Homework:
No homework tonight except for reading logs.
Fourth grade math:
Students worked in small groups today strengthening their multiplication facts by playing dice games or making cards of facts they are working on with strategies to remember them. Other students worked on challenging Magic Squares, in which columns, rows, and diagonal numbers add up to the same sum.
Creative Writing: Today students tried a new creative writing exercise. Each student received a different story starter from a bag of prompts to begin writing, such as, "There was a knock at the door . . ." During the writing process the writers were challenged to incorporate new elements in the form of animals and types of transportation. For example, a student might receive a paper slip with "hamster" written on it, and then later, "bulldozer." The goal of this process is to build writing flexibility, and creative thinking on the go.
Reading Workshop: During the reading workshop today the students were asked to focus on information books from our class library. Along with reading during the workshop, students are writing about their selections. Today's goal was to write about their non-fiction selection and describe three elements that they learned about during their time with the book.
