Science: Science and Math Fun with the Second Grade!

The fourth grade girls used their knowledge of electric circuits to create original electronic games featuring addition and subtraction problems.  A circuit containing a light bulb was used to connect the problem with the correct answer so that the bulb lit up.  When their colorful and creative games were completed, the fourth graders visited the second grade girls so that they could play the games together.  The fourth graders enjoyed working with the younger girls and the second graders enjoyed demonstrating their math skills.  A good time was had by all!

French: Le Carnaval de Québec

In French class, we have started a mini unit on the province of Quebec. In our most recent lesson, we learned about Le Carnaval de Québec, an annual winter festival. Although the festival takes places in February, given our recent weather, it seemed to be an appropriate topic! Le Carnaval de Québec includes amusement parks, night parades, a palace made of ice, and a snowman mascot named Bonhomme Carnaval. At the end of the lesson, the girls completed fun worksheets from the festival's official website. They are intended for French-speaking students and the girls did an excellent job!

From the Library

Fourth graders are deep in the Amazon, reading Journey to the River Sea in language arts. In library we've discussed some of the book's Cinderella elements and have been reading, presenting and comparing many versions of this tale. Together we read Charles Perrault's Cinderella. Then the girls each read and presented another telling of this story, set either in another time or another culture.  Titles include The Orphan (Greece), The Irish Cinderlad, The Rough-Face Girl (Algonquin),
The Golden Sandal (Middle East), Ella's Big Chance (Jazz Age), Jouanah (Hmong), The Korean Cinderella, Yeh-Shen (China), and The Egyptian Cinderella.  In all versions the cruel and thoughtless lose out to the kind and good, but ask your daughter about the magical fish bones as fairy godmother or the falcon who steals the red slipper and delivers it to the Pharaoh.

Art: Student Mola Designs

We have figured out reverse appliqué! And, it wasn't easy for everyone, especially Ms. Arnot! Here are some girls starting to sew their layers together. 

Art: Molas in the Making

After a brief study of the Kuna tradition in Panama of making "molas" the girls designed their own.  The designs needed to be three layers, use reverse appliqué, and show the Kuna concept of "acala" which is the idea that everything has a partner or is part of a pair.  Traditional designs include birds, flowers, small animals and geometric patterns.  Molas are worn as the decorative part of a blouse. Ask your daughter what the subject of her design is. Mrs. Keller has a mola for the class to study up close. 

Science: Light up your life!

Can you put together a battery, a light bulb, and a wire to make the bulb light?  If not, ask a fourth grader!  The girls were given this equipment and found not one, but four ways to put these materials together to make a complete circuit.  Now they are applying their knowledge of circuits to create original electronic math games which they will play with the second grade students.

The Journey continues.....

Fourth-graders are deeply immersed in the exciting novel, The Journey to the River Sea, written by Eva Ibbotson.  This adventure story is set in the Amazon Basin of Brazil and is filled with interesting characters and multiple plotlines.  As students explore this habitat, they will also investigate similar settings and themes.  Some of the selections available for independent reading include texts set in South America, Mexico, the Caribbean, or in Central America.  Girls can also examine the way that the theme of the journey or respect for the environment connects with class work and discussion.  Please ask your daughters to share some of her insights with you about any of these works.  We encourage students to keep reading over this Thanksgiving break.

In a few weeks, you will be able to see either a short movie or e-book created with iPads in class by fourth-graders.  Be prepared to set sail on the Amazon and view the diversity of plant and animal life found there. 

Math: Loooong Division

Right now in math we are working on long division.  A student today proclaimed, "Long division is fun!  It can get frustrating sometimes, but mostly it is fun!"  So true.  We are working with single digit divisors and multi-digit dividends.  For now, we are using remainders but in the near future, the girls will be annexing zeroes and finding quotients with decimals!

Math: Multiplication

For the past week, we have been multiplying up a storm!  We've tackled multi-digit problems and just yesterday, we started working with decimal numbers as well.  The girls have loved learning the lattice method of multiplication in addition to the traditional partial product algorithm.

                                            There's more than one way to solve a problem!

Some of the girls even accepted my challenge to try a 10 by 10 lattice problem multiplying 1,234,567,890 * 5,936,108,247.  Now that's a big multiplication problem!!

 

French: Est-ce que tu joues au foot?

As we have recently been learning about sports and how to ask questions, what better way to put our French to use than to survey our classmates about their activities? Each girl asked one of the four questions below to her classmates (if you need a translation, I'm sure your daughter would be glad to help!):

• Est-ce que tu joues au foot?
• Est-ce que tu joues au tennis?
• Est-ce que tu joues au hockey?
• Est-ce que tu joues aux boules?

The girls recorded the number of oui's and non's they received and then shared their results with the group. We combined their data to create a class graph. Curious about the results? Tennis was the most popular sport and hockey was the least popular. Only speaking French, the girls were able to learn new things about their peers as well as the class as a whole.

