Math, Word Study, California Maps, and Science!

Reminders:

• Back to School night is next Thursday evening, Sept. 22, from 6:00-8:00 p.m. There is no childcare, so please make arrangements ahead of time.
• Please fill out the Online Parent Survey if you have not yet done so.

Homework:

Please note that the Reading Log Assignment is due on Friday. The written portion of this assignment will be introduced and practiced tomorrow (Tuesday) in class.

• 4th Math Target Number  (due tomorrow)
• Optional 4th Grade Enrichment Problem of the Week (due Friday)
• 5th Math Packet (Monday/Tuesday) (Wednesday-Friday)
  
• Reading Log & Assignment (due Friday)
  

Math:
Fourth graders toured student-made posters of arrays in the classroom, to discover square, prime, and composite numbers. We also learned a new game, the Array Game, to help figure out which multiplication facts (combinations) students know or are still working on.


Fifth grade mathematicians received their first problem of the week this morning. They spent ten minutes with partners restating and rewriting what the problem was asking. We will continue to work on the problem, bit by bit, throughout the week, and by Friday they will have developed a strategy, organized their calculations, worked toward a solution, and written about this challenging problem. This is not homework, for the time being. They also continued their work with factors and multiples; prime factorization will be the focus of this week's mini-lessons.

Homophones! Students learned to distinguish between there, their, they're, theirs, and there's in our first Word Study today.

California mapping: Today each student was given a large outline map of California on poster board. Together we drew the border lines and features to identify neighboring states, Mexico, the Colorado River, Lake Tahoe and the Salton Sea. Ask your Strawberry Student about the unbelievable story of the Salton Sea! The maps will be transformed in stages over the Fall to include aspects of our learning as we travel through the California time-line.

Science:  Students brainstormed "what do scientists do?" to begin our study of science.  We discussed the scientific method, and started our first experiment, making pinwheels.  Students are thinking of questions they have about how pinwheels work.