When using tiles to explore fractions, the students discovered there are different ways to respond to the same challenge. For instance, when asked to “show one fourth“, some of the students shared the following: 

“Red is one fourth of the larger square.”

“One fourth of the tiles are blue”

“One fourth of the set is missing”

Then, when asked to show one fifth, students were given the chance to challenge or question other students about their representation. Which of the following do you think was challenged?

 or 

The next question challenged their understanding of a fraction being a part of a whole. If all four tiles represents one fourth, what does the whole look like?

   became  

Now, what if those eight tiles represent one third? The whole might now look like…

Next blog post, we’ll show how we used another math manipulative called Cuissenaire Rods.

It was Cross Country Day for some of our classmates today and since about 2/3 of the other grade 4 class was also going, their remaining third, joined our classroom and helped add some finishing touches to our habitat displays. We really challenged our decision making and collaborations skills, and later shared our successes and challenges.

As a follow-up to our Food Chain discussions this week, we added in a little spontaneous drama moment by responding to a text in character.

Students spoke from the point of view of an animal ‘character’, explaining whether or not they would recommend the book. E.g. “I am a lizard and I do not recommend this book to my lizard friends because it is frightening to know we are prey for the bobcat.” “I am frog and I do recommend this book because it warns animals like me, about some predators they should look out for.”

In writing workshop, we have discussed a strategy called “Hook the Reader” that many students have started to use when revising. The idea is to get readers interested right from the start. E.g We got three fish in our aquarium…..could become…… Finally! Our classroom fish have arrived!

In math, we have begun looking at fractions. The jump from Gr 3 expectations to Gr 4 expectations in connection to fractions is a big one. Listening to students during our first baking experience, and again, during some followup math conversations,  confirmed for me that we would start early in the year working with fractions to allow students the time to deepen their understanding. I will blog more on this in the near future, things are just a bit ‘crazy’ right now!!

Reminders: Bulldogs form due tomorrow. Several students brought home sub/pita pit forms today. Photo Day next Friday (1 week).

Today we incorporated a little puppetry into our science reading.

Students paired up to read a portion of a text on omnivores. They selected the most important parts of the text to present to their class and used puppets to do the talking. The challenge was that their animal puppet did not match the animal they were reading about, so they had to think from another point of view. Not everyone got the opportunity to present today but we did use the puppets during our community circle to speak on behalf of their puppeteer. Many students mustered up the courage to have their puppets come alive with creative voices. We were so entertained we forgot to pick out the fish names!

Have a fantastic weekend!  

Thanks to all who were able to come out tonight to Meet the Teacher. It was lovely to meet so many new people, and get reacquainted with others. And welcome to those who subscribed to our blog this evening.

I had several conversations tonight about how we have been working daily at taking moments to identify/acknowledge/celebrate different ways to demonstrate our learning skills. I strongly feel that most students will strive to show responsibility, self regulation, initiative etc. if they have a clear understanding of what it looks like. Today one our friends took the initiative to generate a checklist for themselves, so they could check off the work they needed to complete. Taking a moment to recognize this action as a show of self regulation (initiative, responsibility and organization) resulted in several other students following suit.

While students read their books yesterday, they kept their eye out for some ‘triple scoop words’. These are words that are not ordinary, but unexpected. They might make us say, “wow” what a great word. Just as if you expected a single scoop of ice cream, but got three instead! We shared words with our classmates, and recorded the words we wanted to collect to possibly use in future pieces of writing.

Many of you met our new class fish and we thank you for all the name suggestions. We have some important decisions to make tomorrow.

In a quest to develop our curiosity, students generated some questions for us to explore. For example,“What is the lifespan of a fish?” “Do fish sleep?” “Do they poop or barf?” There were some other good ones, but, it’s been a long day/week!

And last, but certainly not least, we welcomed our 3 new classmates today – bringing our class total to 25. Our new timetable also kicked in today. Meaning, tomorrow is the weird day I only see them 1/2 the day. Period 1 – Music, Period 3 – French, Period 4 – Phys. Ed. And before you picture me off relaxing, I will be teaching music to a couple of Grade 1 classes!

After a virtues assembly, where we shared how the class best demonstrated the virtue of respect during the month of September, 

we took on some challenging ‘wonder’ questions.

Last Friday, a curious classmate asked, “I wonder how many laps we would have to do (on the high school track) to run the same distance as Terry Fox did?”

Though some of the numbers went beyond the Gr. 4 curriculum, the process itself required us to look at what information we needed, what we already knew, collaborate and persevere, and reflect on whether the calculations made sense. In the end, we discovered we would have to run almost 15 000 times around the track to match Terry Fox’s efforts!!!!

Our curiosity was also peaked when setting up our aquarium, “Does the tank really hold 37.8 L (like the box says)?”

Since everyone in last week’s aquarium group wanted to contribute to the pouring, they used cup that we had multiples of, and kept track of the pouring. In the end, 107 cups of water were added to the tank, and each cup held 300 mL. After some calculating and converting, we discovered that we put less water into the tank than the box said it held. To extend our thinking, we also speculated on why the amounts did not match.   (e.g. we could have made a mistake on our counting, the decorations take up some of the space, we didn’t quite fill the tank to the top, the number on the box might not be accurate) 

Please Note:

Mme. DiPelino sent home some work in agendas today.

