Math Facts

Dear 4th Grade Math Families,

Many parents have been asking about what they can do to make sure their children are mastering
fourth-grade math skills, and are prepared to move on to fifth grade.  The best piece of advice I
always tell students and parents is: Practice, Practice, Practice!

First and foremost, help your child practice their math fluency, or math facts. After students practice
they will track their work on their Weekly Math Fact Practice Log.  Each week students will have a
chance to take a short test to show their progress. Once a student has mastered all 4 domains
(+, - , x , /) they will not be required to practice at home any longer.

Fourth-grade students must be able to quickly add, subtract, multiply and divide in order to move on
to the higher-level math that they will be introduced to this year and in the future.  In fourth grade,
we need to move quickly into multi digit multiplication and division. Having the basic facts memorized
will make it possible for students to be successful with these more advanced math processes. Not
having the basic facts memorized will make learning these concepts very difficult.

I would encourage student to spend just a few minutes each day or a few days each week practicing,
rather than long practice sessions. Five to 10 minutes per day would be ideal.  Once the math
becomes frustrating for your child, they will quickly lose motivation and associate homework time as
something they do not want to do.

Some possible ways to practice the math facts:

1.) Play games. Try to find ways to make practice fun!  I have a list of games that I will share with
the students.

2.) Use time that is usually “wasted” (waiting in line, sitting in traffic) to drill facts. I always
tell kids- when mom or dad is stirring the spaghetti sauce, or driving to the grocery store, have them
ask you your multiplication facts! Or, mute the TV on commercials and study flash cards then!

3.) Use flashcards.  Make it a game. Give them three seconds to get the correct answer and retry
the ones they miss.  

4.) You can access numerous websites on my classroom blog at mrbennettblog.blogspot.com.

I’m looking forward to seeing the progress of my mathematicians over the remainder of the
school year!

Terrace Town Pictures!

Terrace Town!

Dear Families,

During the months of January through April, 3rd and 4th grades will be participating in an event

called Terrace Town, sponsored by the Monona Terrace. During this time our students will learn

how cities are planned, what makes a quality sustainable city, and how they can participate in the

improvement of their environment. Our culminating event will be a trip to Monona Terrace Convention

Center on April 12th to set up our city and explore other school’s cities.

We will be building our city out of recycled materials. To help with this, please save and send in

your donations to school.  We are looking for clean recyclable items that we can use. This could

include toilet paper and paper towel rolls, cardboard boxes, plastic containers, small beads,

popsicle sticks, toothpicks, cloth, etc.  Anything you are throwing away, our students could come

up with a way to use. We will be making small models of houses, buildings, greenery, playground

equipment, roads, airport, farms, and all things found in a city. When considering whether to send

something in, you can think about how it could be used for these creations.

If you or someone you know has expertise in architecture, building, or city planning and would be

willing to come into school and talk with our students about this project, please let your child’s

homeroom teacher know.  

We will continue to update families with more information about this exciting event as we go.
Please watch your email for Terrace Town news.

Pictures from our Capital Field Trip

Classroom updates - May 10th

Here are some classroom updates:
- Today my math students took our last test of the year!  Grades will be posted in Infinite Campus by Sunday night.  The remaining math periods will be spent on reviewing important 3rd grade concepts and introducing items students will see in 4th grade.
- We also had an assessment in science, on the human body.  Next up in science is a unit on science experiments.  We will do several experiments in class and the students will be responsible for conducting their own experiment for the class.  More details will be coming next week on the experiments.
- In writing we finished our persuasive papers.  I will be sending a copy home next week.  We will spend another week or so talking about argumentative papers.
- In reading we finished our study on mysteries, next up biographies.  Over the next 2 weeks I will also be test the students in reading.
- On Tuesday we will be visiting the Madison Symphony Orchestra.  We will be back in time for our normal lunch period at school.
- Permission slips for our final field trip of the year should have come home with your student this week.  We will be visiting the Aldo Leopold Nature Center on Tuesday, May 28th.

What a good looking class!!

   

Mystery readers

I want to say a special thank you to all of our mystery readers that came into our class this past week (we had 12!).  I know the students enjoyed hearing someone other than myself read to them!  Thanks again!

Our awesome classroom helper, Mrs. Hallinan

My son, Luke

My daughter, Jenna