Viewing: January, 2013
January 30, 2013
Help with Long Division
Good evening! If you need help with long division, this video (below) may help. I made it last year (when I taught skills in a slightly different order), so fast forward to 1 minute, 11 seconds into the video. I use an older strategy (DMSB) instead of our newer strategy (DMSCB?) which might be unusual for you. (If so, keep on reading!)
This next video (below) walks you through tonight’s homework assignment. Consider using it to check over your work when finished, to get you started on some tricky problems, or, if you’re really having a hard time, it can walk you through an entire problem. Unlike the first video, this video does use the DMSCB? strategy, which we talked about in class.
Posted in Homework Assignments, Learning Resources|By Jon Moss
January 16, 2013
Happy snow day!
Good morning! Happy snow day, everyone! I hope you have a safe and fun day! Take a moment to log in with your username and password and leave a comment to this post telling us how you are spending your day! (Email me or message me if you forget how to log in.). I have also prepared a fun snow day writing activity for you. Just hop on down to the next post, below this one.
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
January 16, 2013
Snow Day Story
Last week, you did some stellar work with figurative language, and you practiced it by continuing two stories that I gave you. (Remember the Grammys story and the safari story?) Today, I have another similar activity for you. Here is your first paragraph:
My eyes slowly opened, and I glanced at my shining alarm clock. “Oh no…” I groaned, realizing that I’d overslept. I squeezed my eyes shut, hoping to avoid the busy morning that I now faced. Finally, I opened my eyes again, just a little bit, and I noticed that my room looked strange. The light coming into my bedroom was strange. It was the wrong color. Too bright, for this time of day. It almost was like the light was shining down from the morning sun, but also shining up from the lawn. Then it hit me: Only one thing could make that happen. SNOW! Cold, white, wonderful snow! Snow as fluffy as a soft, down pillow. I rocketed out of bed and opened the window. It was a true winter wonderland outside, and as I admired the glistening view, I almost missed the note taped to my window. It said:
No school today! Happy snow day! I didn’t want to wake you. Take your time, and come downstairs for your favorite breakfast when you are ready! XOXO
Continue the story. Here are a few things for you to keep in mind as you get ready to write:
- Don’t just start typing. Take a few moments to PLAN your story. What will happen? Will you have a problem and solution? Who will your main characters be?
- Be sure to include some vivid description using the SEVEN senses. This helps the reader to visualize the story happening.
- How can figurative language help your story? Will a simile or metaphor grab the reader? Will hyperbole or onomatopoeia or personification capture attention and interest? Maybe alliteration will allure your awesome audience!
This is, of course, optional. But hopefully you will give it a try. You can write one more paragraph to extend the story I started, or finish the entire story. It’s up to you, friends! But you must continue from where I left off. (Don’t continue someone else’s story.) Remember, by posting your story here, you are inviting your classmates to comment on your story. Kids, remember to avoid using ANY real names (in your story or in your comments) and keep the comments kind and helpful.
Email me (or use the contact page) if you forget how to log in! Have fun!
Posted in Learning Resources|By Jon Moss
January 10, 2013
Good luck tonight!
I love coming to the concerts to see and hear the kids perform, but sadly I’m not able to attend tonight. I’ll be sure to watch the video, however! (Plus, rumor has it that another Room 209 “celebrity” will be making an appearance.) Break a leg, kids! (Ooh, another idiom for us to discuss as part of our figurative language unit!)
Tonight, there still is a bit of homework. Kids need to finish their figurative language worksheet, do three math problems on a worksheet, and study their spelling words and math facts. If the timing doesn’t work out because of the concert tonight, please remember that parents may send me a quick email or jot me a quick note, and I’ll gladly give an extension.
If your fourth grader (or you) need some help with the partial products homework, here is a video that I recorded last year to help with partial products. You may find that the video and audio don’t sync up well, oddly. I tried to reupload the video. At the time of me posting this update, the video is still processing, but if you periodically check this link, you might find that it becomes available later in the evening.
Posted in Class Updates, Homework Assignments, Learning Resources|By Jon Moss
January 9, 2013
Figurative Language, Resolutions, Multiplication
I hope 2013 is off to a good start for you all! I’ve made a simple resolution for myself: to stop writing 2012 every time I need to write the year. 🙂 It’s good to be back in school, and we’ve certainly hit the ground running! Before vacation, we worked quite a bit on writing summaries and making connections to text. We are taking a brief hiatus from these skills to work on figurative language. Figurative language falls under the umbrella of Author’s Craft and is a type of writing that helps to grab the reader’s interest and to “pull” him or her into the story. It helps the reader to imagine what is actually happening in the text. Before break, we worked with alliteration and hyperbole. Earlier this week, I introduced similes. The kids did a terrific job on the figurative language homework assignment this week, and I really enjoyed hearing and reading so many of their paragraphs! Last week, the students wrote New Year’s resolutions, which I hope to have on display for you next week. Coming up: onomatopoeia, personification, and idioms.
Last week, we started a new math unit that focuses on large numbers and multiplication. After reviewing place value, we worked on strategies to round and estimate sums and products involving larger numbers. One of our big concepts was that the way you round depends on your PURPOSE. Some purposes require more precision in rounding than others. For example, if you need a precise count of the number of people at a baseball game so that you can order prizes, perhaps you’ll need to round to the tens or hundreds place. On the other hand, if you are trying to estimate how many seats are in a baseball stadium, rounding to the nearest thousand may be good enough. We also talked about the idea of being a RESPONSIBLE estimator and that some methods of rounding may be technically accurate but might give misleading results. (For example, if I drove 41, 44, 49, 48, and 51 miles on each of the five days of the work week, I could round to the nearest hundred before adding the numbers up (0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 100) and get an “estimate” of 100 miles traveled. While mathematically sound, the estimate is highly inaccurate.
Now, we have moved on to different strategies for multiplication. I explained to the students that parents often prefer to teach the traditional method for multiplying numbers and that this can often appear to be at-odds with the Partial Products Method, which we use in class. But I reminded them that EITHER method will be acceptable, BUT that I want them to learn a variety of strategies so that they can make an informed choice about which strategy works best for the way they think.
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss