Left-overs for Lunch

Division is no longer simple to these fourth grade students! Today, our class learned to divide with a remainder. To better understand what a remainder is, we discussed how they are like having dinner and being lucky enough to have enough food for left-overs the next day.  I'm sharing a printable step-by-step guide that we used today to learn the process of division with a remainder.  As always, keep practicing because it truly does help your child master the problem solving process!

Multiplying Fun

Multiplication became a little more difficult today, as our class learned how to multiply a two digit number times a one digit number.  As with any math problem solving, it is most important to remember and follow the steps learned.  I've included a copy of the steps your child used today in class to successfully solve several "more difficult" multiplication problems.  Please remember: if your child is still struggling to remember multiplication tables learned last year in third grade, please review them! Use flash cards or http://www.multiplication.com to help.  Without the basics, it will be more difficult for your child to solve the harder multiplication problems we are working on in fourth grade.  As always, thanks for your help in a successful fourth grade year!

Spelling City

Hi, Parents! I just wanted to let you know about a new resource that I have created for our class.  Your child can now review his/her spelling words each week online, using http://www.spellingcity.com/ahardison.  There are tons of fun games on this website, and you can even print off your child's spelling list if it's left at school.  Hope you enjoy it!

Field Trip & We're Out!

The fourth grade took their much anticipated class field trip to the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse on June 4.  After receiving the Target field trip grant, I let my class vote on several locations for their field trip.  The tallest lighthouse in North America won by a landslide!

We had to split up into two groups to climb the lighthouse, so I took up our first group of 13 boys!  Did you know that your voice echoes VERY LOUDLY inside a lighthouse? We found that out very quickly! 

We climbed 248 steps (whoa!) to the very top! When we stepped outside, we were rewarded with awesome views.

We really enjoyed yelling down to the rest of our class!

We also loved the views of the ocean from above.

Once we were on the ground again, the boys wanted photos of themselves in front of the lighthouse.

We had a blast on our field trip, and really we had a blast ALL YEAR LONG!! This was my first year teaching fourth grade, and I can definitely thank my students for making it my favorite year of teaching SO FAR! Thanks also to the AMAZING PARENTS that helped and encouraged me throughout the year.  

That's all for this year....have a great summer everyone!

Show What You Know!

It's that time! Students will begin taking End of Grade tests next week.  All this week, we are reviewing what we have learned throughout the year in both reading and math.  If you would like to help your child review at home for the tests, here are a few links for sample tests and selections for your use.


Reading End of Grade Test sample items listed by grade level.

Math End of Grade Test sample items, listed by grade level

Released (old and no longer used) EOGs listed by grade level

Our schedule for next week's testing is as follows:

Tuesday, May 22  - Math Calculator Active

Wednesday, May 23 - Math Calculator Inactive

Thursday, May 24 - Reading Comprehension

Remember, testing starts at 8:30 each day, so your child MUST be on time and present - otherwise, he or she will have to retest at another date either in a small group or with another class.  It is best that your child be comfortable with the setting during testing, so make sure your child is present for the scheduled testing sessions.

Encourage your child to WORK HARD!

Thanks for your help,

Amber Hardison

Winding Down

Today in math, we continued our study of multiplication in the very last chapter of our book! Summer is coming so quickly, we can hardly believe it.  Our focus was estimating products when multiplying two and three digit numbers.  Here is a helpful reminder of the steps we learned to be successful in this task....

I also wanted to include a few photos of the work we've created throughout our poetry unit study during the past few weeks.  First, we created simile rainbows to showcase our understanding of the use of similes in poetry.  Here they are proudly displayed on our hallway...

Today, we studied concrete poetry, which involves writing a creative description of an object INSIDE of that object's shape.  Here are a few that we came up with...

Hope you've enjoyed a little update from our classroom.  Only 26 days are left in this school year!

-Amber Hardison

Here's a video of our class acting out skits using the vocabulary words from our weekly story entitled Encantado!