Our week started in math by learning how to estimate to check to see if our quotients are reasonable. We went over again how a division problem can be changed around and written as a multiplication problem. They needed to know how to do this in order to estimate with division. When we estimate a division problem, we round our quotient, multiply it by our divisor, and check to see if that number is close to our dividend. If it isn't, we have to go back and check our work to see if we made a mistake. We practiced this with quotients into the thousands place, and the class picked up on it very quickly!

We also did something new this week. We started our first round of division error analysis. The students were so excited to try something new and different! I placed cards all around the room for small groups of students to sit by. Each card had a division problem that was already solved (incorrectly). They had to first find the error that was made. In some problems, there were multiple errors to find! The students then had to come up with a strategy for that particular student to work on if he/she had to solve a similar problem in the future. Finally, they correctly solved the problem and found the actual answers! It was so fun to see that most of the students noticed that the errors made on these cards are similar errors that students make in our class. They were able to realize the mistakes and come up with a game plan for when they have to solve their own division problems in math. We had so much fun with this activity, and we will definitely do something like this again

We started our final projects for this chapter. The students were split into groups and given the task of researching a Native American group that resides in Wisconsin today. Their research topics included: what they ate, what their homes looked like, what tools they used, where in Wisconsin the lived, etc. These questions were very familiar to the students, as we answered the same questions when we learned about the groups of people who lived in Wisconsin long ago according to our textbooks. The four main tribes they are responsible for presenting on are: Ho Chunk, Potawatomi, Ojibwe, and Menominee.

Each group is able to choose how they are going to present their information, so it will be fun to see what they come up with! We will be presenting these projects next week.

I want to thank all the kids for making my visit in 4th grade so enjoyable! I have had a great time getting to know everyone. I think I’m pretty good with everyone’s names now - I said I’d know them all by the time my 3 weeks were done. Mrs. Edwards will return next week. Have a great second half of the school year!

Reading: This week we “dug deeper” into poems. We read two poems about shadows and filled in a Venn diagram to compare and contrast the poems. We read the poem “The Land of Counterpane” and figured out what was actually happening in each verse. Each student chose two poems and wrote summaries and their thoughts about each poem. Some poems are easy to understand but others need a lot of inferring and rereading to figure them out.

The students are searching for poems that “speak” to them. Each child needs to have a poem that they will be presenting to the class. The poem needs to be memorized and performed for the class. Mrs. Edwards will have more details for you next week.

Writing: I am so impressed with the poems coming from 4th grade students! This week we focused on Haikus and acrostic poems and are beginning to write rhyming poems. Haiku originated in Japan and is a 3 line poem with 5 syllables in the first line, 7 in the second line, and 5 syllables in the 3rd line. They are traditionally about nature. To write an acrostic poem you begin by writing the letters of the topic word written one per line down the left side of the page. Then you use each letter as the beginning of a word or phrase that describes the topic.

We have talked about how important it is to “polish” poetry - edit and revise. Because poems contain few words, each word plays a very important role in the poem. Poets almost never think their poem is perfect right from the start!

Email: dewilyn@pewaukeeschools.org
Website: http://pewaukee.schoolwires.net/site/Default.aspx?PageID=1028
Phone: (262) 701-5557