We’re off to a great start with our BCE Science Conference Projects! Students have chosen a topic of interest which project type they’d like to create. We’re going to learn so much about a wide variety of science topics from each other. If your student hasn’t yet discussed their project choice with you, please check in with their project plan and support with time management and resources as needed. Remember that these projects will be due the first week of March and that the BCE Science Conference website is a helpful tool for rubrics and safe research sources. Teachers will continue checking in with students about action steps, use of rubrics as tools for elevating work product quality, and appropriate research sources.
4th grade mathematicians are hard at work with fractions. We know that fractions represent parts of a whole or a whole group and that fractions with the same value can be written in an infinite number of ways. This concept of equivalency is central to fraction understanding, so we’re drawing lots of pictures and each student has a colorful fraction tool in their notebook. We represent fractions with both pictures and numbers every day as our brains process mathematical concepts so much better when they’re visual. We’ll work with comparing and ordering fractions more this next week, and it’s exciting to see how many connections with other math topics we’re finding as our fraction understanding deepens. Our readers are preparing for their first in depth novel study this week. We will be exploring our global community through literature before diving into Linda Sue Park’s A Long Walk to Water. This week we will be practicing our fiction summary through CSERT, responding to text with a double entry journal, and exploring inferential thinking through SAY, MEAN, MATTER. Our grammar study will review punctuating dialogue. It’s tricky remembering what the comma is separating, how those quotation marks are holding words in the air, and that the dialogue tag actually contains the subject and predicate! As research shows, visual strategies help us connect to concepts better. Fourth Grade learners are so grateful for those colored pencil annotations Mrs. Forrest taught them to use as they are looking at sentence structure. Finally, Mrs. Forrest will have shared writing and conferencing for a new expository piece. Happy February!
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Happy Monday, families!
This week we are spending time practicing activities in morning meetings that build our focus. We know that thorough and thoughtful work is the product of effort, and we need to exercise and practice to build those muscles. Research shows we can learn to focus longer, and more intensely, with practice and use. We'll be teaching the kids some things to do on a regular basis. In addition, we are flexing. This week, Mrs. Forrest will start teaching the ELA/reading for all Team 4th, and Mrs. Mangels all the math. This will enable teachers to hone in on a specific area. We see this as yet another way we can use our strengths to provide the best educational experience for your child during this not-what-we-are-used-to times. We have reviewed the schedule with the kiddos. Have them print it out to refer to throughout the week. There are some changes, but we know our students problem solve in a snap. Students are becoming more independent and using the BLEND inbox to email teachers. We respond to each one, and expect that students check their inbox each morning a few minutes before morning meeting for any specific messages from us. We have begun exploration of fractions! Knowing that fractions are an equal part of a whole is just the beginning - they have enjoyed thinking of real world examples of how knowing fractions can come in handy (think about how they may split a cookie with a sibling :)). Students will be asked to visualize fractions -- this will help them develop a deep understanding of what they are. Continue that fluency practice in Blend this week as well! Reading block will focus on poetry. There are specific annotation steps that we will teach them to analyze a poem. We will also be completing the personal narrative we started in writing. In word work, our grammar study is writing dialogue. This is a highlight for writers -- they are able to actually have their characters talk in their pieces! Students will explore the 4 major regions of Texas in social studies. We will look at physical land features, habitats, and natural resources for each one. Don't be surprised if your kiddo would like to visit the Mountains and Basins after they learn about them. In our FIT time this week, teachers will be supporting students by checking in on the topic and type of project chosen for the Science Conference. Remember that Friday is an asychronous day for AISD learners. Students will log on and we will have a full day of learning experiences to round out their week! Before we start with news, we wanted to say a huge THANK YOU for the generous gifts. We were able to eat, drink, and pamper ourselves over the break. We appreciate the thoughtfulness and the creativity of the room parents who so creatively put them together!
Welcome back as we start Q3 strong on TEAM 4th! As 4th graders, your students will be participating in the first annual Bear Creek Science Conference. This is an exciting opportunity for students to develop expertise as scientists through a project and topic of their choice. We’ll be discussing the wide variety of project choices over the next 2 weeks and supporting students through the next 9 weeks of work time. Please visit the Bear Creek Science Conference website for more information and expectations for each project choice. Know that you’ll hear much more information once we’ve talked with students about the different project choices. Also note that Bear Creek is NOT having a traditional science fair. If your child would like to participate in the Austin Regional Science Fair, you need to email 4th grade teachers ASAP so we can get your student registered by the upcoming deadline. Please review the details of science project expectations if your child chooses to compete and be prepared for your child to start experimenting ASAP as the timeline for a science project in the regional fair is much faster than other project options. We’ll spend the upcoming week in ELA learning a new tool for synthesizing our ideas about text or images. It’s called Say, Mean, Matter and it supports students in moving beyond a literal interpretation to deeper levels of meaning and global connections. We continue to build our sentence analysis muscles and patterns of compound/complex sentences. We’ll also read several texts together that invite us to think about MLK’s contributions and how we as members of the Bear Creek Community, can continue his work today. As mathematicians, we’re celebrating how 5 minutes/day of fluency practice are supporting the fluency goals we set each week. Your student can tell you whether they’re focusing on multiplication or division this week and which fluency game they’re choosing to help accomplish their goal. We’re also revising decimal understandings using visual tools like number lines and models. While we learned about tenths and hundredths at the beginning of the year, it’s helpful to review decimals as we get ready to start our upcoming fraction unit. Our Rube Goldberg machines were such a fun way to celebrate the growth mindset in our 4th grade TEAM! Students used the engineering design process to solve a simple problem by creating a chain reaction with household items. After drawing their blueprint, they enjoyed two days of building and lots of opportunities to “fail forward”. It was exciting as teachers to see students move from “I can’t build anything like that!” to “I built another Rube Goldberg machine because it was so much fun!”. Thanks for your support with materials and videography -- your continued support this year means the world! |
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