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Friday April 16 — Happy Birthday, Israel!

Humanities with Hilary

Yom Ha’Atzmaut, Israel! We’re excited to celebrate you today 🥳

Fourth Graders have been learning a LOT since we last updated you 😱

In ELA, we have worked on:

  • persuading an audience that one of the amendments from the Bill of Rights is THE most important
    • most students chose the following amendments:
      • First Amendment –> freedom of speech/protest/religion/press
      • Third Amendment –> the assurance that the government or military will never force you to have the military live in your home
      • Ninth Amendment –> the right for humans to have rights NOT specifically stated in the Constitution
      • Tenth Amendment –> the right for states to create constitutions or rules for people living there
  • investigating primary sources
    • diary entries
    • newspaper articles
    • photographs
    • oral history interviews
    • official documents
  • picture books connected to Social Studies
  • figurative language
    • idioms

    In Social Studies, we are almost done with our Westward Expansion unit. We have talked about the push/pull factors for why people (either/all skin tones) moved. We mapped The Louisiana Purchase and The Oregon Trail. We explored the different areas of the Oregon Trail, and what the experience was like. We even played the computer game of The Oregon Trail (originally made in the 1970s) online! No floppy disc needed 😉 After that, we created our own wagons, using paper and shoe boxes.


     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    When learning about The Oregon Trail, the Pony Express, Morse Code, and the Transcontinental Railroad, we has a discussion about the negatives to these innovations and who they impacted and why. How did this change the life of Natives? What about the animals? How were the immigrants, who worked on the Transcontinental Railroad, treated by the bosses? What was Angel Island? How was it similar to AND different from Ellis Island? Why?

     

    Such great conversations happened in our class, over these past few weeks. I can’t wait to see what’s to come when we talk about our next three topics!

    Math with Justin

    4th graders have been learning about area and perimeter. The students learned how to calculate the area and perimeter of composite rectilinear shapes. They worked on area mazes (try one below), and even designed a blueprint (including the area and perimeter) of a concert stage. They also used Pencil Code Gym to program a security guard to patrol around the perimeter of the gym. In our current geometry unit, 4th graders are learning about lines, angles, and using protractors to measure them. We will soon be moving onto different polygons and their properties. Math for all!20210415_085338.jpg
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    Hebrew with Rimma

    It’s difficult to believe that Yom HaAtzmaut already is here. Chag Sameach !!!

    In our Hebrew class we finished the unit about different objects. Each student chose one object and wrote a paragraph bringing the object to life: where is it coming from, what is it made of and what makes this special to their family.

    Last week we started a new exciting unit about music. What could be more fun to learn Hebrew with songs and learn about singers and musicians? Through music students will expand their musical and cultural horizons, as well as they will study vocabulary and expressions related to music. We already learned different names of instruments and we will continue to talk about styles, to study how to express our preferences and how to write a short biography of the favorite singer or musicians. We reviewed how to say 4 digit numbers in Hebrew by reading the thousands, hundred, tens and units compared to English where we split it into the hundreds.

    We continue to learn and apply Past Tense in speaking and writing throughout the unit.

    Hebrew Heritage with Tomer

    In 4th grade Hebrew, the heritage group learned  about places in Israel and expanded their traveling vocabulary. Later in the studies we practice sentences and conversations as if we were in Israel traveling from place to place. 

    Music with Heidi

    In Music, fourth grade students continue to present songs they find powerful. Now, they have also started to write their own powerful songs, which we will eventually record. To prime the pump, students have been playing alliteration and rhyme games.

    Art with Iviva

    Fourth graders celebrated Israeli independence in art this week, designing their own flags on paper and fabric. Students applied their own experiences of the country, while also thinking about the Israeli flag and map.