I hope everyone enjoyed the weekend!  It is crazy to think that we are already in November.  It is going to be a crazy week with 2 days off.

Writing Workshop
     In writing workshop we have been working on categorizing.  We tried categorizing the items in my son's trick or treating bag.  The kids needed to look at the items in the bag and try to come up with ways to categorize or group the items.  We talked about how we knew where each item belonged.  We then discussed how all of these items fit into the larger category of the trick or treat bag.


      We did this with other groups of items last week as well.  This activity helped us a lot in writer's workshop.  We are doing the same work of categorizing in literary essay writing as we did with the candy.  Instead of using items we used evidence from a book.  All of the evidence needed to fall under a thesis or opinion about a book.  Ask your child what their thesis is and how they categorized the evidence.  
      For our first try at writing literary essays we are working with partners to go through the process.  After writing an essay together, we will take what we have learned to write a literary essay independently!

Math Workshop

     We started to learn about multiplying by multiples of 10.  I know that when I learned this type of multiplying I learned the "trick" for multiplying by 10.  For example, I learned 3 x 100 was 3 x 1 and "add" 2 zeroes.  When your child learned this skill, they used a place value chart to see that the 3 was getting 10 times bigger and then another 10 times bigger.  We did a lot of practice with this and many of the kids did come to realize the pattern was "adding on" the zeroes.  They were able to show that they understood why this pattern happened however.
     In fourth grade your child will not formally be taught the standard algorithm for multiplication or division.  It is not a common core standard for fourth grade, however, many children have seen this strategy.  We have talked in class that the standard algorithm would be a great way to check work for accuracy, but it won't be taught in fourth grade.  Again, the hope is that the children will have a good foundation and true understanding of  how to multiply larger numbers and next year will see why the standard algorithm actually works.

Menu Math Projects....
     A lot of creative projects came in once again. It was great to see the creativity showing what they know about the metric system.  It was also fun to see that some students chose the activity for finding the error on the math problem.
     Just a reminder the math menu project is due THURSDAY this week since we don't have school on Friday!

Science

     There was a lot of excitement on Monday when we went for a "field trip" around our school looking for examples of tree root wedging.  We did end up finding a great example out in the back of the school near the back parking lot.  Some kids have brought in or sent pictures of tree root wedging that they have found out in the "real world!"  Keep them coming!  

      I went for a hike on Saturday and found many example of tree root wedging to share with the kids tomorrow!  It certainly made my hike more exciting!

      Although we didn't find a ton of example of tree root wedging, we did find some really interesting things on the playground.  Below a tree branch grew around the fencing.  The kids were fascinated by this!  

    

Just a reminder, please send in the permission slip for our field trip to the Acton Discovery Museum in by Wednesday.  Our class is going on Thursday, November 17th.  

Also, we do not have school on Tuesday and Friday this week!  

Have a great week!  

~Jen