Eager Essayists

The "snow" day made for an odd  first week back, but we made the most of our three days together and the students continued with their work writing personal essays.Up until this point  they have really only been focusing on writing strong paragraphs or longer informational writing pieces. Now they are being asked to write an opinion piece that includes not only five structured paragraphs, but also uses elaboration, details, and stories within to build an essay that includes voice and detail,

This is challenging stuff, so the way that we break it down is Liz teaches the lessons on structure and organization. We use a baking analogy to say that she is going to teach how to make their essay "look" good. Then Jess teaches the lessons on writer's craft; teaching them how to make it "taste" good, too.

We began the week by having students use prompts to write as much as they could about their opinion on the importance of homework. It was amazing to see how much more they could write with the help of phrases like:
Some people think...but I think....
As I write this I realize...
An example of this is...

Then the students went back in and mined through all of their writing to find a seed idea that they wanted to grow into a longer essay. To do this they asked themselves some questions about the big ideas that kept coming up in their writing...
What topics do I keep writing about?
Why is this piece so important? What could it teach my reader about me?

Once students had this seed idea they used it to think about they REALLY wanted to say about this topic. This took lots of wordsmithing until it sounded exactly the way they wanted it to sound. Here are some of our thesis statements that we will use to write longer personal essays:

Sports are an important part of my life.
My old house is where all of my memories began.
My dog has a great personality.
My father is a caring person.

Next week our essays will begin to take shape and develop into what will most likely be the strongest and most challenging writing pieces they have ever written.

We are also working on our Passion Projects during our theme time which combines reading, note taking, research, writing, and creating. We look forward to sharing our hard work with you at our Passion Project Presentation Breakfast on the morning of Tuesday, March 22.

Conferences will be held at the end of this month on several different days. Please click on your child's teacher's wiki signup on the side bar of the blog under important dates if you would like a conference for the spring.

I Just Know It!

"I just know it" are words that no mathematician would ever utter. No, instead mathematicians must provide proof of their conjectures and generalizations about their math ideas that convince their peers they are correct. Mathematicians do this by having clear representations and multiple pathways to solutions, not just by being "good at math." In our classroom math is the authority, not status.

 Your fourth grade mathematicians are being asked to think critically about strategies for multi-digit addition and subtraction during this unit. They have shown different strategies for dealing with these types of problems and have discussed how some solutions are more efficient for certain problems. For example, we had a great debate about how you would solve 999+1,765. "Why would you go through all of the hassle to do the standard algorithm (regrouping) way?! It is SO much more efficient to just add 1 to 999 and take 1 from 1,765!"

This type of conceptual understanding of numbers and how they work is essential to developing into strong mathematicians. We must be able to think flexibly about how numbers work in order to find strategies that help us to be accurate and efficient. Then we need to be able to communicate, discuss, and represent those ideas to our fellow learners.

The kids know that I  love teaching math because everyday my mind is genuinely blown by the way that we can think differently about these concepts. I have told them my woes of workbook pages and procedures that I never understood when I was in elementary school and they remind me everyday that we never stop learning!

Stop That Sound!

This week we continued to investigate our sound energy phenomenon. We tested our original hypotheses around how sound waves travel, how sound is absorbed or echoed and how sound travels best through certain materials. 

By using tuning forks and water we were able to see how sound waves travel and determined that the singer had to have a great amplitude in order for the sound waves to be carried to the glass and break it. Then we used what we knew about matter and connected it to our inquiry task through a close reading activity. Mrs. Parker and Mrs. Eaton helped to further illustrate the students' ideas around how sound moves by having them act out how they would move if they were solid, liquid, or gas molecules. This activity lead us to the conclusion that the glass had to be empty for Jaime to break it. If it had water in it, the students thought that he would have to be at a much higher pitch or it might not have even broken at all.

Lastly, we thought about how sound is echoed or absorbed and tested an iPad sound generator in three different conditions: empty box open with lid off, empty box closed with top on, and a box with the generator wrapped in a material of the groups' choosing. All of the students chose to wrap their generator with cotton batting because they predicted that the sound molecules would have a harder time moving through the thick absorbent material. Their data was conclusive with this hypothesis and the decibel readings were all considerably lower when the batting was blocking the sound. This lead the scientists to want to watch Jaime again and they decided that he was able to break the glass even when he was behind a glass because it is a solid and the vibrations were still able to echo off of the material and break the glass. They wondered if he would've been able to break the glass if it had been covered in cotton!

Next week we will conclude our investigation and use our observations, new learning, and data to write a strong conclusion as to how this breaking glass phenomenon is scientifically possible. 

Stay tuned! 

Sounds of Science

This week in science we watched this video link of Jaime breaking the glass with his voice. Then we set to work to develop initial ideas and hypotheses around how this phenomenon is scientifically possible. Some of the initial ideas and wonderings were:

" I noticed he gets closer to the glass. I think he has to be close for the glass to break."
" We noticed that right before he sings he taps the glass. We think he had to get to a certain pitch."
" The glass only breaks in one big chunk it doesn't really shatter. I wonder why that happens?"
"I think it is important that the glass is a circle. Then the sound waves can circle around and around the glass more freely than if it was a square glass."
" I think the fact that it is a thin wine glass is important. I don't think the glass would break if it was thicker or shorter."
" Would it still break if there was water in the glass?"

