Even & Odd | Rocks | Vactor Truck

This week we explored Even & Odd numbers with a story called "Even Steven and Odd Todd". We then paired students up and discussed how in our class, since we have 24 students, everyone can be partnered up. Even numbers always have a match, and odd numbers always have an "extra" or "leftover" (see number line below).  

This week we learned about the three main types of rocks and how they are formed. We made a model of a rock, by making edible cookie dough. Rocks are made up of several minerals, while a cookie is made up of several ingredients.  Students worked in teams to add the "minerals" to their "rocks".  Rocks go through a process called weathering, where they are altered by wind, heat, and pressure, just as the dough was changed and softened by the students putting pressure on, mixing and stirring the ingredients. 

We had a bonus visit this week from some workers who were solving a sewer drainage issue here at Angell school. We got to see how the Vactor truck worked to suck up sludge.

Small Moments, Math Games & Reading Buddies

The students have been working hard on "Small Moments" which is another name for personal narrative writing.  We read a great book called "Ralph Tells a Story" where Ralph starts with writer's block, but ends up with countless story ideas by the end.  The students then created their own "Story Idea" sheets for personal narrative writing. They sure have a lot of great writing material!

In Math we learned two new games: The first was "Pin the Number on the Number Grid" (a class favorite), which reinforces number patterns and familiarity with the 100's chart.  The second was "Fishing for Ten" which follows the basic concept of "Go Fish" but rather than matches, players are looking for compliments of ten, such as 1 + 9, 2 + 8, 3 + 7, etc.

The students were all very excited for our first meeting with our 4th Grade Reading Buddies from Ms. Lee's class! We will read together every Wednesday afternoon.

We also had Author's Chair for the first time this week, where students share their writing with the class, answer questions and take feedback.