All Trinity Builds
Last week we participated in All Trinity Builds and explored the science of sound. Thank you for the recyclable materials and "stuff" you sent in so that we could make musical instruments. We partnered with 1st and 7th graders to make instruments. On Thursday the whole school gathered in the Gym to play our instruments together. Look at our photos below to see us in action.
Rules by Cynthia Lord -- our new read aloud
We recently started a new read aloud of Rules by Cynthia Lord. This read aloud will support our service learning parternships with Metro School and the Epiphany School. We will also be learning about autism, making inferences when we read and developing empathy for a variety of characters in our book. This book makes several references to Frog and Toad are Friends, which we will also read aloud. We also referenced CeCe Bell's El Deafo and other books that our readers might explore after reading Rules.
Valentine's Day in our Classroom
As a tradition in our classroom, we encourage the exchange of homemade valentines. Students might make their cards with paper, markers, glue, index cards, etc. Other students might print theirs on paper from the computer. This is an opportunity for a student to express him/herself -- this is not meant to be stressful for students or parents!
Also, homemade Valentines don't need envelopes. You can write who it is to and from right on the card. If you would like your child to participate, please help him/her bring Valentines for all 23 of his/her classmates. We will be exchanging Valentine cards together on Tuesday, February 14.
Please respect our classroom tradition by encouraging the exchange of homemade valentines in lieu of store-bought ones. Also, please refrain from sending in candy in any form. We request that candy, edible treats, etc. be left at home. Thank you!
Also, homemade Valentines don't need envelopes. You can write who it is to and from right on the card. If you would like your child to participate, please help him/her bring Valentines for all 23 of his/her classmates. We will be exchanging Valentine cards together on Tuesday, February 14.
Please respect our classroom tradition by encouraging the exchange of homemade valentines in lieu of store-bought ones. Also, please refrain from sending in candy in any form. We request that candy, edible treats, etc. be left at home. Thank you!
JANUARY ENRICHMENT UPDATES
Faith Studies
With our faith studies classes being on Mondays, as I write this post, I have only seen your students once this month! During that lesson we read a few pieces from a book about Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Your students then read some quotes from MLK and then found scripture passages that connect to this quote. They spent time writing in their journals about these quotes and responding to the question, “Has Dr. King’s dream happened today?” As we move forward this month, we will continue our studies of the gospels, focusing on the gospel of Luke. We will also welcome Mrs. Williams for a hymn study next week. I enjoy teaching your children each week and I am grateful to be a part of their school life. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Grace and peace,
Rev. Lindsey Wells Peery ([email protected])
Spanish
Fourth graders are working on unit 2 of level C in the Descubre program. In this unit, children are exploring traditions, customs and culture of Bolivia.
Students are learning about types of homes in the city (la ciudad) and the country (el campo) , clothes and colors (la ropa y los colores), and people and places at the community (la gente y los lugares en la comunidad). Children are practicing vocabulary words about about the house such as: el dormitorio (bedroom), el baño (bathroom), la cocina (kitchen), and el comedor (dining room). Students follow conversations with full sentences, using their student books, practice books, and notebooks, as their online accounts. They are using questions with the word dónde (where), and conjugating the verb to be (ESTAR) to talk about location. For example: ¿Dónde están los niños? (Where are the children? They are responding with full sentences. Using the online account at home is a great tool, to support your child to practice these skills in Spanish: listening, reading, comprehension, speaking, and pronunciation. Students have the opportunity to find more vocabulary individually at the end of the online student book!
Band
4th Grade Band is hard at work preparing for our Winter Concert, which is next Thursday, February 2nd! We will be presenting an “informance,” where students will present what they have been learning and how far they have been progressing. The students will perform selections from their books, as well as a song they learned by ear! Students should be practicing in their books for 15-20 minutes, 3-4 times a week. Overall, we are progressing at a great rate, and are excited for our performance!
Strings
Strings are still working on polishing the piece we will play for the Winter Concert (Thursday February 2 at 6:30). There is so much complexity in performing a piece of music; each person is responsible for playing his or her own part, but also for making sure that the individual part is lined up exactly with everyone else’s! Our fingers have to go on the right spot on the fingerboard, our bows have to move together, and - if we are doing it right - it looks easy. After the concert we will move back into the Essential Elements method book to learn new skills like ¾ time and dotted half notes!