Forms were sent home for students involved in running club and swim team.

A note was also sent home regarding reorganization. Our class numbers and class schedule are affected slightly. We’ll update our timetable tomorrow but it will not take affect until Thursday.

Thursday: AAG Celebrates/Meet the Teacher 

Thumbs up to a good day for a Terry Fox Run yesterday!

After watching the older students finish up, it was our turn to walk, run, challenge the teacher (!)- basically keep moving!

The run was followed by a fun afternoon of cross graded activities (Thank you Ms. Marion, Mrs. W, and intermediate students!), after which, we reflected on the day, and generated some wonders about Terry Fox and his accomplishments. A few questions involved some mathematical thinking, which we will further pursue next week.

We saw many people recognizing Orange Shirt Day, which we touched upon both Thursday and Friday, but were really short on time to do the conversation justice.  So, we will also be revisiting that conversation.

Have a great weekend and hope to see you next Thursday at Meet The Teacher.

Does zero have value?

This was the question that launched a very interesting math talk today. Here is an excerpt of our discussions.

“Zero does not have value because if you add it to a number, that number does not change.”

“I think zero does have value because all numbers have value. For example, one person might have 5 trading cards and someone else might have zero cards. Saying someone has zero of something is still saying you have an amount of something.”

“I respectfully disagree because zero is not a number. You don’t  say zero when you count.”

“Yes, it is a number because it shows the value in place value.”

“It does have value because zero means nothing.”

“I think zero does not have a value because if you have $0, you have no money.”

“You can be zero years old. So, it has value.”

“But when you are born, you’re not zero, you are one day old. And what about the nine months before you were born?”

“I think zero does have value because if you put a 0 after 10, the value increases.”

After I did a little happy dance inside – impressed with all the thoughtful discussion, we read a great little book by Kathryn Otoshi, 

and afterwards, students reflected on how, or if, their thinking changed.

” I am so confused. I thought zero had no value, but now it turns out,  it does have value.”

” I do think zero is a number now, but I’m still not sure it has value.” 

“This story really got me thinking about zero a lot more.”

There were many other perceptions about numbers that came up in our discussion that we will further explore and lead us nicely into fractions and decimals.

Reminders for tomorrow: Terry Fox Run and Get Acquainted activities. Be prepared to spend a good portion of the day outside.Spelling Tip homework due. HWDSB is encouraging people to recognize Orange Shirt Day in recognition of the effects of Canada’s Residential Schools.

We challenged our collaboration skills this morning as we worked on a math challenge that involved matching numbers to a wide range of description types (expanded, words, rounded, ranges, values etc.). We identified the questions that we found challenging (e.g. a number with 6 thousands, 24 hundreds and 13 ones) and shared the ‘secrets’ to successful collaborations. 

Giving Feedback 

We worked on our feedback skills today by sharing writing samples with a partner. The goal was to be honest and tactful, identify positive features, offer a suggestion for improvement, and be specific. For instance, telling someone their writing is good is not too helpful. Telling them specifically what you thought was good, (“your details helped me visualize”) is more informative.

We also took a look at the features and strategies used on Student Council Posters in our hallway and identified which ones we thought were most effective. 

New Spelling Tip

Out of our discussion of butterflies, came the observation that the y in butterfly was dropped to make a plural. When asked,  “Why do we drop the y in butterflies but not in boys?”, students were unsure. We looked at a few more examples and realized the consonant before the y was a factor. So, we learned a little song/rhyme to help us remember, and students were given the homework task of finding more examples. Instructions were glued into our agendas today. Due: Friday  

Today’s read  aloud ,, was effective in  reviewing the reading signposts we have previously discussed. The author used Again and Again,  an A-Ha Moment, and Words of the Wiser to help direct readers to the Big Idea (main message). We also got a chance to bump up our vocabulary with synonyms for the word truthful and identified the importance of using the virtue of TACT.

Another highlight of our day, was the emergence of Willow the butterfly. Though we have been concerned about Willow’s small chrysalis size, the caterpillar successfully went through metamorphosis. We initially thought Willow was female, but upon release, we noted the black dots to indicate a male. We decided to release him ahead of the upcoming rain, with the hope that he find shelter.    

Upcoming: Friday is our Terry Fox Run and Get Acquainted Day. There is no Harvey’s lunch this year, but pizza and juice orders are available with PAY ONLINE.

Today we used Peter Reynold’s book, Word Collector , to explore the concept of words having power. When we write, some words are more powerful than others. Students were given a little word collecting book, in which they will be encouraged to record powerful words they come across and want to save for future use in their writing. They got a start on their collection by looking over their homework list and the lists from classmates.

We then reread our own writing, looking for places they could turn an ordinary word into one that was more descriptive, extraordinary, unexpected, powerful etc. Basically, bumping up our work with  better word choice.