Update: January 10th

Important Dates this Week:
Geography Bee: Still working on day and time but it should happen this week.
January 15: 4th Grade presents the MLK Assembly 8:10-8:40
January 15: Math Test: focused on decimal usage and add/subtracting decimals
No School: January 18, 22, 29


Dear Parents,
Happy New Year!
It is hard to believe we are at the halfway mark and it is coming upon assessment and report card writing season. The class is jumping back into the flow of 4th grade and we are all happy to be together again!

Reading:
Students have their OBOB teams and book assignments. We will learn more from Ms. I in library about the "Battle" rules and what to expect. She will also give us some practice questions so we can start practicing in the classroom. I have been encouraging students again to take notes while reading or after. A couple well written notes about characters and events can help spark your memory when reviewing a book. I hope some practice time next week will help students get a better idea of what to expect.

Writing:
We had hoped to be done with our Honoring the Rivers work but discovered most of us needed a little more time organizing our thoughts and polishing our work. We will give these a couple more days of attention and work before starting a Literary Essay. Students will reflect upon the last OBOB book they read and write an essay exploring big ideas within the text.

Math:
Our decimal assessment will be at the end of next week. Our focus this unit has been on understanding decimal notation for fractions, and compare decimal fractions.
Students are asked to:

• Use decimal notation for fractions with denominators 10 or 100. For example, rewrite 0.62 as 62/100; describe a length as 0.62 meters; locate 0.62 on a number line diagram.
• Compare two decimals to hundredths by reasoning about their size. 
• Recognize that comparisons are valid only when the two decimals refer to the same whole. 
• Record the results of comparisons with the symbols >, =, or <, and justify the conclusions, e.g., by using a visual model.

Inquiry:
Taken a break from our water studies in order to focus on the Martin Luther King Jr. Assembly that 4th grade is leading. The assembly will help kick on Black History month.
Students have been learning more about MLK's life and his powerful words. As a result we have been having some pretty intense conversations in the classroom about justice, equity and fairness. Recently, we were talking about how everyone is not the same. We are all different people with different experiences and different likes and ideas. So everyone shouldn't be treated the same, however, everyone deserves to be treated with respect. Then the conversation shifted to but what about people like the KKK or ISIS or people who are in jail, do these people also deserve respect? As you can imagine, it was a lively conversation as ideas were battled and thought about. In the end, we all agreed that big ideas, important ideas, are hard because they are not always straightforward. There is a lot of "what ifs" and "how abouts" that make it complex.
I am encouraged and enjoy listening to their ideas and disagreements while they also work to respect everyone's ideas and voice in the classroom. The process of constructive dialogue is increasingly important as we work on these increasingly complex ideas and concepts.