 are in 635?"

This leads us to think of multiplication to help us find the number of groups of 15 that can be made with a total of 635. Since division is repeated subtraction, we must subtract away groups of 15 until we no longer have enough left to make another group of 15. 

A brainstorming process happens next. Because 635, is so much more than 15, we don't want to take away only a few groups of 15 at a time. The goal is to work as efficiently as possible. 

We know that 1 x 15 is equal to 15, therefore 10 groups of 15 (10 x 15) is equal to 150. Working with landmark multiples of 10 (10, 20, 30, 40) is important and is built from our knowledge of basic multiplication facts. 

Notice that this brainstorming process has helped to determine that 40 groups of 15 is equal to 600. (This is close to our total of 635.) Using this problem helps us to "take away" (repeated subtraction) 40 groups of 15 from the 635 total, and this leaves only a difference of 35. 

Then, taking away another 2 groups of 15 (2 x 15), leaves a final difference of 5 (which is the "remainder" as 5 is not enough to make another group of 15).

This work shows that 42 groups of 15 can be made (or subtracted away) from 635 and that there will be 5 left over. It is very helpful to represent this remainder as a fraction since we are left with "part" of a new group of 15 and the fraction helps us to understand that this is what the remainder (left-over) means. 

42 groups of 15 were made and we have "5/15" or "1/3" of a another group.

The above example has shown the most efficient way to subtract groups of 15 (40 groups and then 2 groups), however, students may solve this problem in many different ways. Below shows another example of how the Partial Quotients method might be used to solve this same problem.

You will notice that 42 groups of 15 were still subtracted, but the process occurred in four steps instead of two steps.

In addition to this strategy, there are other division strategies students use to solve division problems. Page 9 in the student planners highlight a few of these strategies (such as use of a multiple tower or ratio table/skip counting). 

This Partial Quotients method will be a preferred method as we progress through the 4th grade as it connects with the traditional algorithm for division, which is a major focus in 5th grade. 

Happy Mathematizing!

Wild Fun!

Happy Halloween!!! Be sure to come see us -- AND our pumpkin display -- while you're at the CCE Fall Carnival tomorrow night, from 6-9 PM.  Thank you to all the families who have volunteered to help run the pizza booth tomorrow night.  It's an exciting time in the of a Creeker! :) 

Don't forget to stop by CCE on Saturday morning for the post-carnival campus clean-up.  This is an occasion for all hands on deck! 

Links to Matter

Matter (Chapter 4) has been our topic of focus for the last few weeks in Science. Next week we will have an assessment on the first three lessons in this chapter. Here are some sites that help to compliment and review what we have been studying. 

Lesson 1: What are properties of matter?

Visit here: Study Jams: Properties of Matter

*Also, revisit a recent blog post on properties of matter (What's the Matter?) as another method for reviewing this content. 

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Lesson 2: What are states of matter?

Visit here: Study Jams: States of Matter
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Lesson 3: How is matter measured?

Visit here: Study Jams: Gravity and Inertia

and here: Study Jams: Volume

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Remember that you also have access to your science textbook online. There are video clips and vocabulary review games that you can play as a FUN and interactive way to study!! 

Happy reVIEWING!

The Law of Conservation of Mass

Mass- the amount of matter in an object

Conserve- to save or preserve 

Science discussions sure can get interesting in 4th grade! 

As one example, our classes have recently been having pretty deep discussions about the Law of Conservation of Mass,  a scientific law established in 1789 by French Chemist Antoine Lavoisier. This law states that the mass of a whole object is always the same as the sum of the masses of its parts. In other words, part + part = whole (sum).

To explore this idea, students participated in an inquiry lab using a block of clay and a balance scale. First, they measured and recorded the mass (in grams) of a block of clay. Next, they cut the clay block into two parts and estimate the mass of each part. After making their estimates, each part was massed and these measurements were recorded. 

The discussions were centered around whether or not the mass of the two smaller parts added up to equal the mass of the original whole before it was cut. Students correctly determined that the only way it made sense for the overall mass of the clay blocks to "CHANGE" would be if clay was either added or taken away. 

