An introduction to the Native Americans of Maryland was the
theme running though many of our social studies and language arts activities
this week. Our field trip to Jefferson
Patterson Park gave us the opportunity to experience many different aspects of
Native American life. We learned about
hunting, foraging, and the daily routines in a village. When we compared daily life of people today
to that of the Native Americans, we realized how incredibly clever,
resourceful, and self-sufficient Native Americans were.
In the
beginning of the week we our reading time was focused on different
informational articles about the Native Americans of Maryland. At the end of the week we divided into
reading groups to start chapter books.
The students are either reading Frindle by Andrew Clements or Tales
of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume.
Both books are realistic fiction stories. Our language study focused on the two parts
of a complete sentence and identifying specific parts of speech within a
sentence. Students cut sentence strips
to separate the subjects and predicates of a variety of sentences. Using a color code they marked different
parts of speech. When writing about our field trip, we focused
on careful word choice. The students are learning to develop their thoughts by
including specific details and vivid vocabulary.
Last week, we started science labs. Students learned the safety required for this time and also the importance of reading directions carefully. We learned to make hypotheses and support our educated guesses based on our prior knowledge of the subject and that TRUE experiments have a control and only 1 variable. We were able to answer the following questions: "How does moving water weather rocks?" and "Does freezing water and thawing ice weather rock?" Be sure to ask your 4th grade scientist how their labs turned out and whether their hypotheses were accurate!
We continued our unit on multiples and factors. Interestingly, these 2 concepts came up during science when students had to divide up the labor of shaking rocks and water. They are beginning to see how no ONE subject area is isolated from the rest. We learned to play "Multiple Turnover", an excellent game for students to practice deciphering between factors and multiples. See if your student can tell you the differences. It appears that the students are ready to being larger multiplication problems, so be prepared for some interesting strategies that promote a deeper understanding of how numbers work and our place value system.
