Fourth Grade Math

We completed our unit on long division. The girls embraced the challenge of annexing zeros. Be sure to ask your daughter how to annex zeros when a division problem has a remainder! The girls also focused on interpreting remainders in word problems. They learned that they had to read and understand exactly what was being asked. From here they had to decide whether or not to use the exact quotient as the answer;  round up to the next whole number;  use the remainder as their answer; or round down to the nearest whole number. Lots of thinking goes into answering these word problems.

From the Library

Thirteen Ways to Raise a Nonreader

by Dean Schneider and Robin Smith
originally printed in the March/April 2001 issue of The Horn Book Magazine

1. NEVER READ where your children can see you.

2. PUT A TV or COMPUTER in every room. Don't neglect the bedrooms and kitchen.

3. CORRECT YOUR CHILD every time she mispronounces a word.

4. SCHEDULE ACTIVITIES every day after school so your child will never be bored.

5. Once your child can read independently, THROW OUT the PICTURE BOOKS. They're for babies.

6. DON'T PLAY board games together. Too Dull.

7. Give little REWARDS for reading. STICKERS and plastic toys are nice. MONEY is even better.

8. Don't expect your children to enjoy reading. Kids' books are for TEACHING vocabulary, proper study habits, and good morals.

9. Buy only 40-watt bulbs for your lamps.

10. Under NO circumstances read your child the same book OVER and OVER. She heard it once, she should remember it.

11. Never allow your child to listen to BOOKS ON TAPE; that's cheating.

12. Make sure your kids only read books that are "challenging". EASY books are a complete WASTE OF TIME. That goes double for comic books and Mad magazine.

13. Absolutely, positively NO READING IN BED.

French: La Suisse

What do milk chocolate, Roger Federer, and the novel Heidi all have in common? They come from the French-speaking country, Switzerland (la Suisse). After learning all about Switzerland's geography and culture, the girls worked in groups to create a Swiss trivia game using the app Tiny Tap. Their projects are colorful, creative, and, most importantly...tricky! They were able to stump more than a few of their classmates. The girls had a good time playing the games and an even better time creating them.

Putting our heads together:

Enjoying the final products:

Code Talk

The fourth grade students have been working very hard in Scratch.

 They have created an All About Me project and learned a variety of skills like making a sprite glide, change color, dance, follow the mouse, say something, move to a beat, move with key moves, and whirl.  We will continue our work in coding by participating in the Hour of Code in December.

Fourth Grade Social Studies

In Social Studies, fourth grade students are being introduced to the countries that make up the continent of South America. They are also studying the area’s major landforms and bodies of water, respectively the Andes Mountains and the Amazon River.  They will use maps to find locations of the Amazon Rain Forest and the varying elevations. Be sure to ask your daughter to describe South America to you. She has been learning many tidbits of information through our reading of Journey to the River Sea and our map studies.

Division Begins....

After successfully completing a unit on multiplication, fourth-graders started working on division. Learning how to divide 2-, 3-, and 4-digit numbers by a single-digit divisor and moving on to long division will occupy the next few weeks.  Be sure to take a look at your daughter's homework to see how she is faring with this important skill.