Current Electricity

Last week students were given a copper wire, battery, light bulb, and some duck tape and were told to make the light bulb light up. After several tries and frustrations, students finally persevered through and all had a light bulb came on, in more than one way. Afterwards we discussed what a complete circuit needs and how the electricity moves throughout the circuit. Finally, we explored a phet simulation at  http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/circuit-construction-kit-dc. 

Here are some student understandings so far in our study:

Zachary Pham
Sophia Roberts
Kettric Hill

Need Help with Fractions?

The past few weeks we have been working with fractions ( and will continue to!) The students truly are doing a phenomenal job at understanding the concepts of fractions. In math, we are always coming up with conjectures about what we are doing and trying to prove those conjectures to be always true, thus making generalizations. This past week I created a Padlet for students to share their conjectures/generalizations of fractions. You can access the padlet at this web address:

http://padlet.com/jones_k/y1f0es8ntgaj

Having trouble with math homework?
Check back at our padlet to help remember some things we have talked about!
Watch videos at Khan Academy or LearnZillion.com

Reading Responses via Thinglink

This week we learned how to use a new app called Thinglink. It allows you to upload a picture and attach little links to websites, text, or other pictures. We used the app to take place of our reading responses. In a reading response, students are asked to write a letter to me including lots of information about what they are reading. Some things I like them to include is the genre of the book, point of view, author, information about characters, a summary, their opinion of the book, and any thinking they had while reading. Click the following links to see some of our reading responses!

http://www.thinglink.com/scene/592059656155693058

http://www.thinglink.com/scene/592059439251456002

http://www.thinglink.com/scene/592052431043428354

http://www.thinglink.com/scene/592059702980902912

http://www.thinglink.com/scene/592437681925914624

http://www.thinglink.com/scene/592437392279863297

http://www.thinglink.com/scene/592059460948590594

http://www.thinglink.com/scene/592057195152015362

http://www.thinglink.com/scene/592054301656875008

http://www.thinglink.com/scene/592052861093806081

Feel free to ask any of the students questions about their books in comments below!

Thanks for reading!

Mrs. Jones

Division- area models and partial quotients

Lately in math we have been working on division. We have learned that in a division problem we know the total in the problem, but what we don't know is either the number of groups or the number in each group. By figuring out each of these pieces of information we can really make sense of the math and understand why we are dividing. Because of this it is essential to label our problems.

We learned how to use our knowledge of multiples of 10 to perform the algorithms of  partial quotients and area model to represent are division problems. Here are some public records created in class. 

Friday was a big day for our fourth graders! It started out with the Native American Museum that we have been working on most if the year. All the students did an awesome job with their projects!! Then  we had our character awards and several of our students won awards for showing respect, responsibility, and perseverance. To end the day our RBES chorus had a debut performance at the RBHS football game. Such a fun day!

Questioning

In reading this week our strategy is asking questions while we read. Questioning is a critical comprehension strategy that helps readers construct meaning when reading informational text. Questions can be asked before, during, or after reading. We have learned so far how to ask green questions- questions that can be answered directly in the text. They are RIGHT THERE! Read our comments below to see what green questions we are asking while reading!

We learned that energy is never created or destroyed- it come from the sun and keeps changing forms! We created rooms and labeled the energy we found in the rooms. Here is some of our fantastic work:

Phases of Matter- by Zachary Pham

Our first experiment was with the difference with hot water and room temperature water.We had a 2 big cups of water, with the different temperatures, and 2 smaller cups that were empty. We placed the smaller cups upside-down into the the bigger cups and we saw evaporation.The one with room temperature water, in the small cup had small groups of fog. It was very transparent with blank oval gaps when you see it up close.The hot water in the smaller cup had a HUGE amount of fog. It was a pale, light gray.There were no gaps,it was not transparent, and it was wet.
Eventually, both got very foggy. 

Here is our 2nd project that showed us all phase changes: solid, liquid, and gas.

