Fourth Grade has been exploring and working with fractions this month! Students have been practicing their skills through a variety of fraction centers, and we put our skills to work, adapting recipes to feed our class, then choosing one to create and eat! Lava Cakes were a welcome addition to our students day!! Two teams of students made two double batches by following directions and working together to communicate next steps. I don't know about Chef Gordon Ramsey, but I was really proud of the teamwork, fun, and awesome volunteer cleanup crew!
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| Team One! Batter is coming along! |
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| Reading to see what is next! Teams had to pay attention to whose ingredients went in next! |
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| Lots of egg in this recipe! Students tried their hand at dividing the yolk from the white! |
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| One of the cleanup crew volunteers! Thank you Sam! |
...But that's not all, oh no! That's not all!
In science the students are building understanding about different kinds of energy and how they are transfered by exploring one of 6 energy centers, which in these pics they are taking a turn at teaching to classmates.
In Language Arts we have been reading and listening to many traditional tales from around the world! We are asking: "What is it about a story that makes it worth telling and retelling from generation to generation?" and "How can we learn to write and tell stories that people will want to read and listen to for years to come?"
Part of our exploration involves the children reading and listening Lot's in order to choose the stories they think would be the absolute BEST stories to pass down to the next class of 4th graders! In order to do this they are building their skills on how to write a persuasive essay, and will choose one story to make an argument for over the next couple weeks!
Our grand project will be to write (and maybe even tell!!) our own traditional style tales. Students will be able to choose from different styles of tale, (Fairy, Folk, Fable, Pourquoi, Legend) and they can create their own original tale in that style including key elements. For example:
- Fairy Tales often include Good vs Evil, some type of magic, human characters, and are often set in a 'Woods' or 'Castle', while
- A Pourquoi tale often is about animals solving some problem and finding a clever solution, they tend to explain why? (pourquoi?) about something in nature. ie. How Rabbit Lost his Tail, or Why the seasons Change.
To get warmed up, I am also working on setting up a walk to the Greenfield Library and maybe even a visit from Kay Lyons to tell us some stories one day! I will keep you all posted about these!!
