Lab Safety

Today we discussed lab safety. After our class discussion of rules for the science lab, I gave the children the task of drawing a lab scene which included both correct behavior, and incorrect behavior. They then had to label these behaviors.

Choose and Use and Make 100 Centers

Choose and Use Score Sheet

Today the kiddos played two center games while I pulled small groups to work on assessing place value. The first was a Fundamentals game titled Choose and Use. In this game, the students have a set of number cards. Mine are little squares, and I have about 3 of each number 1-9. You could use a deck of cards, I'm sure. Anyway, the kids partner up, and lay out all the cards upside down in between them. The first player turns over three cards. They may use the numbers in any way they wish, and they must use two operations of their choice (operations go in the circles, and the numbers go in the squares.) The goal is to get as close to the target as possible. However far away from the target they are is their score. They want the lowest score possible. For example, it's my turn and I flip over a 2, 5, and 7, I could write in 2 x 7 - 5 = 9. My score for #1 would be 4. The cool thing about this game is that the kids will help each other see how to get the best score possible by rearranging the numbers and changing operations. If I used the same numbers as before, my partner might help me see I could instead do 2 x 5 -7 = 3, so my score would only be 2 now.

The bottom is for extension. In this section four cards are picked and three operations are used. The partners determine their own target number.

Make 100 Center Score Sheet

The second game we played was another Fundamentals game called Make 100. In this partner game, the kids roll a die. They decide whether to put it in the tens column or the ones column. They're trying to get to 100 first before their partner. They CANNOT go over in this game. For example, if my partner and I roll a 4, I could make it 40 and my partner could make it 4. The next roll is a 6. If I make it a 60, I just won the game by reaching a total of 100.

Another example - We roll a 6 and both make it a 60. Then we roll another 6. We can't make it a 60 because we'll go over 100, so we'll both make it a 6 and now we have a total of 66. Then we roll a 3. I make it a 3 and my partner makes it a 30. I now have a score of 69, and my partner has a score of 96. The next roll is a 5. My partner cannot do anything, as he will go over 100, so he loses his turn. I however can make it a 5 and now have a score of 74. And so on and so on...

Bar Graphs

This week we worked on putting data into bar graphs. The kids were given a table containing data, and they had to decipher the table and decide which type of bar graph would best suit it - a double bar graph, or a single bar graph. We made the graphs on the Mac books, then came up with some questions that go with the graph. Today, the kids will attempt to answer some of these question on other kids' graphs.
 

Finding the Area of Irregular Shapes

Shape 1

Shape 1 with Missing Sides

Shape 1 Completed

Finding the area of an irregular shape can be difficult. It takes some logical thinking, especially when missing sides are thrown in! We began by figuring out the missing dimensions. We used the opposite sides to help us with this. Once we did this, we had to find regular shapes (squares and rectangles) within the irregular shape. Once we found the area of those, we could add them together to get the area of the whole shape. Hopefully the pictures help explain our process. This is definitely more difficult than finding the area of regular shapes!  

Shape 2

Shape 2 Missing Sides

Shape 2 Completed

Introduction to Fractions

We have started to discuss fractions! By 4th grade, the kiddos have had a ton of practice naming fractions of a shape, as well as naming fractions of a set of objects. We continued that practice and discussed the definitions of the numerator and denominator. We also extended our knowledge by figuring out how to find fractions of a number, such as 12 and 24.

We began by pulling out 12 squares and physically dividing them up into equal groups. It didn't take the kids long to figure out that to find fractions of a number, all they had to do was divide the number by the denominator of the fraction they were looking to find. For example, if they want to find 1/4 of 24, they could just divide 24 into 4 equal groups. Since 6 would be in each group, 1/4 of 24 is 6. Finally, we discussed how, if we found 1/4, we could also find 2/4, 3/4, etc.

Finding fractions of 24

Describing Relationships Among Numbers in a Table

When we talk about relationships between numbers on a table, we really go two different directions with it. First, we dipped our toes into algebraic thinking by discussing variables and algebraic expressions. We used variables to look at different tables and either determine the rule of the table, or use the rule to fill in missing information in the table.  

Secondly, we discussed different ways we can describe a table. Developmentally, this is harder for a 4th grader than you might think. We began by looking at the relationship between the numbers 1 and 5. I asked the kids to think of a real-life relationship between 1 and 5. Someone said hands and fingers. We started discussing how many fingers are on 1 hand, 3 hands, 6 hands, etc. I asked them how we might organize our information so that we could see the relationship more clearly. We decided to make a table. Once our table was made, we looked at our relationship and came up with ways to describe it. The hardest part about this is that the kids tend to want to describe it in a way that is opposite of what is actually happening. For example, one of the ways our table was described was, "The number of hands is the number of fingers multiplied by 5." This is opposite of what is really there. This is a very common mistake for 4th graders! It led to a great discussion, though, about looking at what is reasonable. Could we ever have more hands than fingers? Not unless we'd had some very unfortunate circumstances. ;)

Forms of Energy Found in our Rooms

As we finished up our investigation of different forms of energy, we made a picture of a room that had to contain at least one example of each form of energy (mechanical, sound, electrical, thermal, solar.) The kids had to label each form of energy used and/or produced in the picture, then list them out on the side of the page.