Students, leave a comment which provides another example of mass conservation. You might leave an example like this one: 

A flat piece of aluminum foil is crumpled up into a ball. The shape changes, but the "mass" does not change because material was not added or taken away. 

What is Writing Workshop?

Writing is a huge part of a fourth grader's school day.  Over the course of this year, we will spend hours upon hours learning to become a better writer.  We call this part of our day "Writing Workshop".  For a better understanding of what occurs during this hour each day, check out the video below.

 
Welcome to Writers' Workshop! from Once Upon a Teacher on Vimeo.

But your writer's day doesn't end there!  Each night, fourth graders should be spending at least a few minutes in their writing notebook or working on a current piece.  In class, we have many tools to help us as we write, revise, edit and publish.  To help your young writer, we've prepared a second copy of these tool pages for them to keep at home and use as a resource as needed.  

At the back of the packet, parents will find a few pages explaining the FCAT Writing test all fourth grades will take in February.  It also includes samples of student writing and answers to frequently asked questions about the assessment.

These packets will come home in students' red take home folders on Monday.  Please be sure to take time to review them thoroughly before putting them in a safe place at home for your writer to use in their at-home writing work.

Writers, what is your favorite part of writing workshop?  

Blog Remodeling

Dear Readers, 

It was brought to our attention this week that our beloved blog has been experiencing some technical difficulties.  Some of you may have noticed that the sidebar, filled with useful links and important dates, disappeared!  (We later found it floating at the bottom of a long line of posts.)  This unpleasant surprise spurred hours of research and tinkering in an effort to find the problem and restore our handy, dandy tools to their rightful place.  Unfortunately, a time comes in everyone's life in which we must admit defeat....and that's exactly the time that has come.

However, as we know from the animal kingdom, adaption prevents extinction!  Therefore, we have officially adapted!  If you're visiting our blog, you'll notice our new layout does NOT include a sidebar.  We do, though, have new and improved TABS just below the header.  Please be sure to check out each tab as we carefully stock each of these pages with all the important links (and more!) that we previously included in our sidebar.  (Thank you in advance for your patience as we get these pages updated.)

You'll probably want to begin your exploration with the "Tools for Adventurers" tab.  Here you'll find our Wild Adventurers calendar, a link to the current planner notes (updated each Monday morning), and direct links to the grade portal and lunch accounts.  

Also, please be sure to notice the "Subscribe to Our Blog" box is now above the most recent post.  If you have already subscribed, you do not need to resubscribe.  If you have not yet subscribed for posts to be sent directly to your inbox (absolutely free of cost), please be sure to do so.  (Don't forget to check your inbox for the very important subscription request confirmation email!)

While this week's glitch has definitely been frustrating, we hope you will find our revised design to be helpful.  

Thank you very much for continuing to read and comment on our posts!  Stay tuned for more class news coming your way in the next few days!  

Thank you for allowing us to walk on the wild side with you!

Growing Theories About Books

As readers get deeper into their books, they should notice their books starting to look a little....fringy.  Sticky notes will be exploding out of their books like firecrackers, just as their minds should be pop, pop, popping up thoughts.  Good readers know they should stop and jot their thinking as they get to know the characters in their stories and follow them through their triumphs, challenges, and adventures.

When we reach the point at which our books look wild with our sticky note thoughts, which usually occurs around a third or halfway through a book, it's time for the next step.



We begin by writing the page number on all of our sticky notes.  Then, we pull all of our jots out of our book and lay them out on the table or floor like pieces of a puzzle.  With our notes spread out, we take time to reread them all, grouping them into categories as we do.

Once all of our stickies have been grouped, we start to think.

How are these categories related?
Do I see any patterns?
Now that I think about all these thoughts together, am I having any new thoughts about them?

This is called growing a theory.  

