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| Weather vanes measure wind direction! |
What's the situation? What have we been up to? Well, the answer is simple: We have been learning A LOT and laughing throughout it all.
In math, we wrote
area and perimeter raps, poems, songs, and performed them for each other. Our performances reflected our understanding of what area and perimeter are, how they are related, used a variety of new math vocabulary to explain our thinking, and revealed how area and perimeter are used and around us in real-life - all in a creative and fun way. We continue our study of area and perimeter this week, as we explore creating real-life story problems involving this concept and practice with using the formulas to calculate the area and perimeter of a quadrilateral. Did you know we can use these same formulas, even when we have a complex closed figure/polygon? Pretty rad!
Last week, base group #1 wrote an explanation of our inquiry into
How the World Works, our unit's theme. This week, we continue our exploration of what weather is. We looked at some
elements of weather such as clouds by creating a cloud book and making a cloud spinner, that gives an illustration of different types of clouds and their corresponding definitions. Students used these materials and went outside to create cinquains, or poems that follow a certain syllabic pattern 2, 4, 6, 8, 2. Our cinquains were inspired by our ability to observe the natural world, how we feel and interact with it, and how weather plays a role between these two ideas. Deep, rich in texture, innovative, unique, diverse in perspective, emotional, and gritty are some of the words that describe our work and creative process.
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| One student's cinquain. |
Book clubs are coming to an end and we are starting to explore myths.
Myths are stories told to explain something, usually with facts that are untrue to reality. In our brainstorming sessions of what activities we wanted to do to learn more about weather, students wanted to explore writing in different styles. Our cinquains started that, and it continues with us writing weather myths! Over the next couple weeks, students will explore myths from different cultures that relate to weather and eventually write their own myth that explain an element of weather (e.g. clouds, rain). We looked at some myths on this
web site, which shares creation myths. Have fun exploring!
We did explore
wind, another element of weather. It seems wind, or the movement of air, is very important as it moves weather from place to place on Earth. We discussed ways scientists measure wind using anemometers, which measure wind speed. As an experiment, we created weather vanes, which indicate weather direction - North, South, West, East, or a combination of these directions. Check out this
web site, which shows a live feed of current wind patterns on Earth!
Our book shares continue to inspire others, as students have been more dramatic in their presentations! Yeah! It is clear practice is helping. Keep up the hard work.
March's book share is up. Check out the
guidelines.
So, we now have a little community competition brewing about who has mastered the
multiplication facts. Students are practicing each morning, and should continue to practice each night. Xtramath.org wouldn't hurt, if you want something different from flashcards. Also, here are some fun games you can play to practice specific facts that you want to improve:
Marching Ants and
Matching. Have fun playing!
Enjoy the week!
Homework
Please
read 20 minutes daily, practice your book share, and complete the following:
Monday: Summarizing activity
Tuesday:
Complete your monthly calendar by drawing a “typical” day for each month in
each box. For example, I am from New York. In January, it is cold, there is a
few inches of snow, the sun shines brightly, the trees have no leaves, and it
is windy. I would draw myself playing outside with a warm jacket on, with hat,
scarf, gloves, and boots. I would also think about the few inches of snow and
bare trees. So, I would DRAW all these things in the “January” box on the
yearly calendar. Any questions, please email me.
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| Here's an example. Please put your name on the back, as well as the city it shows. |
Wednesday:
IXL Math Grade 4 Geometric
Measurement BB 3, 4, 6
Thursday:
Summarizing activity
Friday:
Drink some natural carrot juice, which is great for your brain – while enjoying
a mythical story.
Book Share!
Book Share and... wait, how did that get in here?
What kinds of weather have you experienced?
Wait. I have this. The area is...
Area = Length x Width
Think in terms of groups.
Weather vanes measure wind direction.
The process can more fun the result.
An arrowed crown, or crown arrowed?
Let's test this out!
It works!
She huffed and puffed and blewwww, her weather vane down!
Reach for the sky: Get to the highest point for the best results.
Weather vanes are awesome! They tell if the weather is coming, or going!
Nature...
Human...
Weather...
Writing our cinquains, inspired by the nature of the day.
Poets "zooming" in just right to capture the moment.
Exploring the sky by finding the "right" clouds to add to the mood, texture, and tranquility of our cinquains.
The connection between humans and nature.
A little more work with complex figures and area.
What's in the bag?
It's a book share!
Let's write an AREA and PERIMETER RAP!!!!
The process...
The surprises...
The focus...
The performance!
Solo and a trio, each with a rap.
Solo set to a classical song, and a trio rap original.
Oh, one more element of weather: WATER!
Check out our rain collectors. We can check our actual results with the forec
Precision is key to creating the centimeter markings.
Preparing the collectors is "dry" work.
Placing the collectors in the rain is the real wet work!
Collector placement is key!
That's right!
The real deal... some of our cinquains.
