Week of 9/7

     I hope everyone had a wonderful three day weekend. I know I did!! It was so easy to slide right into vacation mode. I had to remind myself that we only had one day off. 

     This week at school we will have our first Early Release Wednesday. Students will be dismissed at 1:30.

     In math this week students will work on rounding numbers to any place. In fourth grade students are expected to round numbers through the millions. Many students have already had experiences with rounding numbers. This year students will be asked to use what they have already learned about rounding and we will also learn some new strategies. One strategy is the vertical number line (see the example below). If students were asked to round 548,253 to the nearest ten thousand. They would first decide which two ten thousands the number falls between. In this case it would be 540,000 and 550,000. Each number would be an endpoint on the number line. Next step would be to decide what number is the midpoint, or come in the middle of the two numbers,545,000. The third step would to decide where the number goes on the number line. Finally decide if 548,253 is closest to 540,000 or 550,000.

     In science this week we will continue to learn about how scientist do their work. We will complete our study of lessons one and two. Students will take a quiz on the two lessons. When we take quizzes students will be allowed to use their books and journals. For that reason please discuss with your child the importance of bringing required materials to class each day. If a student does not have their materials in class it will result in a mark against their conduct.
     After completing lessons one and two we will begin learning about the scientific method. Students will learn how to write a hypothesis and how to control variables during a scientific investigation.