A Week Of "M's"

We had a week full of "M's"! This week we finally started working on "Multiple Digit Multiplication". The kids were nervous and excited at the same time. They have been working really hard on single digits times two and three digit numbers. It was finally time to tackle two digit times two digit numbers.

I love their determination! I introduced them to their friend, "Zero Hero".....and off they went. Soon, they were saying, "Ms. Spilker, can we have another one? Can we have a harder one?" Ah....music to a teacher's ears. We will be practicing this a lot. We will be working our way up to three digit times three digit numbers. I'm sure you will be practicing a lot, too! Be sure to have your student introduce you to Zero Hero. He makes things so much easier. Please let me know if you are noticing any problems on the homework.

Another "M" for the week, was some "Mapping" skills. Our class worked with Mrs. Overman's class getting to know our state. Using some Washington State maps and a list of locations, they filled in their own Washington State maps. They should at least now know that Seattle and Spokane are on opposite sides of the state, where the Cascade Mountains are, where Puget Sound is, that the Columbia River runs throughout the entire state, and a few other things. If you are ever looking for something to do with your child, grab a map and look at it together. As you can tell by the pictures, they are fascinated by maps.

The last "M" was "Minigutbucket". I know...I said "What???" as well. It was one of our tools for testing vibrations and pitch in the Physics of Sound Unit. Mrs. Overman and I had a quick review of the unit with the kids today and we were very pleasantly surprised. They have learned a lot about high and low pitch, vibrations, sound discrimination and how to journal what we have been doing. We are getting ready to move into our third and final investigation of our unit.
I let the kids have some buddy reading time today. I also let them get my Halloween books out. I told them they could read together and before I knew it, some of them were actually becoming teachers and reading to their partners. I love this class! They are always surprising me.

There just isn't a much sweeter sound than a 4th grader reading! (Sorry about all the background noise...more 4th graders reading! I will work on blocking that out with my camera.)

It's a busy time of year. We are in the middle of our Silver Slide Fund raiser. It's a class competition. The class that raises the most money wins a candy bar and a book for every student in the class. The PTSO does a lot for our students and this money helps fund many of the activities they provide. The Halloween party will be on the 30th. Collin's mom will be contacting you with information for that. Conferences are the week of Thanksgiving and will be here before you know it. Progress reports will come home on Monday. We are finishing up our first theme in Reading and did begin writing our first stories this week. We are doing that one paragraph at a time. Thanks for all of your support. Homework is coming in very regularly and keep up the great work on the Reading Logs!