This class is the second half of a full year of fourth grade math.  Part 1 is the first half of a full year of fourth grade math. This class is most appropriate for students about halfway through fourth grade math OR who are comfortable with the topics covered in Part 1.

In this 16 week course focusing on the first half of fourth grade math, students will explore place value, multiplication, division, fractions, decimals, word problems involving all operations, factors, multiples, and geometry.
 
This course focuses on gaining and recognizing which strategies to use while working at the pace best for each group of students.  Students try to generate their own strategies before being shown old and new style math approaches.  Each class focuses on the strategies that work best for each particular group of students.

Each class meeting follows the schedule/flow below:

Mathematician Minute
*Go over homework
* Confidence building exercise

Fractions and Decimals
*To be successful in this class, students should have a basic understanding of how fractions relate to decimals and should be comfortable working with fractions.
*Students will build on their knowledge of fractions and decimals to perform addition and subtraction with both decimals and fractions.

Puzzles:
*This portion of the class will be used to solve numerous word problems.  Students will learn how to extrapolate data from the word problems and then work together to solve the problems.  Numerous processes are used with each problem.
*We will also use this portion of the class to solve visual geometry puzzles.

Number Party
*Finding factors and multiples will be the focus of this portion of the class.
*Students will discover numerous strategies for finding factors and multiples.

Geometry:
*Students will continue practicing measuring the interior angles.
*Students will begin learning about the exterior angles of triangles.
*Students  practice being precise when drawing the different triangles studied.
*Students will also explore numerous ways to convert larger units of data to smaller units and then back to the larger units.

Young Entrepreneur Game:
*This is a single round of one game played throughout the 16 weeks.  
*Students learn about entrepreneurship by playing a game throughout our entire 16 week class.  Students learn about money management, investments, financial risks, starting businesses, credit, and running businesses by playing a game where they make choices to hopefully have the most "money" at the end of the class.  Students use their Math Notebook to record how much money they have. 
*This is NOT merit based participation, meaning students do not earn a turn at the game. Everyone gets to play.

Mathematician Meeting
*Our class ends with our meeting where I introduce students to their (very easy, self guided) homework assignment by giving explicit instructions and then modeling to the students exactly how to complete their homework.  Instructions for all homework assignments are also always posted in our OS classroom. Homework can include drawing a triangle  and coloring it in (Waldorf style geometry drawings), explaining to a stuffed animal what an acute angle is, or a meaningful worksheet.
*Each class ends with our Math Motto.  I tell the students I believe in them and ask them if they believe in themselves.  This is used throughout our classes as a confidence building technique.