Hebrew with Rimma

Students continued to practice Past Tense in this unit within the context of talking about when they were born and where. We recapped the names of the Gregorian months and the Hebrew months and learned 4 digital numbers for the year. We began with their date of birth and ended up with a discussion around some important historical events in the past while practicing how to say the year when it happened. 

We practiced two and three digit numbers in a shopping role-play, practicing buying and selling items in a shop, asking how much something costs and negotiating a price.

Our next unit is about hobbies and after school activities.

Hebrew Heritage with Tomer

The 4th grade heritage group works vigorously to complete their monthly news show. They wrote, directed, and performed and we are in the process of having full edition by the end of the month.

Humanities with Hilary

Dear fourth grade families,

So much has happened in the classroom and across the world since our last blog. On Monday, Feb 28, the students and I had an in-depth discussion about both the history of Ukraine, the history of the relationship between Ukraine and Russia, as well as looking into what is currently happening in that region. If you would like any specific information on it, please reach out.

BUDDIES:

Last week, we got to spend time with our kindergarten buddies. First, we did a read aloud of a book or two with our younger buddy, exploring different types of picture books. We then played “4 Corers.” After that, as we said goodbye to our buddies, we did a special handshake or dance. Pictures can be seen here:
https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/publicalbum@latest/embed-ui.min.js

This week, we got to see our buddies AGAIN for Pajama Day. Pictures from reading together and the pajama parade can be found here:
https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/publicalbum@latest/embed-ui.min.js

WRITING:

Opinion Writing Unit:

We are almost at the end of our persuasive writing unit. The topic this year is “Who is one person (or pet) that you think everyone should know and why?” Some skills taught this unit are:

• introductions and conclusions
  • how to you start the intro and end the conclusion? How are you engaging the reader?
• paragraphs
  • each reason is it’s own reason
    • This connects to use talking about how each paragraph in writing is about the same topic, and if you change the topic then you need a new paragraph
• using strong and persuasive language
  • • if I use words like probably, could, maybe, sometimes, etc, I’m not likely to convince you about anything
    • if I use words like must, have to, always, obviously, etc, I am more convincing about being an expert on my topic
• counter claim
  • • this one wasn’t a requirement, but an option for students up for the challenge
  • discuss a reason that OTHERS might say for why I’m wrong
  • then prove them wrong

Some of these pieces are so heartwarming and sincere — I cannot wait to share them with you at conferences!

Homophone Bulletin Board:

In our last blog, I mentioned how we created a project to show our understanding of homophones. Here is our bulletin board display, along with a few close ups:

READING:

Students have been working in partnerships (or trios), dissecting social studies picture books that give them more insight into events during the Revolutionary War. They are answering some literal questions, together, such as: what occupations do the characters/people have; where does it take place; what events in the war happen in the book? Then, they are also answering some implicit, deeper level thinking questions, where the answer cannot be found on the page. Some of those questions are: how does their occupation help them in the war; what inventions/innovations were discussed in the book; How is this book important for what we are learning about the war; and Are people from the black community included in this book — if not, what do you think they were doing during this? Here are some pictures of the class during book club:

SOCIAL STUDIES:

We are (almost) at the end of our Revolutionary War unit! Before break, we were learning about Valley Forge, the battles at West Point (NY), and the Battle of Yorktown. This week, we started looking into the use of spies during the war — who could be a spy, ways they were spies, and why they were successful at it. For a few groups of people, they were successful because the typical story of these groups (women, Black people) are that they could not be as intelligent and cunning as white men. Two famous spies we learned about were James Armistead Lafayette and Lydia Darragh.

Next up will be us learning about the Bill of Rights and the Constitution!

SEL:

Students have started investigating FIG TESPN even more! Before the break, we looked at “Finding the Feeling.” In this, it’s about being able to name emotions you are feeling. We started using a “mood meter,” which is something schools across NY use for students to be able to talk about their feelings. It looks like this — ask you student each morning to name their feelings, or to explain this chart to you. They are PROS!

This week, we looked into “Identifying the problem.” In our table groups, we defined “problem,” and talked about what stops us from being able to SOLVE our problems. Then, I named an emotion I might be feeling, and in their groups they came up with different scenarios for what the problem could be.

STEAM with Sammi

In science, the students continued our mini unit reviewing the scientific method. This week was a real crowd pleaser because we did an M&M lab! Students were challenged to use the scientific method to prove if there were equal amounts of each color in an M&M bag. Many hypotheses stated that they did not believe the colors were equal and many students thought red or yellow would be favored because they are in so many commercials. We were able to get our raw data this week and next week we will graph our results and form our conclusions.

In tech class, we have begun a digital citizenship unit following Google’s Be Internet Awesome program. The first unit is “Share with Care” and lesson 1 focused around when not to share. We will continue this lesson next week, but at home ask your student what their secret was for the class. They were very silly but helped us prove a point about information privacy.

 

Music with Heidi

In Music class, Fourth Graders used the xylophone techniques and their pitch skills to begin to play the song Arirang by ear with partners. It was challenging, but they worked hard on it and made great progress!

Art with Iviva

Fourth graders are working on collagraph prints. First, they made collages with abstract shapes and images. Next, we rolled ink over the collage, pressed a paper on top, and transferred the ink onto the second paper. Seeing the images emerge through the prints was magical.