We used coke cans taped on the edges since it was cut in half. With as fork,we stirred the cup with ice and salt.The air was getting colder, making the outside of the can have dew. It condensed even more and it froze the dew into ice crystals. It crystallized the whole bottom of the can!bAnd the inside was like the Antarctic Ocean water that was the same amount of salt with the ice.It was below 32 degrees.That is cold!

It was wonderful doing this experiment,and you can do it too!

But you need an adult for the cutting the can part,though.

By: Zachary Pham

Technology Update and Properties of (x)

Whew! We have been BUSY! Thanks to our technology coaches, we now all have our Apple IDs created and we are finally downloading apps to use in class! So far we have learned about Educreations, Evernote, and flashcardlet. Educreations is acting as a whiteboard to show our thinking  in math, Evernote is helping us stay organized by making notebooks, and flashcardlet helps us study with flash cards our new vocabulary. We also love having our own device to research for the Native American project and play math related games.

In math we have been learning about the properties of multiplication. We have figured out that the commutative property shows that the order can change while the associative property shows that the grouping can change. Here are our public records that record our thinking and connections we made.

Thanks for reading! And happy HUMP DAAAAAAY!

Addition and subtraction algorithms

Announcements: NO SPELLING WORDS every week. Instead, we took a spelling inventory pre-test today to create an individualized spelling list for your child. Our goal is to learn spelling generalizations rather than memorization!

OPEN HOUSE IS 8/26 at 6:00!!!!!!! Please come by and say hello!

In math we have been working on addition and subtraction standard algorithms. Ask your child how these methods work! When I was in elementary school, I just learned to add and subtract by following the steps. It's so wonderful to now UNDERSTAND and MAKE SENSE of why these standard algorithms work. 

The beginnings of Writing Workshop

Lots of things happening here in our fourth grade! On Thursday August 21 at 5:30 we will have our mandatory parent IPad meeting. We are hoping to roll out the iPads and have them in our fourthies hands starting Monday!

Meanwhile, in Writing Workshop, we have been learning about good writing workshop guidelines and how to use our writers notebooks. I want to share a piece of writing one of my students wrote in her writers notebook:

In Texas I want cake
Then I step on a rattle snake.
I got to the bakery just in time
Then the police thought I was doing a crime.
I ran and ran around and around
Soon I had to hide in the pound.
The police got stuck in a bunch of fog,
Then they ended up chasing a frog.
I finally made it to my house
And guess who had to chase a mouse.
He ran and ran as his ears started to flap,
I got bored and made a trap.
He fell for it and got a brake
Wow all this for a piece of cake.
I ate the cake covered in nuts,
Man now I want a donut.

By: Lennon

Isn't it so wonderful! We definitely have some FANTASTIC writers in our class!

Here are some photos of "tableaus" or "frozen pictures" we created today to represent different guidelines of Writing Workshop:

Have supplies ready

Listen carefully and participate



















Think, imagine, and write!



Stay on task

Place Value

This week we have been working hard in math at place value. We started out learning our digits from ones to ten thousands and how to write them in standard, word, and expanded form. The kids rocked it! We then constructed a 10,000 chart. Yes, a 10,000 chart! We have been discovering many patterns on the chart and it is helping us to justify comparing and rounding numbers. Here are just a few patterns we noticed:

• 10 100s make 1,000 or 10x100=1,000
• 10 1,000s or 10x 1,000 makes 10,000
• As we move down the chart the hundreds column stays the same, but the thousands digit moves up a thousand. 

We have a game coming up with adding multiples of 10, 100, and 1,000 to numbers mentally. Help me challenge your student by giving them numbers and have them add/subtract these multiples!

Hello! Welcome to Mrs. Jones' class blog. Here I will update weekly on what's happening in our wonderful classroom. 

I am SO EXCITED to announce that this year every fourth grade student will receive their own iPad to use at school! I am thrilled to see how this technology will enhance our learning. Throughout the year we also will be working on projects that connect across all subjects.