Art: Observational Drawing with Gourds

The studio markers are a big hit in fourth grade! The girls can achieve a range of colors and value to show pattern and form.  They used their skill to draw a still-life of two gourds. 

Halloween in Fourth Grade

Our Halloween celebration was great fun. Thank you to Yelena Milman, Michelle Trousdale, and Denyce Graves-Montgomery for providing delicious snacks and a creative craft.
 

 

 

Maglev Trains!

The girls are putting to use their knowledge of the properties of magnets.  After learning that other countries are working on and using magnetically levitated (maglev) trains, our fourth graders are constructing their own versions, using Styrofoam blocks as train cars.  Placing the magnets so that the cars balance and slide down an inclined ramp is challenging and requires cooperation.  But it is so much fun to see the cars as they glide on a cushion of air!

P.E.- Net Games

We just finished a Tennis unit where we learned skills such as a forehand and backhand.  We also learned the complex scoring system of tennis.

As the cool weather is approaching, we headed indoors for a Volleyball unit.  We will learn passing (bump and set) and both the underhand and overhand serve.  We will also have fun with a variety of net games that allow us to practice our skills.

 

 

Math: Multiplication

We are well into our multiplication unit.  With the basic math facts under their belts, the girls applied this knowledge to multiplying with multiples of 10, 100, and 1,000.  For example:

3 * 8 = 24
3 * 80 = 240
3 * 800 = 2,400
30 * 800 = 24,000 and so on....

We also worked on estimating products before calculating an exact answer.  Estimating is a great tool to help the girls know if their final answer is reasonable. 

Moving forward, we will be looking at partial products and multiplying 2-digit and 3-digit numbers.  We hope that the girls can not only follow the steps to solving multi-digit multiplication problems, but that they also have an understanding of those steps (ie: Why do I put a "0" in the ones' place when multiplying by the digit in the tens' place? or Why do I add at the end of the multiplication problem?)

Music: Triple Meter Composition

Fourth grade girls have been working on distinguishing duple meter music from triple meter music.  Meter refers to how the beats are grouped into measures.  Duple meter time signatures are 2/4 and 4/4 and and triple meter time signature is 3/4.  The girls have been learning to aurally identify the meter of music that they hear.

We're also learning to read and perform music with triple meter rhythmic durations, such as dotted half notes, quarter notes, and half notes.  The students worked in groups to arrange those durations to form an 8 measure rhythm.

After choosing one of the group rhythms for the class to play, our next task was to create a class melody.  Please enjoy this final product!

Art: Unifying with the background

To complete the image self-portrait, the girls can use studio markers, acrylic paint, or more imagery to fill in the background.  They are considering contrast (warm colors/cool colors, organic shapes/geometric shapes, open space/closed space, etc) as a way to emphasis an image or idea in their work.  

Math: Fundamental Order of Operations (FOO)

Today your daughters heard the story of King Parenthesium and Queen Exponentia, rulers of Mathmatica.  Ask your daughter to tell you about the twin princesses (Multiplicia and Divisia) and their twin puppies (Addicy and Subtracty) and how their family, with the help of the royal mathematicians, came up with an order of operations so that everyone got the same answer to long math problems.  (Some of you may remember being taught "Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally" or "PEMDAS".)  We went on to try some problems, from "easy" to "medium" to "hard" and beyond.  Try out this problem, the most challenging one in our packet...and don't forget PEMDAS...

10 + (5 - 3) * 3 – 3² + 49/7 + (8 - 2) + 9/3 - 2 * 3 =

Science: Fun with Magnets

After doing many experiments to learn about the properties of magnets, the girls utilized their knowledge to create their own original magnetic games.  There was a variety of styles and it was hard to tell which was more fun, making the games, playing them, or sharing them with everyone in the class!

French: L'Afrique Francophone

As the girls are learning about Africa in their homerooms, it is the perfect time to begin a cultural unit on French-speaking Africa. So far, we have been learning and discussing the francophone countries' names in French, their location on the map, and their flags. Today, we played "I spy" with the flags. A girl secretly selects a flag and describe its colors and shapes in French to the class. The first girl to identify the correct country wins a turn. The girls are pretty speedy--I have a very hard time seeing whose hand shoots up first!

 

Visiting the South African Pop-Up Museum

Fourth graders were all invited to the Keller's South African Pop-Up Museum. Stations were set up around the room for the girls to view arts and crafts, literature, clothing, and photography all from  South Africa. Laura Sacktor shared her family's photo album and several craft items from their trip to South Africa. Ms. Keller read a delightful  story, Tell the Moon by Ann Walton that she purchased at  the Center for the Book in Cape Town, South Africa. Other students used their I Pads to find out information about other topics of interest. Everyone enjoyed seeing the exhibits as seen from the smiles below.

