February 17, 2023 — Have a wonderful break!

Judaics with Shira

Fourth graders have been doing deep text study, moving on in the Toldot story. We started a new perek (chapter) where Yitzchak is now old, and preparing to give the birthright to Esav. The work we did studying for our shorashim challenge really paid off in comprehending this new text as students identified 15 different roots in the verses that we learned. Once we could understand the Hebrew text, it was time to go deeper and ask great questions. As the Torah’s descriptions can be relatively sparse, it does not often tell us what a character is thinking or feeling. Here are a sample of some of the great wonderings students had about the emotions and motives of this complicated family!

Is Yitzchak mad at Rivka for not visiting him when he’s blind?
How does Rivka feel about Yitzchak’s decision to give Esav the birthright?
Where is Ya’akov while all this is happening? Does he know what is going on
Does Esav feel like he needs to earn the birthright back, after the soup incident?
Is Rivka mad at Yitzchak for not consulting with her?

Math with Luis

4th graders are finally done with fractions! We have spent so much time over the past couple weeks practicing adding, representing, comparing, subtracting, multiplying, and solving word problems with fractions, improper fractions, and mixed numbers, and the test we took yesterday showed it. We enjoyed some well-deserved review games and fun on Friday as a reward. When we return from break, we’ll get started on decimals!

Humanities with Hilary

February has flown by — it’s like it is a shorter month or something … Pajama days. Talent shows. Writing units. American Revolutionary War. Character development … what haven’t we covered?

In Writing, we have finished this opinion writing unit. Students took the skills and techniques learned with personal essays and put them into working on persuasive essays. The layout of the essay was the same

a strong thesis
3 individual reasons
examples that prove each reason (and are on topic)
5 paragraphs in all (1 intro, 3 body, 1 conclusion)
using transition words

An aspect of persuasive writing that was added was using more convincing language. As well as being more specific with our examples instead of including more of a narrative while explaining them. This class did a wonderful job of independently checking for punctuation and capital letters — this is definitely an area of improvement across the board. When we return from break, we’ll have a celebration of the writing they did (we decided to postpone today’s celebration because so many kids were missing it).

In reading, we have finished our class read-aloud, Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamillo. One area of reading comprehension we were pushed on was making predictions about what would happen later in the book. Here is a link that has a collection of predictions made in the second half of our book. After finishing the book, some students were upset that we did not get closure on characters, like Beauchamp, and that questions were not answered — like wondering what was really wrong with Rob’s leg. Others appreciated that there was some closure, and liked that the ending was more open. Another aspect of reading comprehension we worked on was looking at the mood of a scene and the theme of a book. Some moods that students felt, during Tiger Rising, were sadness, anxiety, and frustration. The themes we saw in this book were making hard decisions; fitting in; letting go; freedom vs captivity; and the ideas of loss, grieving, and/or death.

In Social Studies, we have started AND ended the topic of the American Revolutionary War! We focused on:

the Battle of Bunker Hill
2nd Continental Congress/Declaration of independence
- 1776‘s “Sit Down, John” and “But, Mr. Adams” lyrics to reinforce facts
Battles in NYC and Westchester
- Hamilton‘s “Right Hand Man” lyrics to reinforce facts
Washington Crossing the Delaware
Battles at Trenton and Princeton
Battle of Saratoga
Valley Forge
Spies and Traitors
Battle of West Point
- Benedict Arnold
Battle of Yorktown
- Hamilton‘s “Yorktown” and “What Comes Next” lyrics to reinforce facts

We’ll continue to use musicals to look at some historical aspects of our history! Next up is looking at the new country + government we created in the 1880s.

Please enjoy your break. We look forward to seeing you on Monday, February 27 when we will have new groupings!

STEAM with Sammi

Since the world-wide premiere of our music video, the 4th graders have been putting the scientific method into practice. In our first experiment of the unit, we have been investigating how different liquids affect the speed at which Alka Seltzer tablets dissolve. We worked together to form the experiment and assure that there is only one variable- the liquid. Everything else would stay the same by consistently using 1 tablet, 250mL of liquid, and starting the timer the moment the tablet hits the liquid. When we have all the data for this experiment, we will learn about averages: what they are, why they are important, and how to find them. As we continue to do experiments in this scientific method unit, the 4th graders will continue to build on and practice these important lab skills. By the end of the unit, students will be able to identify the variable, find averages, read the meniscus of a beaker and graduated cylinder, understand the value of doing multiple trials, create bar graphs of data, and write conclusions supported by data.

Art with Iviva

After working hard on large-scale drawings and watercolor paintings of landscapes and closeup views of the seven species honored in Tu B’Shvat, students have shifted gears to thinking about Purim. To prepare for our in-school celebration and Megillah reading, students are decorating graggers and making flags featuring Queens Esther and Vashti. We can’t wait for you to see these!

Hebrew with Rimma

The past two weeks have been busy in enriching students’ vocabulary about food. Students were working on how to retell a story in past tense from the third person which allowed them to learn how to organize and describe events and enhanced their reading comprehension. Students are building speaking and writing skills as they acquired related vocabulary and are practicing to conjugate verbs in Past tense with more accuracy. Students enjoyed creating their posters. They also learned different genres related to this unit: