This week we have started our long division unit by exploring the different strategies we already know. The first question was: There is a water bottle vending machine in the teacher's lounge. This morning the delivery man was filling the machine and he said it can hold up to 156 water bottles. I noticed that the water bottles came in packages of 6. That got me wondering....how many packages can the machine hold?
To answer this questions the students were paired up with a partner and discussed the different strategies they came up with. A few of them were:
·       repeated adding/skip counting
·       trial and error multiplication
·       number lines
·       drawing all 156 bottles first, grouping them into groups of six, then counting the number of groups.
·       arrays
·       repeated subtraction
·       long division

After students discussed their strategies they wrote them on a big piece of chart paper and we had a "gallery walk.. Students left thoughtful comments to their peers about their thinking and their strategies and then we shared!

November 7-29th RBE will be collecting food items that will be donated to Meals on Wheels. Meals on Wheels is an agency in Columbia that helps people get food to eat when it is difficult for them to get it on their own. 

4^th grade is in charge of donating canned peaches and individual boxes of raisins. If you have any you would like to donate send them in with your child! Thank you!

Yesterday we had Keith from Boone Electric come in to show 4^th grade an electricity demonstration. We learned about series circuits, parallel circuits, conductors, insulators,  and the danger of power lines. Thanks Keith!