Grade Four News

January 30, 2014

Parents,

This week the Grade 4 students continued their work on the current Unit of Inquiry on inventions. Next week they will start with their summative assessments to finish the unit.

We are planning some field trips next month and will need some volunteers to accompany us. The next unit is on art communication and we will be visiting museums in the area. Please let us know if you are interested in going with us. The dates will be:

Friday, February 20th

Tuesday, February 24th

Thanks, as always, for your support at home.

Andy and Carolyn

Grade Four Teachers

Mathematics:

This unit we are looking at measurement (length, mass, volume, time) using the metric system.

This week we looked carefully at perimeter and area, we learnt the units they are measured in and how we can measure them. We wrote our own definitions of length and are also. We also reviewed a couple of things related to length and measured parts of our body with a tape measure.

One of our challenge problems this week was can you draw a square that has a perimeter and area that are numerically the same?

In addition to working on Mathletics, students are encouraged to practice multiplication times tables at the following websites:

www.softschools.com

www.multiplication.com (the games section is good)

Literacy:

Reader’s workshop:  We are still reading to learn, this week we thought about having a question in mind when we start a text. This week we took notes using diagrams and midmaps using an online tool:  https://www.mindmup.com/#m:new. We learnt new things about Thomas Edison such as his involvement in the General Electric company.

Writer’s Workshop: In this unit, students are learning about information texts. In the first few weeks we looked at how information is organized and how details are included in the texts, how to decide what to include, and how to plan research for this type of writing.

Units of Inquiry:

Current Unit of Inquiry: How the World Works

Title: Inventions

Central Idea: Human inventions have an impact on society and the environment.

Lines of Inquiry:

The reasons people invent.

How inventions have changed society and the environment.

The impact inventions have.

Summative Assessment:

You will select an invention and demonstrate your understanding of the three lines of inquiry along with a model. You will then apply your knowledge to come up with your own idea for an invention using the lines of inquiry to justify and explain the benefits of the invention.

In UoI this week we thought about the impact one invention had on the way we live in cities. We looked at a small section of this video http://youtu.be/JceKjay750A to help us understand the elevator’s significance. We made our own lifting devices in class also.

Reminders:

• Mid winter break begins February 11th, 2015

• Portfolios go home for the mid winter break for you to look through with your child.

Do you think this invention is important? Why did somebody want to invent this?

Monday: Look, cover, say, write and check these words:

1. necessity   2.city  3. industry  4. product  5. sell

Then make a picture or symbol to remember the word.

Tuesday: Watch the video called “Hover Bike” here on the blog. Write your answer to this question in the comments: Do you think this invention is important? Why did somebody want to invent this? http://youtu.be/uwxaZ9KCdcE

Wednesday: Look at the information about Charles Darwin on this website. http://darwin200.christs.cam.ac.uk/pages/index.php?page_id=j1 Write one paragraph about why he was a famous scientist.

Thursday: Work on www.mathletics.com for 25 minutes.

Every day: Read for at least 15 minutes.

*a reminder about homework: please spend only 25 minutes on it and complete what you can!

Grade Four News

January 23, 2014

Parents,

This week the Grade 4 students made a short trip to nearby Shiba Elementary School for our second meeting with their Grade 4 students. The Shiba students showed us around their school and played a few traditional Japanese games with us. This morning, we were fantastic in presenting some key inventions in assembly and how they changed society and the environment.

This week we also welcomed a new student to Grade 4, Eric, from Sweden.

Thanks, as always, for your support at home.

Andy and Carolyn

Grade Four Teachers

Mathematics:

This unit we are looking at measurement (length, mass, volume, time) using the metric system.

This week we worked on length and measuring in mm, cm and km. We found the perimeter of various shapes and discovered that sometimes shapes can look like a square but really they are not if you measure carefully. We also looked at the height of the shortest man in the world and the tallest man in the world, we scaled the heights so we could draw them on a poster with our height in the middle.

In addition to working on Mathletics, students are encouraged to practice multiplication times tables at the following websites:

www.softschools.com

www.multiplication.com (the games section is good)

Literacy:

Reader’s workshop:  We are still reading to learn, this week we thought about having a question in mind when we start a text. We decided to think about the light bulb and this led us to read about electricity. We thought about different ways we can take notes, some such as diagrams were useful this week.

Writer’s Workshop: In this unit, students are learning about information texts. In the first few weeks we looked at how information is organized and how details are included in the texts, how to decide what to include, and how to plan research for this type of writing.

Units of Inquiry:

Current Unit of Inquiry: How the World Works

Title: Inventions

Central Idea: Human inventions have an impact on society and the environment.

Lines of Inquiry:

The reasons people invent.

How inventions have changed society and the environment.

The impact inventions have.

Summative Assessment:

You will select an invention and demonstrate your understanding of the three lines of inquiry along with a model. You will then apply your knowledge to come up with your own idea for an invention using the lines of inquiry to justify and explain the benefits of the invention.

This week we thought about life before and after certain inventions and wrote our own plays that we presented to the school in assembly this morning. Imagine life without the printing press or flushing toilet!

Reminders:

• 4B are collecting English language magazines and newspapers, if you have any to donate please send them in with your child.

inventions – Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

https://www.haikudeck.com/p/7FC2laf5vp/inventions

Homework due Friday, January 23

Monday: Look, cover, say, write and check these words:

1. worker   2.telegraph  3. ingenuity  4. environment  5. society

Then use the word in an interesting sentence.

Tuesday: Ask an adult to tell you about at least two situations where he/she measures length. Ask these questions: Did you need to measure exactly or estimate? If you estimated, how did you estimate? What tools did you use? Write the answers in your Homework book.

Wednesday: Look at the information about Albert Einstein on this website. http://www.ducksters.com/biography/albert_einstein.php Write down a paragraph about why he was a famous scientist.

Thursday: Work on www.mathletics.com for 25 minutes.

Every day: Read for at least 15 minutes.

*a reminder about homework: please spend only 25 minutes on it and complete what you can!

In our first week of 2015, students wrote their first Japanese calligraphy for the beginning of the year, called ‘kakizome’ in Japanese. In the past, these were short poems written in a few characters but now they are mostly one character to symbolize the year.