THE GIANT PEACH

Home Learning

As a result of on going political turmoil and related safety concerns in Bangkok, ISB is closed today.  I’ve sent an email to all of the families in my class outlining home learning activities that the children can work on today.  I hope that ISB will reopen on Friday, and look forward to seeing everyone soon.

Michael

Snow Day! Really?

When I was in elementary school, we always looked forward to “snow days”.  There were a few special days when schools were closed because the snowy weather made it difficult or dangerous to get to school.  I have a lot of fond memories about snow days.  Although they were always a nice treat, we often found ourselves wondering, what can we do?  So I thought I would be helpful, and offer a few suggested learning activities that you can work on during our early start to Songkran, or even throughout next week’s holiday.

Check out the FOSS web for some great science experiments. In the home/school connections, you can download a copy of the Water Home School Connection in English.  Activities are found on pages 9-11.

Be sure to read for 1 hour. That’s 30 minutes for school time, and 30 minutes for home time.  It’s a free choice book, so make sure that you choose wisely.  Select a book that you’ll enjoy and that is a good fit.

To practice writing, you can plan and draft a persuasive piece.  With school cancelled for the last two days, we may be looking at making up the lost instructional time.  One option is to have Saturday school.  This means coming to school for two Saturdays before the end of the school year.  What do you think?  Is this a good idea? Or not so good?  Draft a persuasive 11 sentence paragraph and when we are done, we can share your thoughts with Mr. Robertson.  Let’s hope that you can be persuasive!!!

Finally, there are a number of activities that you can work on by visiting the 4th Grade Portaportal.  You can choose to spend time improving your typing by visiting one of the keyboarding sites, making book recommendations on Book Face, or  playing a variety of Math games to help improve your computation, logical, and reasoning skills.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful start to the Songkran holiday.  Be happy, be safe, and most importantly, keep learning!

Mr. Peach

The Equal Parts of a Whole

The student-led conferences were a resounding success.  The conferences continually remind me of the wonderful things that your children accomplish each and everyday.  Thank you for sharing in their accomplishments and for your continued support and understanding.

Our class is starting a new mathematics unit about fractions called Fraction Cards and Decimal Squares.  During this unit, students will investigate the meaning of fractions and the ways fractions can be represented.  They will be using halves, quarters, eighths, thirds, sixths, twelfths, fifths, and tenths to compare the value of fractions and use representations to add fractions.  The kids will also work with decimals in the tenths and hundredths.

Throughout the unit, students will be working towards the following goals:

• identify fractional areas ( 3/4 of the pizza has been eaten )
• identify fractional parts of a group  ( 8/12 of the class are girls )
• read, write, and interpret fractions ( 11/6 is more than one, but less that two )
• Order fractions with like and unlike denominators
• Read, write, and interpret decimal fractions in 10ths & 100ths

Don’t forget that in out math class, students spend time discussing problems in depth and are asked to share their reasoning and solutions.  It is important that your child solve math problems in ways that make sense to him or her.  At home, please encourage your child to explain the math thinking that supports those solutions.

Authors Growing Readers

In Reading, we are beginning a unit of study where we examined different authors.  Although by 4th grade, the students have many experiences with the works of multiple authors, our study will focus on what it means to “read like a writer” and what a reader can borrow from an author to help grow their own writing.  Throughout this unit, the students will learn how to read, talk, think, and write about what they notice in the books they are reading.  By reading several books by the same author, student will begin to identify common themes and characteristic style.  By researching the author’s life, students learn what compels the author to write the stories that they do.

At long last, I’ve been able to post the kids Non-Fiction Voice Threads.  Below are 4 pages of non-fiction texts. The kids had the opportunity to read the sample text and were then asked to identify the features and reading strategies that they used to help with their comprehension.  Voice Threads enabled our thinking to become visible to each other.  You can visit them by following the link:

http://voicethread.com/share/767426/

We hope that you enjoy them.