Collecting data using the iPad decibel reader

Next we set out to test some of these hypotheses. We read about how our voices work and the parts that are involved with making sound. Some of our new vocabulary words were diaphram, windpipe, and vocal cords. Then we tested these parts with different types of sounds (whisper, hum, talk, yell) at different volumes. Our inquiry task helped us to determine that a higher volume/bigger sound increased the vibration. This is why we think Jaime had to be screaming to break the glass.

At the end of the week we wanted to test our hypothesis that the singer had to be close to the glass. To do this, we set up markers at different distances (in cm.) and used a decibel reader application on the iPads and a vacuum cleaner to test how distance affects volume. Then we went outside to see if our data was consistent in both locations. We set up markers at different distances (in meters) and used a bull horn to test how the dB reading changed at each marker. Once we were back inside we learned how to compile our data to create a line graph, find range, and determine the average. Our data and graphs clearly confirmed our hypothesis that as distance increases, volume decreases. We applied this to our phenomenon and now understand why he had to be so close to the glass in order for it to break.

Next week we will continue to investigate some of the ideas and wonderings that we still have. Stay tuned!

Counting down to the next reading. Cover your ears!

In math this week we finished up a unit on fractions and the students reflected on their progress by comparing their pre and post tests. The overall growth in student understanding was  fantastic and they felt quite proud of their new learning. This week we will begin a new unit in mathematics. During this unit your child will  compare multi-digit numbers and identify the value of the digits in such numbers, use the standard algorithms for addition and subtraction, measure length, distance, liquid volume, time, mass, and weight, and convert measurements from one unit to another within the same system (e.g., centimeters to meters but not centimeters to inches)

Mosaic's Vermont History Museum

Thanks to all of those who were able to come and see our hard work at Mosaic's Vermont History Museum. The students all worked hard on their research, writing and creative presentations and they were thrilled to have such a supportive audience.  If you weren't able to join we tried our best to get around and snap a photo of as many of the "wax sculptures" as we could. Enjoy!

Slideshow design personalized with Smilebox

This week we will begin a new science unit around sound energy. We will be watching this piece of digital text where Jaime is able to shatter glass with only his voice. We will form hypotheses around this scientific phenomenon and conduct inquiry tasks and gather data to explain it over the next few weeks. We hope that you will engage in conversations around your own ideas about how this phenomenon works at home. 

Math and Mindset

This year in math we have been using our Pre/Post assessments to communicate with families about the mathematical concepts that students are engaged with.  Some have expressed concern over the scores that they see in the Pre-Assessment and we wanted to be clear about how these assessments help students and teachers to set goals. The pre-test is really just meant to show the teacher, student and parent what the child already knows in a unit we are about to start and helps everyone measure growth. It also help students set goals and be more aware of what they need to focus on during the unit; basically it makes them accountable for their learning. It also helps students focus on growth when they get a post-test back, rather than just a score. For us as teachers, it helps us think about what to slow down on and what to spend less time on when we look at particular trends and it also helps us think about who/what we need to provide support or enrichment on. It really is just an assessment tool given before the unit begins. 

This unit we have been engaged in some rigorous work around fractions. Students have been learning how to identify equivalent fractions and add fractions with common denominators. We have also been looking at models (egg cartons/geoboards) to look at improper fractions and mixed numbers. Most recently we have shifted our thinking from fractions to decimals. Fractions can be very abstract and attaching the concept to the idea of money was very motivating for students and it connected to the learning to something that was more concrete and relevant. 

We will be taking our Post Assessment next week and we hope that you will have the opportunity to look at both the Pre/Post test and use it as a way to celebrate how your student has grown and changed as a mathematician throughout the unit. We do not yet expect students to have mastery of fractions as a concept and this will provide them with the opportunity to set goals around these topics for future learning. 

We are looking forward to seeing you at the Mosaic Vermont History Museum on Thursday, January 21st from 8:00-8:45. Your young biographers have been researching, writing, and putting together a visual presentation and are excited to demonstrate their learning to a broader and very special audience. For those who are unable to attend we will be sure to attach some photos of our "exhibits" in next week's blog post. 

Budding Biographers

We are always looking for authentic opportunities to integrate learning across the content areas in engaging ways. In fourth grade much of our interdisciplinary studies have been focused on  Vermont history and geography concepts. Over the past several weeks we have learned about mapping skills, studied the history of how Vermont became a state through role play and showed our understanding by storyboarding/cartooning. We also integrated writing into our units of study by creating a personalized google map of Vermont attractions and through writing opinion pieces and a personal poem about the beautiful state that we call home.

Our culminating project is a biography project on a famous Vermonter. Each student has chosen a Vermont figure whom they are curious about. Over the past week they have learned about the elements of the biography genre and how biographers use multiple sources to research their person of interest. Next week they will use their notes to draft, edit, revise and publish an informational writing piece about their person. Then they will present this information at our very own Mosaic Vermont History Museum. The “museum” will be open on the morning of Thursday, January 21 from 8:00-8:45.  Each classroom will be transformed into a museum room full of third and fourth grade “exhibits”. Come and let our hardworking students teach you more about your state!  

Next week we will be working on the visual literacy part of the project, where students will be creating a poster to display information. They will also brainstorm one or two props that would be appropriate to represent their person at their exhibit. This does not mean that they should be running out and buying materials. For example, if I was going to do a report on Ben Cohen of Ben and Jerry’s, I might have an ice cream scoop at my exhibit and don a tie-dye t-shirt. We are not looking for a full costume by any means!

The students have been working hard and have impressed us with the time management and teamwork in this project. We are looking forward to sharing their hard work with you all on the 21st.