The students created a composition this week to show the relationship of decimals and fractions. The students had to use only warm or cool colors to created their composition. The students began with a list of media that needed to be included within the artwork: a certain fraction or decimal of shapes and materials. The compositions were based on hundredths so whatever fraction and/or decimal the students used had to be converted in order to compare them. The students chose their own subject for their composition and titled it when they were finished. Make sure you stop by at the beginning of our hall to check out their work. The students did a great job!

On January 24, Nora Davis held their annual Arts, Math, and Science Night.  Parents were invited into their child’s classroom to participate in an arts integrated lesson previously taught to students.

We have been learning about multiplying fractions by whole numbers, so students were taught an arts integrated lesson with music.  Student were taught the names and counts of different notes.  They were taught based on a 4/4 time measure.  This means that the quarter note would represent 1/4, a half note would represent 2/4, and a whole note would represent 4/4.

Students and parents were then put into groups. They were assigned a note, and multiplied this note by the number of people in their group.  Then, they created a visual representation of the notes, as if composing their own song!  After practicing their songs, students and parents chose and instrument and performed for all!

Thanks to all the parents for coming and enjoying this special night with us!

This week, on the heels of Marin Luther King Jr. Holiday, the students learned all about some really amazing African Americans who paved the way for the generations after them when it comes to slavery, equal rights, sports, inventions, and much more. In the Book Brain Center, students read a variety of books and researched the contributions that many famous African Americans made to society including famous inventors, explorers, scientists, and Freedom Fighters.

In the Hall Center, students rotated around to twelve posters that highlighted the accomplishments of many famous African Americans such as Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, and many more.

In the COW Center (Computer on Wall), the students learned about the Harlem Renaissance and in particular an artist named William H. Johnson who was a big part of this movement. The student analyzed several of his paintings and then replicated his style in a painting that highlighted the importance of one of the famous African Americans the students learned about this week.

We have been studying equivalent fractions for the past few days. We wanted to  challenged the students to make something artistic while using fractions. We learned about different ways that you could use trash and make it into art. We looked at works of art from real artist from all over the world, and we found it very interesting. So we complied a load of trash and wrote fractions on them. We had boxes, plastic bottles, and other goodies. Then the students were given a sheet where they had to find equivalent fractions by multiplying or dividing. Their answers to the problems were specific body parts they needed in order to make their robot. If they couldn’t find the equivalent fraction, then they wouldn’t be able to find their trash part that had their fraction written on it. As they did their math, they found their parts, and we glued them together. We chose to spray paint the final pieces so they looked a little more uniformed and not so much like trash.

This week, students were introduced to idioms, proverbs, and adages.  We discussed that idioms have literal and figurative (funny) meanings. Students seemed “puzzled” over the meaning of some of the idioms, so we created our own idiom puzzles.

Students cut a piece of construction paper in half to create two puzzle pieces.  On one half, students drew a literal meaning.  On the other, students drew the figurative meaning.

Some of the idioms chosen were: 

Put a sock in it

Face the music

Holy Cow

It’s raining cats and dogs

Cat’s got your tongue

Students who met their AR goal 2nd 9 weeks enjoyed dressing in their pajamas and watching a movie! Teachers will return back to school on January 4th, and students first day back will be January 5th!

Ordering Adjectives: Do You Know How? It’s not always easy, but our fourth graders have learned how this week. The students learned that if you have more than one adjective describing a noun, the adjectives have to go in a particular order. The students learned a song to the tune of Frosty the Snowman to help them remember this order.

Adjectives describe nouns

And they have an order too,

So that our sentences

Make sense to all of you.

Number, opinion,

Size, age, and shape

Color, proper, material

And purpose – makes order great!

On Friday, the students related the ordering of the colors spectrum from art to the ordering of adjectives. The students painted a background to show the color spectrum and that it always is found in that particular order. The students then ordered a variety of adjectives that described a particular noun in order using their ordering adjectives song. The students glued the words in order on top of each color.

We have started learning about our body systems. This week we learned specifically about the digestive system and muscular system. In dance infusion, the students were challenged to make up a dance explaining the process of the digestive system. We first made a list of words that describe the actions that take place in the digestive process. The students then created their dance in small groups and preformed them as the audience looked for the details and meaning of the dance. Click the link below to watch one group’s performance of the the digestive system explaining the process.

4th grade dance inf

Last Friday, Nora Davis held our annual Cultural Arts Festival.  This year, students traveled to Ancient Egypt and got to experience many different aspects of their culture.  We tasted food from this culture, painted scarab beetles, held chariot races, visited the pyramids and the tomb of King Tut, wrote our names in hieroglyphics, studied the Nile River, and participated in many other activities.  Fun was had by all!  Thanks to all the teachers and volunteers who made this a great day!

Dance Infusion is one of our favorite things in fourth grade. Mrs. Eubanks, the dance teacher, comes in to teach a lesson using dance based on what we are learning in class. We’ll tell you, it’s sooo much better than doing a worksheet.

This week we were learning about the traditional method for figuring out long division. The students learned a song to help them remember the steps to this process. The song was sung to the tune “It’s a Small World,” and was actually a Music Infusion lesson from last year. Here are the lyrics – see if you can get the tune:

Divide, Multiply, Subtract, Bring Down

Divide, Multiply, Subtract, Bring Down

Divide, Multiply, Subtract, Bring Down

Di-vide, Multi-ply, Sub-tract, Bring Down

Mrs. Eubanks then created a dance to go with our song to put movements with the process to aid in remembering those steps. After learning both the song and the dance, students then solved long division problems using the traditional method. The students had to determine how many times they had to go through the process of divide, multiply, subtract, bring down. The students then performed the song and dance for the class to illustrate the number of times they went through this process. The class watched to figure out the number for themselves. Here are pictures of our movements below:

DIVIDE

MULTIPLY 

SUBTRACT

BRING DOWN