This reader just finished reading A Bear Named Trouble, by Marion Dane Bauer.   After sorting his sticky noted thoughts, he identified a big idea for his theory.  He realized that this story, about the young son of a zookeeper and a wild bear who killed the boy's favorite goose in the zoo, was really about the main character, Jonathan, learning to forgive.  He selected a few sticky notes that helped him create this theory, gathered them on a page of his reading notebook, and wrote his theory at the top in a box. His next step, since he has just finished this book, is to write briefly to explain his theory.

This reader is currently reading Troublemaker, by Andrew Clements.  She found that many of her sticky notes were either about Clay or Mitch, two brothers and the main characters of this story.  There were a few surprising moments that stood out in particular to her, such as the fact that Clay, the younger brother, was eager to tell Mitch about getting in trouble in school, but when he did, Mitch was angry at Clay instead of proud.  She was also surprised when Mitch took Clay to the mall and wound up giving him a makeover -- cutting his hair, buying new clothes, making him tuck in his shirt, and more.  She noticed that the boys seemed to be having trouble getting along through these surprising turns, too.  All of this thinking led her to the theory she wrote at the top of her page:

This book is really about Mitch and Clay trying to get along together and help [themselves] through life.

As she reads on, she will carry this theory in her mind, testing her thinking to see if she's on the right track.

Readers, how is your reading going?  What are some great thoughts you're having about your books right now?  What theories are you growing about your characters? 

What's the "Matter"?

During our first five weeks of school we learned about the "practice of science". We discussed how to make careful observations. We also explored using scientific tools and analyzed varying purposes of scientific models.


Each student also implemented the Scientific Method through our extensive Bouncing Ball Lab which was featured recently at Open House.

With all of this background knowledge to guide us, the time has come to begin exploring a specific topic in depth. Our first topic to explore is MATTER (Chapter 4 in our Interactive Science Textbooks).

COLOR, SHAPE, TEXTURE, ODOR, SIZE, TASTE- these are all OBSERVABLE properties of matter.
The apple is red, rounded, smooth, small and sweet.

We identify observable properties of matter using our 5 senses.

Seems simple enough, right?





Well, there are also properties of matter than can be MEASURED. 
 This is where the real scientific fun comes in.

We can measure an object's:
*weight     *mass     *volume     *density 

We can also experiment to see if an object has magnetic properties.

In order to understand these measurable properties, we will complete two "Gizmos" in class (virtual labs).

explorelearning.com

We will also calculate the weight, mass, volume, and density of objects in the classroom using real scientific tools.


As an extension, we will also visit this fun site to learn about how our body weights would vary if we visited the moon and other planets in our Solar System. Check it out!  Weight Calculator 




To reinforce what we are learning in class, students should reference Chapter 4, lessons 1-3.
Students have their science chapter in their GREEN science folders. They can also review the chapter using our online textbook resource: Online Science Textbook. This is a great way to review because this site offers video clips, vocabulary practice, and self-assessments!!!! Fun, fun, fun!!

To earn Behavior Bucks, students (and parents) can leave a comment to tell about an object at home and 4 physical properties to describe the object. (Students- remember to leave your first name only with your comment.) 

Love, 

Important Tools for Readers: Reading Logs & Sticky Notes

We don't often think about reading as a pastime that requires tools.  All you need is a book and some time, right?  Not true.  Good readers know there are tools to the trade.  This year, readers are already using two very important tools: reading logs and sticky notes.

Reading Logs

In fourth grade, reading logs mean more than just "proving" that we read.  Reading logs are records of our lives as readers, just as scrapbooks are our records of our lives.  When we go on vacation, we take pictures.  When we have birthdays, we take pictures.  When we go to weddings, graduations, special dinners, field trips, sleepovers, first days of school, or even just the park, we take pictures.  As readers, we log.  We log the books we've read so that later on we'll look back and remember those books we've loved.  But there's more.

As young readers working to grow and improve, we need a tool to help us track our growth and identify patterns.  Our daily reading logs are these tools.  We will keep these logs on hand as we move through the year, referring back to them to learn about ourselves, identify areas of improvement, and set goals.  

For instance, how do you know if you're reading long enough, fast enough, or even just enough?  Reading "enough" is really not about minutes, but books and pages and minutes all rolled into one!  You see, readers should read approximately 3/4 page per minute when they're in a book that's a good fit for them.  But we don't need stopwatches to figure out whether readers are within that range or not.  By studying logs and comparing the pages read to minutes read, we can infer a readers estimated speed!  Now, we know from time to time our pages to minutes will vary because of distractions, interruptions, difficulty of the text, and many other reasons.  By logging regularly, we can look at the big picture, not just one variable.

With this simple understanding in mind, we can infer a safe estimate of how long it would take a reader to complete their book.  For instance, students reading from the Magic Tree House series should be able to complete one complete chapter book within approximately an hour of reading.  Our class read aloud, Stone Fox, might take a reader up to approximately 2 hours of independent reading time to read it, cover to cover.  A much longer book, such as Hatchet, by Gary Paulsen, would take a reader up to anywhere from four to eight hours of independent reading time to complete.  With rare exception, regardless of a reader's independent reading level, all readers should be reading enough to finish one chapter book or more per week, start to finish.  When this isn't occurring, reading logs are an invaluable tool to determining where to begin in the process of helping a reader improve.

Sticky Notes

Reading is thinking.  Good readers know that making our thinking visible allows for us to retrace our thoughts, like following a trail of pebbles through the forest.  

As we read, when we hear thoughts buzzing in our mind, we stop and jot them down as quickly as we can.  Then, we stick this thought directly to the page we were reading, and continue on.  After a while in our reading, we might come to a point at which we can tell our thinking is changing, or growing.  We begin to think back on the thoughts we had earlier in the book, and combine them with more recent ideas, wonderings, predictions.  By revisiting our sticky notes, we can take a few moments to write to grow our thinking in our reading notebook.  (That's where the really good stuff happens!)

Because these "jots" are so important, good readers know they need to keep sticky notes handy.  Be sure to grab a few extra from class each day and fix them inside the cover of your books before heading home.  You could also make sure you have a few pads of sticky notes in a safe place at home, just in case of a reading emergency.  You don't ever want to be unprepared! 

So readers, as you're reading at home, be sure to be ACCURATE in your logs.  Just as we do in class, when you prepare to read, get your tools ready.  Pull out your log and your sticky notes FIRST.  Jot down the starting time and page number right before you begin reading.  Then, don't read with one eye on the clock, but dive headfirst in to the story, stopping to jot your thinking as you read.  When you're ready to come up for air, glance back at the clock and record your ending time and page number.  Don't stress out about counting pages and minutes, just READ.  

Categories of Number

During our first investigation in our unit Factors, Multiples, and Arrays, our classes created posters of the arrays for various numbers. Using these posters, students put numbers into different categories based on the kind and number of arrays they could make. Students identified numbers that made "only one array", numbers that made "square arrays", and numbers that made "many different arrays". These initial ideas then developed into classifying numbers in five ways: odd, even, prime, composite, and square. Numbers may fall into as many as three different categories. Here is a list of the mathematical ideas that are being developed during Math Workshop as a result of these student-made posters:

Odd Numbers: * have a 1, 3, 5, 7, or 9 in the ones place * have only odd factors * odd x odd = odd

Even Numbers: * have a 2, 4, 6, 8, or 0 in the ones place * always have a factor of 2 * each factor pair must have at least one even factor * odd x even = even, even x odd = even, and even x even = even

Prime Numbers: * only have 2 factors (one and itself) * only produce one array * 2 is the only even prime number

Composite Numbers: * have more than two factors * make at least 2 different arrays * can be even or odd

Square Numbers: * make a square array * have an odd number of factors * follow a pattern of odd, even, odd, even, ... * can be made by multiplying a number by itself (ex: 1 x 1 = 1, 2 x 2 =4, 3 x 3 = 9, therefore, 1, 4, and 9 are square numbers)

Students, can you identify a number between 100-200 that is composite and square? Leave a comment and share your answer (and your reasoning)!!

