Multiplication Baseball

One of our goals in 4th grade is to increase each student's "fact power."  I want students to have an instant recall of all the multiplication facts.  This ability will help them become faster and more efficient mathematicians.  Fractions, division, number stories, life - they all involve multiplication.  To increase our fact power, we've been playing lots of games in class.  One of the kids' favorites was Multiplication Baseball.  If you would like your own copy this game board, I'll be glad to send one home.  All you have to do is leave a comment below, and I'll send one home with you (or if you're a parent - your child).  Here are some pictures of our kids hitting the ball out of the park.

Multiplication Baseball

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Creating Static

To begin our unit of study on electricity, we first began with a study of static electricity.  We've all experienced static electricity - begin shocked when we get off the slide or bounce too long on a trampoline.  But none of us really knew why we got shocked.  We spent some time experimenting with balloons, and we eventually learned about negative and positive charges.  We learned that if an object has a build-up of negative charges, those negative charges want to "jump" to an object with a positive charge.  This discharge of negative charges is what produces that shock we all know.  Using static electricity, students were able to make salt and paper jump from the table - as well as make their hair stand up on end.  Unfortunately, static electricity had very little effect on my hair.  Hmmmmm.....

Static Electricity

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Finding a Reading Partner

During reading workshop, we've been asking ourselves a big question - "How can we author our own reading lives?"  Living a readerly life means we are people who talk about and discuss books.  We're people who know how to find good books, read good books, and then share these books with others.  We decided that each person in the class should find a reading partner - someone who reads similar kinds of books and has similar kinds of reading interests.  We spent this particular morning interviewing each other - going around the room sharing our stack of favorite books and learning about each other as readers.  I was able to catch some of the conversations on video, and I thought you'd like seeing our kids in action. 

Hidden Magnets

As a culminating activity for our study of magnets, we played a fun "hide and seek" game in class. Teams of students worked together to "hide" a magnet inside a small box (taping it to one of its sides).  The other members of the team used magnet detectors to try and find the magnets.  Students used iron filings, compasses, and objects from their mystery bags to try and find the hidden magnets.  The students were fascinated by the magnet's effect on a compass, and they loved watching the iron filings reaction when they were brought in the magnet's field.  Here are some pictures of our scientists at work...

Detecting Magnets

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Studycast - Native Americans

Click here to listen to a studycast for our upcoming test on Native Americans.  A studycast is basically a review of all the information we covered during that particular unit of study.  I go through the study guide (which came home on Thursday), and teach through all the major concepts that will appear on the test.  I know that it's sometimes difficult for parents to help their child study for a social studies or science test.  There's a lot of content involved, and it might have been a while since you've thought about these things!  If you have any questions, please leave a comment below or send me an email.  The test will be on Monday, September 20th. 

Our New Reading Notebooks

On Friday, we spent time decorating our reading notebooks.  These notebooks will be a place where we record what we've read, what we want to read, and our responses to literature.  Each child designed their own unique cover, and I covered each one with clear contact paper (which I just finished doing this morning).  I thought they looked amazing.  I loved watching the kids create and share their ideas and resources with each other.

Breaking the Force

Last Thursday, I gave each team of students a scale, a bag of steel washers, and two doughnut magnets.  I asked - How would you test the force between two magnets?  Our kids quickly figured out a method to test the force.  By dropping in washers on one side of the scale, they could see how many washers it took to pull apart two magnets.  This lead to a discussion about reliable and accurate results.  We decided to keep as many factors the same as possible - how we set up the materials, how we put in the washers, and how we dropped them in.  We then extended our experiment by increasing the space between the magnets.  Would our results be different?  Would the force be stronger or weaker?  I love this experience - it teaches kids how to design an experiment, to collaborate with each other, and record and analyze data. 

Breaking the force

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Subtracting with Base Ten Blocks

In too many cases, subtraction with regrouping is learned as a step-by-step procedure.  It's true for me.  When I learned to subtract with regrouping, my elementary school teacher taught me the steps - not actually what was happening with the numbers. Because I just learned a process, I sometimes became confused with the steps and made mistakes.  Because I just learned a process, I struggled with number sense and estimation.  I didn't really understand how numbers worked together.  I didn't want this to happen to our kids.  So - to learn a conceptual understanding of regrouping, we used base ten blocks to demonstrate what was actually happening when we "cross out" a number and change it into another one.  We started by using this incredible website to actually see the base ten blocks in action, then we moved to using base ten blocks on our own.  Students had to use the base ten blocks to explain exactly what was happening in each step.  I was really proud of our kids for the understanding they gained this week.

Subtracting with base ten blocks

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Magnet Exploration

During science this week, we had a great time exploring with magnets.  When we first began exploring, we noticed that magnets do not stick to all metals (which surprised many of us).  We decided to test various materials, and we found out that magnets only stick to objects that contain iron.  We discussed ideas like attract, repel, and magfnetic poles.  Here are a few pictures of our young scientists at work...

Close Observations by Eileen

Today in writer's workshop, we learned how writers make close observations.  Almost like scientists, writers observe the world around them and write about it in detail.  To practice this concept, we went outside and spent some time observing the world around us.  I hoped that the kids would slow down and notice things they had never noticed before.  Here's part of what Eileen wrote in her notebook...

There are children playing their games.  Some swinging, some playing drums with an echo shooting across the world.  Then there are girls chasing boys, and some just waiting for fun.  You can find water falling out of sprinklers like every drop is a pool for a piece of grass.  You can find cars going by to see little children playing and writing.  When all is still, you can still see dogs walk by and swings slightly moving in the wind - as if their whole past just disappeared. 

Isn't that beautiful?  Our students were incredible writers today.  I hope they will continue to develop this skill of observing their world closely.