A wonky week with a happy day-off Wednesday made for a short but sweet schedule. The highlight of the week was definitely the butter in IPC:
In math we continued to work with three digit addition and subtraction using estimation to check our answers. Year 4s also started adding and subtracting fractions with the same denominators.
In English we looked at letters of complaint and how to address an issue clearly and intentfully. We also looked at different types of sentences and the punctuation they entail. While everyone is working diligently in their word study books for spelling, the test this Friday had some not so hot results. Is everyone studying their words at home? The activities we do in class should supplement home study, and pay attention to the weekly theme – remembering the vowel blends that make each week’s sound will help immensely. (ie, this week it was short oo, long oo and vowel teams that make an ‘oo’ sound… and yet, lots of spellings with mistaken ‘oo’ sound spellings.)
In IPC we are looking at three states of matter and how matter changes. By adding energy or pressure we can change matter. We shook up some creme milk to demonstrate this. The cream went through a physical change; the fat globules clumped together causing the liquid to be squeezed out of the solid mass. The solid is butter, and the liquid butter milk! It was lot’s of fun and very delicious. It takes about 15 minutes of vigirous shaking so we put on some music and it made for some very entertaining photos!
After shaking everyone scooped out their butter and strained it in cheese cloth. Then every tried the fruit of their labors on a bit of saltine cracker; seems like everyone enjoyed it very much.
In Digital Literacy we did a little web quest to review what we’ve learned about states of matter. Since we didn’t have school on Wednesday, we didn’t have a second day of IPC, so it was a good way to keep our knowledge fresh while honing our web navigation and research skills.
The field trip form will be coming out soon, so be sure to sign up! Special thanks to the parents who volunteered to come help!
Have a great weekend,
Mrs. Leah