September 23, 2022 — Chag sameach! Have a happy and healthy New Year!!

STEAM with Sammi

The biggest news of STEAM class so far is that students have received their Chromebooks! There was a lot of excitement in the air last week as we found our assigned spot in the cart, got logged in, and personalized our screens by changing our backgrounds. This moment has been much anticipated!

Aside from the Chromebooks, students have been settling into the school year by practicing routines, going through Chromebook contracts (with silly memes to keep us entertained), and creating community expectations. This routine and expectation work over the first few weeks gets us set up for an amazing year!

Creatively, the students spent two classes working on a STEAM Improv activity. We randomly selected an object, a material, and a purpose, and students had to imagine a design that would fit those specifications. For example, one group had to design playground equipment, made from primarily empty balloons, that would protect people from the sun. Another group had to design a selfie stick, made primarily of marbles, that would also do a household chore. The creativity was outstanding!! When finished, students did a gallery walk which gave them a chance to practice making kind comments and questions to each other. This is an activity that we will come back to throughout the year when we need a creative brain break.

Hebrew with Rimma

The students have been busy learning about food. We were reviewing the vocabulary that we learned last year and picking up some new words. We read the story about a child who likes to eat a lot of french fries. Students are in process to improve their strategies to understand text, determine main ideas, identify key words that will help summarize the information and to be able to answer questions. 

Students enjoyed to listen to Chava Alberstein’s song “ אישה באבטיח״

We focused particularly on the past tense in the song and wrote another verse of lyrics maintaining the same mood and style.

You can find this song on Youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1z6-kHD9qw

Happy and healthy New year! Chag sameach !!

MUSIC with Heidi

In Music class, our Fourth Graders have been reviewing Music Class expectations through the words and movement of our Music Rules Rap, performing it with the steady beat of a metronome. Students have also been reviewing rhythmic notation – 4-beat bars, quarter/eighth/half notes, quarter rests and repeat signs. They have been reading, saying and clapping rhythms, and reviewing rhythm stick procedures. All of this study is preparing them for our upcoming xylophone unit.

Humanities with Hilary

Dear 4th Grade Families,

We have been doing so much work since school began, and have been having fun while learning!

One aspect of 4th Grade was creating our classroom Constitution (otherwise known as a class contract). We started by coming up with rules kids have seen in their classrooms. From there, we found similar themes, that would then become the headings. Ours are:

• Respect and Be Kind
• Noise Level
• Take Care of Our Environment
• Take Care of Ourselves and Others

Finally, we took our bullet point list of the sub-rules, and turned them into complete sentences. This Constitution will be up in multiple classrooms, to support students with 4th Grade expectations.

4th Graders have been enjoying their time getting to read independently. Next week, we will start doing reading assessments (so that we can then begin book clubs). While reading independently, students have been tasked with finding places in their reading of interest, and placing a post-it note in that location. This could be a place that is confusing, makes them laugh, is sad, has them feel anger, is a new fact they learned, or more. So their books are now full of post-it notes, which they have been discussing with their classmates. Some are now interested to read the books others are reading! Those around us are wonderful people to gain book recommendations from.

We have been doing a lot of writing over the last three weeks! We, first, wrote letters to our families. In this, we talked about something exciting in 4th Grade, something we are worried about, and at least one thing we want to work on this year. We then wrote a paragraph about something we like about ourselves, be it an internal or external trait. This week, we started our official writing unit, where we will be writing realistic fiction stories. 

On day 1, we made a list of people who are important to us as well as moments that made us feel a BIG emotion. 

On day 2, we made a list of stories we wish were written – like how Henry Winkler wished there were stories written about kids who are dyslexic, written in a font that is easy for dyslexics to read, and so in 2003 Henry started writing the Hank Zipper series. 

Our next step will be to think more deeply about – and develop – the characters in their stories. This class is so excited to delve into this realistic fiction unit! The story ideas have been flowing like lava out of a volcano!  

DATE REMINDERS:

• Monday Sept 26-Tuesday Sept 27 → No school
• Thursday Sept 29 → Ellis Island field trip **please wear sneakers and bring a disposable lunch, water bottle, and 2 snacks **
• Thursday Oct 13-Friday Oct 14 → Sukkah Sleepover for 4th Grade!Friday Oct 14 from 8:30-9:30 am → Parents and 4th Graders in the Sukkah activity

Judaics with Shira

Fourth graders had a great start to the year in Judaics! They each got to choose their own head covering for the year, a kippah or headband. They were challenged to organize the head covering holder, by putting themselves in Aleph-Bet order according to their Hebrew names, without speaking! During tefilah (prayers) the chazanim (prayer leaders), got the chance to take the real sefer torah out of the ark for the first time! Students also started to learn about the five steps of teshuvah (reflecting and making amends on the past year) and worked in pairs on Teshuva Comics to depict the process. Lastly, we got a lesson in shofar blowing from a Senesh grandparents. Students were so excited to try and blow one of the class shofars themselves. Conclusion: It’s harder than it looks! Wishing all the fourth grade families a Shana Tovah!

Math with Justin

Over the past two weeks, we have been focusing on place value up to 1,000,000, ordering numbers, comparing numbers as well as adding and subtracting six-digit numbers. Fourth graders also worked on filling in missing numbers in patterns, and identifying the rule that defines a pattern. The students are learning how to round to different place values to enhance their estimation skills and number sense. We are also working on building positive math identities among our young math students. This is all a part of developing a growth mindset and growing a love of mathematics. Have the students proudly pose with the “I am a math person!” frame is a small part of that. Check them out in the photo album!

PHOTOS: