Students hard at work capturing their thoughts on Post-it notes to keep inside their annotation journals. 📖 🤓

Scroll through to see the types of notes students are capturing when annotating their novel!

Our class worked together to build the number 10,000 using hundred grids. Each grid represents 100, so students had to organize, count, and keep track of many grids until they reached 10,000. This was a powerful exercise because:

• Big number sense: Fourth graders are moving from working with numbers in the thousands to really understanding just how large 10,000 is. Seeing it physically built helps them grasp the size of the number. By turning an abstract idea into something students can see and touch, the “bigness” of 10,000 becomes more meaningful and memorable.

• Place value in action: Students experienced how hundreds combine into thousands, and how thousands combine into tens of thousands. It’s one thing to talk about it, but another to see it.

• Persistence and collaboration: Building 10,000 took teamwork, patience, and careful organization—skills that mirror the kind of thinking mathematicians do in real life. There was a lot of thoughtful reflection and conversation about how to best organize our hundred grids in a meaningful way so that an observer could quickly and easily "track" the number being displayed at any point in the process.

A key feature of the unit is helping students develop the ability to “convince a skeptic”—an essential mathematical practice that strengthens reasoning, precision, and communication. In this unit, students were not only expected to solve problems, but also to justify their thinking in a way that could withstand peer critique and public mathematical conversation. Through engaging tasks such as estimating the annual cost of feeding a dog or calculating how many books it would take to stack from the floor to the classroom ceiling, students were challenged to build coherent arguments, attend to units and reasonableness, and defend their conclusions with evidence.

"Making Squares" is one of my favorite math tasks. This task invites students to begin developing key collaboration and communication skills – students could only touch the popsicle sticks for their assigned color as they worked in teams to build varying numbers of squares using all 12 sticks...which is rather tricky! Thank you Ms. Grandau for leading this task for us!

In this activity, students worked in pairs with only one sheet of paper, a pair of scissors, and tape. Their challenge was to create the longest paper chain possible. The task pushed students to think creatively about how to stretch limited resources and to collaborate closely with a partner. Success required clear communication, sharing ideas, making joint decisions, and adapting when a plan didn’t work out. While the final chain length was fun to compare, the real learning came from practicing teamwork skills—listening, compromising, and problem-solving together.

For this challenge, groups of four were given 30 index cards and a time limit. Their goal was to build the tallest free-standing tower they could. With such simple materials, students had to experiment with folding, stacking, and arranging the cards to balance strength and height. The time pressure added excitement while also testing how well the group could work together under stress. Teams quickly discovered the value of planning, dividing roles, and encouraging one another’s ideas. In the end, it wasn’t just about whose tower stood tallest, but about how collaboration, creativity, and perseverance helped bring their ideas to life.

To help students see that challenges are a normal and important part of learning, we asked them to bring in an artifact that represented a time they experienced “productive struggle.” This could be from school, sports, hobbies, or even everyday life. In small groups, students shared their stories, reflecting on what made the situation difficult and how they eventually worked through it. By hearing one another’s experiences, they realized that everyone struggles sometimes—and that persistence and creative problem-solving are what lead to growth. The activity built both empathy and confidence, helping students normalize the ups and downs of learning.

In this workshop, students explored how breath and movement can help calm and refocus the brain. We watched short videos explaining the science behind mindfulness and why yoga supports focus and emotional balance. Then students had the chance to practice simple stretches, breathing exercises, and a brief guided meditation. This gave them hands-on experience using tools they can return to whenever they feel anxious, distracted, or overwhelmed. The session not only taught stress-management strategies but also helped students notice how their minds and bodies are connected—an important step in building self-awareness and resilience throughout the year. In tandem with our study of the brain, students are better understanding how their mind works and the tools they can use to unlock its full potential!