Hello 4th Grade Families

General Studies with Mike:

This week in math class, we wrapped up our math unit on adding and subtracting decimals. Students can now add and subtract up to the hundredths place value. We began a new chapter on angles, and students have been introduced to several new vocabulary words. Feel free to incorporate words like “acute,” “obtuse,” and “right angle” into discussions at home.

We also kicked off a new round of book clubs, with students reading historical fiction books set during the Civil War. The titles for this round of books are “Iron Thunder” by AVI, “Freedom Crossing” by Margaret Goff Clark, and “Elijah of Buxton” by Christopher Paul Curtis. Our class read aloud is Newberry medal winner “Number the Stars” by Lois Lowry. Students are practicing strategies to determine the mood and tone of their books and to summarize the key events in the stories.

In social studies, we kicked off our unit on the Oregon Trail. So far, students are enjoying this simulation unit, where they are journaling as fictional pioneers who have embarked on the journey west. They chose whether to be children or adults, rolling dice to determine how many people are in their families and which type of wagon they are taking. Students had fun calculating a list of items they are bringing on the journey, each wagon limited to 2,000 pounds.

Be sure to visit the bulletin board outside of the classroom to view the newsletters the students created about the American Revolutionary War!

Hebrew with Ilana S. and Tomer:

This week the fourth grade had the Yom Shuk – Market Day. The students were very excited and I was excited as well. This group are so motivated when it comes to They presented their work, they preformed with the slogan they wrote and served the food they brought. Thank you parents for helping your child with this. project. This project was the opening our next unit “Food”.

Judaics with Aliza:

Fourth Graders have been studying the Pesach Haggadah in deep detail, examining the origins of obscure laws and traditions, and figuring out what these details can tell us about the people who wrote them (eg. What language is found in this paragraph? What historical events does it reference?). This week we had a long, interesting conversation about the ten plagues, their meaning and importance, and how they may have happened relying on naturally-occurring phenomena. Next week, we start our Pesach projects, which our students hope to bring home and share with you over the holiday. Shabbat Shalom!