Dear Families, I hope everyone had a restful and enjoyable Thanksgiving. I loved hearing about how each family spent the holiday. After a relaxing break, everyone came back energetic and refreshed, ready for a full week of school. These next three weeks are going to be very busy and our next break will be here before you know it! Winter break will begin after Winterfest on Friday, December 21th. Please note: Friday, December 21st is a half day of school. On Thursday, the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra visited Friends Academy. This year, the Learning in Concert Program focused their presentation on the problem of pollution from plastic. Read more about the program HERE . Language Arts Fourth graders have been introduced to Academic Choice as part of our Language Arts block. Academic Choice gives students an opportunity to choose what and how they learn. The Responsive Classroom Approach believes:
All options for Academic Choice have been introduced and practiced. Academic Choice should not be confused with making a free quiet choice. Each option has meaning and purpose to enhance the learning of the students. For each choice made, students will share a plan of action, have conferences to monitor progress, and reflect on the work completed. Some students are currently doing an inquiry project (KWL) on a topic of choice, writing fiction stories independently, while others are buddy reading. These are just a few of the meaningful activities students are participating during Academic Choice time. Below are a few pictures of Academic Choice in action! Social Studies
We continued to learn about the Trail of Tears that greatly impacted the native people of the southeast region. We had many class discussions and took time to look through books and online resources to gather information. Fourth graders wrote persuasive essays with the goal of convincing Andrew Jackson to not sign the Indian Removal Act allowing the Cherokee tribe to remain on their land. We transition to the second pillar and begin the process of learning the states and capitals of the southeast region. Math Highlights:
Have a wonderful weekend! Warmly, Brigid Dear Families,
Since last week a significant amount of time was dedicated to finishing up the letters and games for Whaling Day, it was nice to get back to our regular routines. Although it was only a four-day week, we were quite busy in fourth grade. We took time on Tuesday to recognize Kindness Day. Fourth graders explored the website reading about ways to spread kindness. The website had a number of kindness quotes that students found inspirational. Some students shared a quote with classmates that they found particularly powerful. Below are a few quotes that stood out to the fourth graders:
Turkey Trot Information: The Turkey Trot will be held on Tuesday, November 20 from 1:30 - 2:30 on the Field Hockey field. Families are invited to attend this event. Children can be dismissed at 2:30 or during the regular 3:05 dismissal time. Please send in a white t-shirt with your child by next Monday. We will decorate them for the event. You may want to size up to wear over a jacket/sweatshirt A few curriculum highlights: Language Arts
Math
Have a wonderful weekend! Warmly, Brigid Dear Families, Whaling Day was a success! The students did a wonderful job singing sea shanties and sharing their games. I hope you had a chance to check out their whaling letters, scrimshaws, and whale drawings made to scale. Fourth graders should be very proud of their curiosity and engagement throughout our study of the northeast. Next we travel to the south, where we will learn about the four pillars of this region (Who lived in the region before it became the United States? What are the states and capitals of the region? What national parks/monuments and landscapes are in the region? What significant events happened in the region?). Below are a few pictures from the Whaling Day. Next week is the book fair and the author visit! Fourth graders will be visiting the book fair during our library class on Tuesday. Students can bring money with them to shop if they would like to, and there will also have "no obligation wish list" pages that they can fill out to take home--and of course, they can just browse and not buy anything at all! Mrs. McCullough is planning on purchasing many of the book titles found at the book fair for our school library, so students will be able to come to the library and borrow titles that they are interested in for free. The author visiting is Matt Tavares. Many of his books have been previewed in library class and will also be available for purchase at the book fair. For families who ordered signed copies of Matt's books, Mrs. McCullough will deliver those copies to homerooms to be sent home with students on Thursday or Friday. Enjoy your long weekend! Warmly, Brigid Dear Families,
Happy November! It has been a busy couple of weeks in fourth grade. We had our field trips to Gillette Stadium and the Mystic Seaport, Student-Led Conferences, and Halloween. All of this while preparing for Whaling Day on Friday, November 9th. Pictures from the field trip are now posted in the photos section of this website. Be sure to check them out! It was a true pleasure meeting with each of you during our conference. The students did a wonderful job reflecting on their work, while sharing their goals for the school year. Having the students attend the conference and be a part of the goal setting process gives them a sense of ownership of their learning and helps develop a growth mindset. Whaling Day is rapidly approaching! Whether it has been through our class novels, mix it up time, or during a field trip, fourth graders have learned a tremendous amount about whaling and are eager to share with you. During language arts, students are writing a letter from the perspective of a person on a whaling ship. They have used a graphic organizer to identify the important information that will be included in the letter. They must include their role on the ship, ship name, place of origin, among many more facts! The letters is just one assignment they have been working on to be shared at Whaling Day. In our Mix It Up groups, students are creating an educational whaling game. Students have chosen to either work with a partner (which was randomly assigned to them) or on their own. Fourth graders will also be singing sea shanties learned in music and displaying scrimshaw created in art. We hope to see you at Whaling Day on Friday, November 9th from 9:30-10:30! In math class, students continue to solidify their multiplication facts through various games and by using IXL. Time has been devoted this fall to strengthening the multiplication foundation to prepare for our next steps in math. Now that students are multiplying 2-digit numbers with and without regrouping, it is important that the can easily recall basic facts. Students will also be practicing more complex long division problems, which require one to apply partial division, basic multiplication, and subtraction. Have a wonderful weekend! Warmly, Brigid |
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May 2019
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