Triangles

Now that we have estimating and measuring angles somewhat mastered, we're learning about triangles.

Click here to discover everything 4th graders need to know about triangles!

Click here to practice making different types of triangles!

Click here for Interactive Triangles.  Practice making all types of triangles!

Click here to watch a BrainPop video on different types of triangles! (login required)

Click here to quiz yourself on the different types of triangles!

Measuring Angles

Here's a fun site that we used to help us learn how to measure angles using a protractor:

Math Playground: Measuring Angles 

Play Alien Angles

Control the Roboidz 

Banana Hunt

Recorders in Music Class

After our next Music class on Monday, the 4th graders are supposed to bring their recorders home and spend some time practicing all that they have been learning so far.  Mr. Lutz assures me that they are all very capable and talented young musicians, and he would really appreciate any extra practice that his pupils can get.  In the meantime, here's a short video showing you what they can do!

US States and Capitals

We have begun learning about the 50 states.  We will go through them all, one region at a time.  Our first region is the Southwest region, which has only four states.  (Ask your fourth grader if they know them!) For each region that we cover, this is what we expect the kids to take away from it:

• Names of the states
• Capital cities
• Important bodies of water (lakes, rivers, oceans, etc.)
• Important land features (Rocky Mountains, Grand Canyon, etc.)
• Important historical events (The Gold Rush, The Civil War, etc.)
• Important landmarks (The Alamo, The Gateway Arch, National Parks, etc.)

This may seem like a lot, but it's really more of just an exposure to our country.  If there was to be one main focus, it would be on the states and the capital cities.  To help with that, here are some links to some fun US States and Capitals games:

• US Map Test - You need to drag the names of the US states to their correct location on the map before you run out of time.  Regrettably, this game leaves out Alaska and Hawaii.  Can you believe that?!?!
• US Map Puzzle - This one has three different versions of gameplay: (1) States With Outlines, (2) States Without Outlines, and (3) Capitals.  It's fun to watch how students improve their knowledge over time.  How fast can you put the puzzles together?
• USA Games - An excellent assortment of games and tutorials designed to teach and test your knowledge of the United States.  Even has lakes and rivers too!

Thanksgiving Means...

We did another one of those "word cloud" activities today.  The kids wrote blog posts.  They wrote about Thanksgiving, and what it means to them.  The turkey-shaped word cloud is shown below.  Recall that the bigger the font of the word, the more times it was used in the blog posts.  It's a nice way to get a collective view of what fourth graders think about Thanksgiving.

Cow Sightings!

Carly's cow overlooking downtown Port

land, OR

Some of the reports on our Cows on the Loose have started to come in.  We have photographic evidence that our cows have been seen all across the country...from Washington D.C. all the way to Portland, OR.  Check it out:

Cows on the Loose!

Weekend Reporter on Wordle

Once again this week, we did our Weekend Reporters on our KidBlogs. I really like how much more some of the 4th graders write when we do them this way! Also, it's fun to read some of the comments that they leave on their classmate's blogs. As I mentioned last week, the blogs are private and you can't read them without logging in. Students are able to log in at home, and you can read them that way.

In the mean time, I took the text from ALL of this week's Weekend Reporters and imported it into a Wordle word cloud. For those unfamiliar, Wordle generates a word cloud from text, giving more prominence to more frequently occurring words.  Here's what we came up with:

Do you see anything that you might recognize?