Ms. McLean’s 4th Grade Newsletter
	Volume  2 - September 22, 2017

Important Information
We began our math curriculum this week. We looked at place value, and noticed how each place is 10x more than the previous one. Students used expanded form to take numbers apart by place value. Our class worked very hard to learn about rounding to all different place values within a number.	Start working on those multiplication facts at home. Games, online, or just some simple back and forth while driving in the car. All it takes is about 10 minutes each day. We try to play multiplication games in class a couple of times a week. If you would like to borrow some games to play at home, I am happy to check them out!	In writing we have started our fiction narrative. Students are writing stories using ideas from their lives. We ended the week by getting to know our characters and their external and internal traits. Everyone just wants to start in on their story!! But we are trying be like real writers and plan before we start.

This week in class we...

Continue to enjoy the game of Sparkle -counting by groups like 9s to help us get more fluent at multiplication. Made a paper blog and decorated it to practice posting. Next week we will discuss comments Signed on to the chromebooks. Everyone has their school email address and has signed on to the Google classroom. Parents were also invited to the Google classroom. Made a flipgrid about what we are looking forward to in math and what we are nervous about. You can watch it on the google classroom.

Parent Connection

Specific questions you can ask your child about what we are learning this week: Multiplication tables - for most kids the 9’s. Can you count by 9? Backwards and forwards? What is your blog name? Can you read this number? 1,346,798  We are reading numbers up to one million and taking them apart by place value. Give your student some large numbers to write down for you.

Newsletter for our first two weeks

Please click this link to see our newsletter for theSept. 15.

https://docs.google.com/a/glendale.k12.wi.us/document/d/1JSjlHXd4IsCEm9Jz-TrLr2XIi9h4QTuIc53IlRJzJP0/edit?usp=sharing

Click'd by Tamara Ireland Stone

Allie designs an app at code camp to help people find friends. It sounds great and everyone is excited about it. But does liking the same kind of cookie, or vacation spot really mean you should be friends? This book looks at friendship and brings up questions that students will really relate to. I like the use of profile pictures in the book and I think kids will too. I think many 4th grade studnets and older would really enjoy this book. Check it out!

Connecting with Educators

I have tried for the past few years to attend the ISTE convention. ISTE stands for International Society for Technology in Education. This year the convention was held in San Antonio and once again I was unable to find the funds to attend. However, this time I discovered (thru Twitter) a wonderful alternative -the Google #notatISTE17 group. 

 I have spent the last three days connecting with educators who are also NOT at ISTE this year and it has been quite a learning experience. Connecting with the #notatISTE17 group has pushed me to reach a bit beyond my comfort zone in a few areas. I played around in Google Draw and created my own notatISTE17 badge and ribbons. I have played with Google Draw before, but I learned a few more techniques. The challenge/Leader Board pushed me to connect and reach out with different forms of social media. Trying to gain more points for the challenges, I found myself watching a few Periscope shares from ISTE17 and posting my picture on Twitter asking for selfies from attendees at ISTE (yikes!). Also, I am finally transforming my classroom blog over into one where I am blogging about my own teaching/learning journey thanks to challenges from the #notatISTE17 group (thank you!).

I was unable to attend ISTE this year, but thanks to Twitter, I connected to a fabulous group of educators and walked away with great resources and new ideas. (Ok, no swag, but I am holding out hope for a really great door prize!)

Hour of Code

SO happy to start Hour of Code this week! We will be coding every day in class using the code.org website. Enjoy this inspirational video about coding...

It's Thursday. What are you reading?

Created with Padlet

A message for our first day of school......

Wouldn't this be great to do at our school? What do you hope for this year?

Book a Day Book #1 Tiger Rising

I have one week of vacation between the end of school (and professional development) and the start of summer school. I have decided to read a book a day during my break, and even possible continue my reading during the month of summer school. It gives me a good excuse to occupy the hammock in the garden! Book #1 I finished was 'The Tiger Rising,' by Kate DiCamillo. I have to admit, this is not my favorite DiCamillo book, but it is a touching story.

The main character, Rob Horton, is an outcast at school- picked on by bullies, lonely, unable to stand up for himself. He and his father live in the Kentucky Star Hotel in Florida. His mother has recently died, and both he and his father have not really begun to deal with their grief. One day, Rob stumbles upon a tiger locked in a cage in the forest behind the motel. He is fascinated by it. He befriends a new girl named Sistine, who is also a loner and in need of friendship. The two decide what to do about the tiger, with the help of Willie May, a maid at the hotel.

I love the characters in this book. They definitely remind me of the people in my favorite DiCamillo book, 'Winn Dixie.' Rob and Sistine are lonely and heartbroken but their coming together helps them move through their troubles towards healing. The tiger does not fill the same role as the dog Winn Dixie does. Winn Dixie gives the story laughter and love, but the tiger is a ferocious animal, trapped, pacing in his cage. I wanted to like the tiger just as I loved Winn Dixie, but I didn't. Maybe that is what is missing for me in this story.

'The Tiger Rising,' is a quick read, and reads more like a short story. I recommend the book, but if you haven't read 'Winn Dixie,' read that one first!!

Fraction Number Lines

Video about Today's Math Lesson

Discovery World Field Trip

Thank you to Kohls for their generous grant that allowed the 4th grade to take a trip to Discovery World. A very fun day was had by all.

Problem Solving Page

Here is a great collection of problem solving games. Math and problem solving can be fun, just give it a try!

Orchestra Concert Today

Congratulations to our 4th grade orchestra!! They gave their first performance today and did a great job. Bravo everybody!!

Here are a few talented musicians from our class. we are looking forward to their next performance in May.

Hour of Code this Week!

The 2015 Hour of Code is here, with 191,000 events around the world!

So glad to be doing Hour of Code again this week.  We are taking part in a global event aimed at introducing students to computer science and coding.  We will try to connect to the website and go through the tutorials a few times, but please feel free to try this at home too!  Here is the link: Hour of Code

2nd Mystery Skype

We had our second Mystery Skype this week.  Now that students know how to run one, I stayed out of it as much as possible.  What happened was surprising!  Students really started working as a team, coming up with questions and choosing people to go up to the front to ask the question.  At our debriefing after the event we were able to talk about all the great things that happened during this skype and what improvements we would like to see for the next time.  Hopefully, can get our next Mystery Skype scheduled at the end of December!

Great team work!!

Espanded Notation Method

Here is a great video that explains expanded notation method for division. This one seems to be the most popular method for division in our class!

Place Value Sections Division

Woo hoo, we started division this week and everyone is very excited about learning place value sections division (just kidding).  But really, it is not that bad once you understand what we are doing.  Here is a video showing how the algorithm works.  Hopefully I will be able to put more up later this week.

Math this week

This week we are looking at different ways to use place value in multi-digit multiplication. Here are some videos explaining different strategies.

Place Value Sections Method


Expanded Notation Method

Lincoln Peirce Visit!

BIG NATE came to our school today!  What a great presentation from Lincoln Peirce today.  He told us about how he began his career as a cartoonist.  He started by reading regular books and also comic books like Avengers, Donald Duck, and Peanuts.  Sometimes he would draw inside his comic books and try to copy the artist.  He seemed to like super heros a lot!  One time he made a cartoon hero he called Super Jimmy.  As he got older, he became a better artist and he finally hit it big with Big Nate. However, even that took two years to get printed.  One thing I did not think about when I read the Big Nate books is that the pictures can take sometimes up to 10 hours to draw for just one half of a page.