Wednesday, October 11

 Hi parents,

We had a pretty good day today. It was a bit louder than usual but that's probably because the rain put a damper on our morning exercise break.

In the morning we watched this classic 90's commercial, and talked about the message: "Nobody's good at everything, but everybody is good at something - what's your thing?" The students wrote in their journals about their 'thing' - the challenge was that they had to pick just one thing, and write exclusively about that one topic.

In Math, we continued to learn about decimals. The students put decimal numbers in order from least to greatest, saw how a decimal number line works, and translated written decimal numbers into numeric form. For example, "Three and four tenths ---> 3.4".

In the afternoon, the students worked with Ms. Rooke and Ms. Watson to discuss and learn about the Montessori value of 'belonging and community'. Since we've been doing a lot of work around the Montessori philosophy recently in the classroom, I think the class was especially engaged.

We're having a small math quiz on Friday, to see whether we're ready to move on from Place Value!

It will contain:

-Questions on the value of a place value spot in a given number (for example, the value of the thousands place in 12,900 is '2000'). 

-Questions on translating a written number into numeric form (for example, writing 'one hundred thousand' as 100,000)

-Questions on ordering numbers from least to greatest 

-Questions on rounding numbers to various place values

-1 expanded form word problem

Grade 4 quizzes will feature these same topics, but also include basic decimal numbers. Please do not feel obligated to practice at home - I think the students are more than ready for this. They'll have as much time as they need, and I'll be there to answer questions, read problems aloud, etc. 

We ended our day with printing practice, and a bit of cursive practice for students who were feeling ready for it.

Have a nice night!

Zac