Independent Reading

Independent reading is an important component of our fourth-grade language arts' program.  As students read a variety of texts like Journey to Jo'burg, they also select and complete books at their own level.  These "just-right" volumes will help your child build vocabulary, learn story structure, and develop her thinking skills.  Although many students will eagerly spend time involved in their latest choice, others will find it more difficult to settle down and complete the 20 to 30 minute requirement for homework.  You can help them develop this skill because the habit of reading is a malleable one that all students can work on during the school year.  Here are some ways that you can help:

Make sure that your daughter always has at least one book ready to read.  We visit the Lower School library once a week, and Mrs. Mason is always eager to share new publications through book talks and featured favorite novels with them.

Check to see that a reading card is in her book with a record of class and home reading times.

Carrying a book at all times is a great way to add on reading minutes.  Students can complete a chapter or two while waiting for a sibling to finish a piano lesson or other activity. Even five minutes spent with a book can add up during the week.

Feel free to read with your daughters.  There are so many questions that arise naturally about the book because they are reading stories that deal with complex issues about friendship, families, and fairness. They are old enough to grasp subtleties about characters and their actions. 

Let them see you reading.  It doesn't matter if you are reading a newspaper, magazine, book, e-book on any electronic device.  Letting them know that reading plays an important part in your lives is an excellent way to develop their motivation.

Math: Factors and Multiples

In 4th grade math, we are wrapping up a chapter dealing with factors, multiples, and rules of divisibility.  One of the girls' favorite things to make was a prime factorization tree.  Remember those?  The bigger the number, the better!  The girls also learned how to use exponents to express the prime factorization.  Want a challenge?  Try make a prime factorization tree for 2,592.  (Hint: remember that if the number is even, you can always divide it by 2.)

Soccer anyone?

We started our Soccer Unit a few weeks back and have all improved our individual skills through hard work and practice.  We even learned the difficult skill of juggling a soccer ball with mixed success.  Our goal is to be able to juggle our age; ask your daughter how she did.  In our most recent classes we put those skills to the test and learned that teamwork equals success in our games of Human Foosball and Guard Your Pin.

Art: Imagery and illustration

After brainstorming, the girls are choosing their imagery and placing their selections to fill their silhouettes.  The challenge is to use contrast, rhythm, and unity (3 principles of design) to complete their work.  One student exclaimed, "My image is both literal and figurative.  It means I love animals but I also want to take care of animals around the world when I grow up." 

First Impressions!

 Our fourth graders have thought about the impact first impressions can make. As you know, last Friday the girls dressed in something that would tell us about them or possible interests they might have. From the moment they walked into the classroom and saw their classmates clothed in something other than a BMS uniform, they thought about their first impressions of their classmates - what thoughts came into their minds when they first saw their classmates, what might the outfit tell about the person etc. The girls were partnered up and quietly observed a partner. They responded to questions like What does my partner like? What is she wearing that gives me that idea? and then, after talking with her partner, was my impression correct? As a group we discussed stereotyping, when we think something is true about someone without getting to know them. The following are some of the girls'  thoughts about the dangers of stereotyping:

"You might decide they are bad by what they are wearing and they might be good once you get to know them."

"If you say something or spread a rumor that turns out not to be true then you could really hurt their feelings."

"What you think may not be true, so get to know the person before you assume something."

"You might be wrong and never know the truth about that person."

"When you see how a person dresses and you think that it is ugly but in their culture it is actually considered pretty. They might feel bad if you tell that to them."

Ask your daughter about how she can get beyond a first impression when she meets or sees someone different from herself. Who knows, she might make a life long friend from getting beyond that first impression.



The Journey Begins......

Fourth-grade students began reading Journey to Jo'burg this week.  The novel, set in apartheid-era South Africa, complements our social studies' unit on African geography and culture while reinforcing skills in literal and interpretive comprehension.  Please feel free to ask about the discussions held in class.  For example, girls compared some of the information in this book to what Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King experienced during the American struggle for civil rights.  Reinforcing these concepts at home will expand both background knowledge and connections between historical  events.  An excellent website about the author, Beverly Naidoo, can be found at:

http://www.beverleynaidoo.com

French: Bienvenue à la classe de français!

Bonjour parents! In fourth grade, we have already progressed through four sections of our Gérard et Ses Copains Symtalk textbooks. This week, we have been discussing buying items à la boulangerie (at the bakery) and au café (you can probably guess this one...at the café). We use cards with images on them to represent vocabulary words. Whenever your daughters see a card with a heart, for example, they know to say "aime" (or "aimes", depending on the subject). Today, I told them a story about the textbook characters Gérard and Brigitte. The girls had miniature cards at their desks and formed the sentences of the story as they listened. The picture below shows you what some of our Symtalk cards look like. Quiz your daughter and ask her to read the sentence to you! (She should read: Tu manges un croque-monsieur au café avec moi.)