Reading Partnerships: Talking that Grows Readers

Photo Credit: Valentina_A via Compfight cc

Sometimes, the best part of a really good book comes AFTER you have finished the book.

Today, we read the last chapters in Stone Fox.  It's amazing how John Reynolds Gardiner was able to capture our hearts so intensely in only 83 pages!  As I closed the cover of the book and gently laid it on the table beside my rocking chair, I know we all were wishing for a little more -- just a few more pages, one more chapter.  Some readers even asked if there was a sequel to the unforgettable conclusion of Little Willy and his beloved dog, Searchlight.  

When I finish a great book, I often have that same emptiness inside.  We just aren't ready for it to be over yet!  Good readers, readers who share this craving for more, often fill that emptiness by talking about their books with friends, family, or fellow readers.  In this way, not only can we hang on to the story and our relationships with these characters for just a little longer, but we can also share our love with someone else.  Sometimes this sharing inspires someone else to read and love this book right along with of us.  And sometimes, these conversations strengthen our own love for this book by deepening our understanding of it.  As we go back through the story -- retelling pieces to others, remembering the details of our mind movies, revisiting the places we'd traveled and reliving the experiences we shared with favorite characters -- we're really working on our thinking about our reading.  

For all these reasons (and more!), we need reading partnerships.  Earlier this week, we launched our reading partnerships with an interview.  Readers were prepared with their reading notebooks, pencils, and a bank of starter questions as they tiptoed to the far corners of the room for their first of many meetings to come.  We spent time listening to each other talk about our favorite genres and books, declaring our goals as readers, and paying special attention to what we have in common with each other.  Along the way this year, partners will use a variety of tools to continue learning about each other and tracking our progress.  (Our first tool, reading logs, are particularly important, but we'll talk more about logging next time.)

Tonight, I stood barefoot in my kitchen, cooking dinner and thinking back on little Willy, Grandfather, Searchlight and Stone Fox.  Finally, when the emptiness in my gut grew to be too much to ignore any longer, I turned to Mr. Nash and said, "Did you ever read Stone Fox?"  With tears in my eyes and a lump in my throat for the third time today, I told him all about what happened at the finish line.  And as our dinner bubbled and simmered on the stove, I watched his eyes grow wider and his heart skip a beat, and I knew he was hooked, too.  

Tonight, readers, tell someone about a great book you've read recently.  Tell them the best parts, your favorite parts, the saddest part, or a part you'll never forget.  And when you do, tell it to them in a way that makes them love it right beside you.  Because sometimes, readers, that's the best part!

Centers for Math and Science

In addition to daily Math and Science Workshops, center time is a special part of our day which serves to supplement what is being studied in the core units of focus. Students are assigned a place in a "rotation" of four different types of activities, one per day, and each activity serves it's own special purpose.

Technology Time

While at this center rotation, students log on to Reflex Math in order to build and maintain their fluency with multiplication and related division facts. Occasionally, students may also finish a Gizmo activity that was started in a Math or Science Workshop, or they may be directed to visit a specific website that enhances something we are currently studying.


Concept Enrichment

This center rotation offers math challenges and enrichment games that correlate with skills or concepts we have been studying in class. In this particular photo the students are playing "Toss and Turn" where they roll dice to determine a problem that they will discuss with their partner on the topic of rounding whole numbers.

Skills Practice

Students complete independent work during this part of the rotation. Assignments might consist of a science lesson review or possibly a math skills practice activity where students will be assigned a task of math problems to complete (based on their identified needs).



Teacher-Led Small Group

This center rotation is very prescriptive so that individual student needs can be addressed with ongoing teacher feedback. Some students may need reteaching to address a misconception and others may need a challenge to extend their learning with more problem-based tasks. Anecdotal notes are recorded on each student while here and a note in each planner informs parents of skills or concepts that were discussed.


Our Wild Adventurers are WILD about center time!