Dear Family,

In fourth grade, we begin the year by focusing on using data to build a mathematical community. The purpose of this letter is to give you some background information about our first unit in mathematics.

Focus of the Unit

Your fourth grader will learn that math is an essential part of the world around us. Math can and should be relevant, creative, inspiring, and even fun. Mathematics involves meaningful talk as students explain their thinking and strategies. Our class will establish expectations for math talk and create a “math mindset” or belief that everyone can successfully do math. They will learn to take risks and persevere when problem-solving, even when the problems they encounter are new or challenging to them. Students will learn that a math community values mistakes as learning opportunities and values effort and productive struggle to stretch and grow. Students will collect and interpret data about themselves and the entire class as we are learning about each other and building our mathematical community. Activities in this unit of study will build a foundation for the entire year.

Building Off Past Mathematics

In previous grade levels, students collected data by asking survey questions and organized it in tables, bar graphs, and picture graphs. Students also solved one- and two-step “how many more” and “how many less” problems using information presented in the graphs.

Strategies that Students Will Learn

Students will get to know each other by posing questions and collecting data about themselves and from their worlds (how we get to school, hobbies preferred, number of siblings, etc.). They will analyze the information collected, represent the data in tables, bar graphs, and line plots, and interpret what that information tells them about our class. Students will also determine whether a survey question yields categorical or numerical data.

Categorical data represent characteristics such as a person's gender, hometown, or the types of movies they like.

Numerical data is data that is measurable, such as time, height, weight, amount, and so on.

Special Note: Categorical data can take on numerical values (such as scales “1-10” with “1” indicating a low preference and “10” indicating a high preference), but those numbers don't have mathematical meaning and are merely categories or labels of preference. An example includes rating a restaurant’s food on a scale of 1 to 10.

Einstein, one of the world’s most well-known ‘geniuses’, said that his biggest achievements came from the number of mistakes he made and the persistence he had shown. When he made mistakes, he persevered, trying even harder. What a great example to refer to when a child needs a reminder that everything can’t be easy the first time and to keep trying!

Thank you for serving as partners in your child’s success as a mathematician!