Large & Landmark Numbers

Photo Credit: Flickr 304526237_6d1acf58bb

Our class has started a new addition and subtraction unit called Landmark and Large Numbers. In this unit, students practice and refine strategies for adding and subtracting whole numbers up to 10,000.  It is expected that students leave Grade 4 with one addition strategies that they can use fluently and efficiently.  Children are also expect to have access to and an understanding of other possible strategies.  Students continue to develop and use subtraction strategies with the  goal of using at least one strategy efficiently and effectively.  They are solving subtraction problems involving removal, comparison, and missing parts.

Throughout the unit, students are working towards achieving the following goals:

• Read, write, and sequence numbers to 10,000.
• Add and subtract multiples of 10 (including multiples of 100 and 1,000) fluently.
• Solve addition problems efficiently, choosing from a variety of strategies.
• Solve subtraction problems with 3-digit numbers by using at least one strategy efficiently.

In class, students spend time discussing problems in depth and are asked to share their reasoning and solutions.  It is important that the students solve math problems accurately and efficiently in ways that make sense to them.  At home, encourage your child to explain the math thinking that supports their solutions.

Water, Water Everywhere!

Water is a unique earth material, the only material on Earth that occurs naturally in all three states of matter — solid, liquid, and gas. Next to the air we breathe, water is probably the most important thing in our lives. In our newest science investigation, we will learn these interesting things and more as we examine water, its properties, and what it can do.

One of the goals of this investigation is to help students focus their observation skills on water – being able to see water in a new light. Through their investigations into the properties of water, how it reacts to heating and cooling, and the process of evaporation and condensation, students will begin to appreciate how important this unique material is.

You can help you child focus on the properties of water and its uses in several ways. Check out books about water, water conservation, and recycling from the ES Learning Hub. Walk around Nichada or a park and discuss the irrigation systems. Consider ways to conserve water in your home and community. A walk around the block after a rainstorm, looking for evidence of precipitation, condensation, evaporation, and flowing water, can also be eye-opening.

We are all looking forward to the weeks ahead and the exciting investigations that are planned into the world of water!

Photo Credit - ViaMoi's @ Flickr.com

Take Me to the River

In December, as part of our study of “Influence”, we had a wonderful adventure on the Chaophraya River in Bangkok with the Magic Eyes Barge Program. Throughout the day we learned about how life on the river influences people’s daily life. By looking at water quality, we also learned about how people impact the river, and had great fun modeling interdependence of living things, and how the availability of resources impact populations of living things.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Size, Shape, and Symmetry

Our class has started a unit in Mathematics about geometry and measurement. During this unit, students practice making accurate measurements of length using U.S. standard units (inches, feet, yards) and metric units (millimeter, centimeter, meter). They are investigating the characteristics of quadrilaterals and other polygons. They will use right angles as a reference to identify the size of other angles, and solve problems about area, the two-dimensional measure of the size of a surface.

In our math class, students spend time discussing problems in depth and are asked to share their reasoning and solutions. It is important that children efficiently solve math problems in ways that make sense to them. To help build understanding, please try to encourage your child to explain the mathematical thinking that supports a solution.

Digital Storytelling

To finish our personal narrative writing, the class embarked on a little digital storytelling project. After identifying a story that the kids felt they would like to share with the world, they began to edit and revise their work. Once they were finished with this step, they created a podcast of their story using Garageband. Next, a series of original multi-media illustrations were created using a digital camera. After digitizing all of the artwork, the boys and girls assembled their podcast and artwork into a digital story using iMovie. These stories have been added to our class channel on Youtube — thegiantpeachTV. You can view the videos by following the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/user/thegiantpeachTV#g/a

We hope that you enjoy our stories and look forward to hearing your comments.

How do you make a decision?

People around the world are constantly making decisions about what to do, what to eat,  and where to live? How did you pick ISB as a school for your children?  In Social Studies, we have begun to look at the concept of influence.  Two essential questions are guiding our study.

The first is, How and why does the physical environment influence people?

In this context, we will look at how and why climate, topography, and resources influence things like people’s habitat, food, religion, clothing, economic levels, societal roles, etc.

The second essential question we will look at is How and why do people influence their physical environment? For example, How does people’s choices, actions or use of new technology impact the environment?

We launched our unit earlier in the week with a pre-assessment that was intended to help kids build their own understanding of the concept of influence, while capturing their current understanding or thinking.