Upcoming events:
- Rescheduled Twigging Walk - Tuesday, April 28th at 1:15. Please wear long pants, sleeves, and appropriate walking shoes.
- Wax Museum - Thursday, April 30th. 9:00 - 9:45. All are welcome! Parents, please enjoy your tour of the 4Ry House of Wax!
- 4th Grade Math MCAS - Wednesday, May 13th and Thursday, May 14th
4Ry Happenings
- The children are finishing the preparations for the 4Ry House of Wax. By this time the children have read biographies, taken notes, planned, written, and revised their speeches. Upon returning to school, the final steps will be to rehearse our speeches so that they can be read fluently and with confidence. (Some children may choose to memorize their speeches). In addition, each child should be assembling a costume and any small props that will be used on Thursday. All costumes and props should come to school with your child on Wednesday or Thursday morning.
- The excitement and enthusiasm for our Roald Dahl book clubs is infectious. Each child chose to read a book by Roald Dahl, and book clubs formed based on their preferences. The children are learning how to read closely, track for character change and theme, and identify author's patterns and territories by comparing text features. The children know how to facilitate their own book clubs implementing text based protocols that enable each child to have a voice and to have the opportunity to listen responsively as each group member shares his or her thinking and textual evidence.
- We are about to revisit the opinion genre in writing. Students will share their opinions about their worlds in the form of a thesis statement. They will learn to support their theses with reasons, evidence, facts, and explanations. Eventually, our opinion writing skills will be connected to our work in reading as we write literary essays about our Roald Dahl book club books. The children have already begun to think critically about their beliefs about characters, themes, and other complexities in Dahl's story lines.
- In math, the students have recently completed a short unit of study in area and perimeter. In the coming days, we will revisit geometry of 2-D figures and explore the properties of geometric solids. A small portion of each day is devoted to math review so that the children maintain understanding of multi-digit multiplication and division, fractions, decimals, geometry, and graphing.
- In social studies, the students recently completed inquiry-based research projects about the indigenous peoples of North America. After compiling their research, the children worked in small groups to create technology based projects to teach the rest of the class about the ways of life of the indigenous people that they studied. The class was then given opportunities to compare and contrast each indigenous group. They were able to draw connections between each groups geographic region (climate, elevation, resources, etc...) and their culture, clothing, food, housing, and transportation.
- We have embarked on our journey through the solar system in science. In this unit of study, the students learn about our home solar system, planetary motion, the phases of the moon, and the seasons.
- During Open Circle, the children revealed that they felt that the fourth grade has been impacted by social cliques. In the students words, they feel that there are "invisible fences that divide us." I am so proud of the students for their ability to identify a problem, come to the realization that things can change and that they can in fact be the agents of positive change, and by pushing themselves outside of their comfort zones by engaging in a lunchtime social experiment. The fourth grade has had two "mix-up" days so far. Children were assigned to table groups in the lunch room that were created to incorporate boys and girls and encourage each child to get to know someone new. The children have participated in creating "conversation cards," to facilitate dialogue. While many children have agreed that change is slow and we might not see improvement right away, they have enjoyed talking with other kids at lunch. We will revisit "mix -up" days with the fourth grade class periodically and debrief with the children during Open Circle. It is my hope that the children will learn to broaden their social horizons while acquiring important skills for social problem solving that they can carry with them into their futures.
As always, feel free to send me an email with any questions or concerns!
Thank you,
Mrs. Ryan
