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Friday May 7 — Welcome to Half Group Central

Humanities with Hilary

Dear Families,

Can you believe that we have 22 more days of school, and we FINALLY get to feel like we’re a bit back to normal by having half groups?! Today was the big switch. In room 117, we have the 4A Fish Squad🐟🐠🐡, and in room 116 we have the 4B Bulls.

There was definitely some nervous energy as they returned from lunch, and slowly went their way to their new (or the same) classroom. When asked how they felt about this change, some responses were

  • It feels abnormal
  • I feel happy
  • It feels weird … but only because of the number of people in the room, no other reason
  • Fine
  • It’s the same

In Literacy, students began to work on their final project. It is a combination of information writing and opinion writing. Each student was able to pick a topic we covered (in Social Studies) this year that they feel connected to. This past week, they began to research that topic, making sure they have notes on:

  • what the person or event is all about
  • how that person of event helped shape America into what it is today

We have students researching topics that go from the 1500s (explorers) all the way to the 1860s (with the Civil War). Their growth and independence since last spring’s animal research project is just astounding — GO FOURTH GRADERS! The next step is to organize our information into each paragraph it belongs to, and then begin drafting. **reminder — Thursday June 3 @ 4:30pm is our Publishing Party **

In Social Studies, we have ventured into the Civil War and what catapulted this division inside of our country. In partnerships or small groups, fourth graders created a timeline of events that led to the war, finding similarities to “The Road to Revolution” (which was our timeline leading up to the American Revolutionary War). We’ve been using Venn Diagrams to compare the following, as we begin to explore the war:

  • North vs South (Union Army; Confederate Army)
  • Presidents (Abraham Lincoln; Jefferson Davis)
  • Generals (Ulysses S Grant; Robert E Lee)

ps — did your student talk to you about Cinco de Mayo, and the history behind it?! Such interesting information!

 

Math with Justin

4th Graders are continuing to study geometry after finishing their unit on angles and lines. Now they have begun to tackles types of triangles, quadrilaterals, and their different properties. The students have been playing a Guess Who game with different quadrilaterals where they use their geometric knowledge and vocabulary to figure out which trapezoid, rectangle, square, parallelogram, rhombus, or kite is the secret shape on Desmos. You can play too!

 

Science with Sammi

The 4th-grade scientists have begun their final unit for the year- plant and animal adaptations. So far they have been introduced to some key vocabulary words: organism, basic needs, environment, climate, weather, and adaptation. Yesterday, after brainstorming a list of environments together, students chose 1 environment to focus on and do a mini, 45 research class. We presented those slides in class today. Coral Reefs, rainforests, and tundras were among the most popular choices and we saw some VERY unique animals.
At the end of class today, we spent 10 minutes starting our discussion on adaptations. As a family, it could be fun to name different animals and think of what adaptations they have that let them eat, drink, move, breathe, stay protected, and regulate their body temperature. This will help prepare them for a deeper dive in class next week!

Music with Heidi

In Music, Fourth Graders have been hard at work writing, arranging and recording their original powerful songs. They look forward to sharing these with you at their end-of-year celebration!