- Next week on Tuesday is Valentine's day. If you child chooses to make Valentines, please make sure they make one for all 24 students in the class. The TBS policy this year is no candy or treats on Valentines, although we will have cookies as part of our Community Lunch that day. No need to pack a lunch that day.
- February 15, Field Trip to Muir Beach: Student Waiver
- No school Friday, February 17 through Friday, February 24 for Prof. Dev. & Presidents Day break.
Muir Beach Waiver (due tomorrow) Please fill out and sign the Student Waiver in order for your child to participate in the activities on February 15 at Muir Beach. Adults on the trip are covered by a group waiver and do not need to complete individual waivers.
Fourth grade math, due tomorrow
Purple group: Please finish first two pages (pp. 114-115) of the JUMP perimeter packet.
Blue Group: Continue work in the perimeter packet from class today (pages 14-16).
Science: Periodic Table Bingo
Yesterday students made observations and inferences of ice cubes, apple slices, baking soda & vinegar, steel wool & vinegar, and a burning birthday candle, as part of our exploration of matter. Matter can show physical changes (in shape, state, or size, for example) or chemical changes (often producing color changes, light, heat, or gas). We also watched a short cartoon, "Physical & Chemical Changes of Matter," which you can watch here.
Today students moved their lab observations from a table format to a Venn diagram, and proposed other examples from their lives of physical and/or chemical changes of matter, to share with others. Then we watched another short cartoon, "The Periodic Table," which you can watch here.
We played Element Bingo: the computer provided the name of an element, students used their copies of the periodic table to find its symbol and atomic number, and students checked to see if they had that element on their bingo cards. We didn't have time to find a winner, but we did learn that most of the elements are actually metals, some are non-metals, like the stable Noble Gases, and some, like silicon, are metalloids.
Fourth grade math
In the purple group, students determined the perimeter (length around the outside) of various polygons, using different strategies, and students shared their tricks with the group. Then we discussed what happens to perimeter as we increase a shape's size incrementally, or if we add a square to different places in an irregular shape made of squares and rectangles. Students were surprised to find that you can actually reduce the perimeter by adding a square to the right place, or keep the perimeter the same.
Blue Group: For the first half of class today we practiced converting within the metric system (centimeters to millimeters, meters to centimeters etc.), followed by a review of perimeter.