Wellness (December/January):
For Wellness in December, the 4th graders engaged in a discussion about the power of our words. We began by discussing what it means to say “our words are like toothpaste”. The students were able to understand that our words are similar to toothpaste in that once you squeeze out the toothpaste you cannot put it back in the tube just like how we cannot put our words back in our mouths once we have said them. We discussed the importance of apologizing and taking ownership when we hurt others with our words but also discussed how damaging our words can be to others even when we do apologize. Therefore, we discussed how intentional we need to be with what we say and how important it is to think about others before we say things. We then read a book called “Mr. Peabody’s Apples” by Madonna. This book tells the story of a little boy who sees his little league coach take an apple without paying for it from the local market. The boy tells everyone in town. He then finds out that his coach had paid for the apple ahead of time. The coach teaches the boy a lesson about the power of his words by asking him to cut up a down pillow and let all the feathers blow away in the wind. The coach then asks the boy to go and collect all of the feathers. The boy says this would be impossible and the coach explains to the boy that it would be just as impossible to undo the damage that his words have done by spreading the rumor that he is a thief. The students enjoyed the book and were able to have a lively discussion about the moral of the story and the power of our words.
This month in Wellness, we are moving forward with ongoing discussions about conflict management and conflict resolution. We began our conversation with a discussion about the definition of conflict and listed examples of conflicts. We then discussed examples of positive and negative ways to solve various conflicts. The 4th graders had great ideas and also discussed the idea that positive things can come out of conflicts if they are solved in the right way. We then moved on to discussing the concept of using “I messages” to solve conflicts. We engaged in conversation about what an “I message” or “I statement” is and why it is is helpful to solve conflicts using “I statements” instead of “you statements”. We will then move on to examining different conflict scenarios and coming up with “I statements” for each scenario to help solve the conflict. Finally, the students will have an opportunity to get into groups and come up with an example of a realistic conflict for their age. These groups will then role-play the conflict and role-play a positive and realistic way to solve that conflict.
Technology: In January, we continued to further explore JavaScript in Khan Academy. Students now know how to code basic shapes, color backgrounds, shapes, and lines, and know how to use use variables to shorten their code. Some of the students have also started to animate their online creations. If you want to learn along with your child, go to Khan Academy’s Intro to JS: Drawing & Animation. To read up on some of the basic concepts that are taught in mini-lessons, you can also consult the student’s JavaScript help sheet.
With our faith studies classes being on Mondays, as I write this post, I have only seen your students once this month! During that lesson we read a few pieces from a book about Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Your students then read some quotes from MLK and then found scripture passages that connect to this quote. They spent time writing in their journals about these quotes and responding to the question, “Has Dr. King’s dream happened today?” As we move forward this month, we will continue our studies of the gospels, focusing on the gospel of Luke. We will also welcome Mrs. Williams for a hymn study next week. I enjoy teaching your children each week and I am grateful to be a part of their school life. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Grace and peace,
Rev. Lindsey Wells Peery ([email protected])
Spanish
Fourth graders are working on unit 2 of level C in the Descubre program. In this unit, children are exploring traditions, customs and culture of Bolivia.
Students are learning about types of homes in the city (la ciudad) and the country (el campo) , clothes and colors (la ropa y los colores), and people and places at the community (la gente y los lugares en la comunidad). Children are practicing vocabulary words about about the house such as: el dormitorio (bedroom), el baño (bathroom), la cocina (kitchen), and el comedor (dining room). Students follow conversations with full sentences, using their student books, practice books, and notebooks, as their online accounts. They are using questions with the word dónde (where), and conjugating the verb to be (ESTAR) to talk about location. For example: ¿Dónde están los niños? (Where are the children? They are responding with full sentences. Using the online account at home is a great tool, to support your child to practice these skills in Spanish: listening, reading, comprehension, speaking, and pronunciation. Students have the opportunity to find more vocabulary individually at the end of the online student book!
Band
4th Grade Band is hard at work preparing for our Winter Concert, which is next Thursday, February 2nd! We will be presenting an “informance,” where students will present what they have been learning and how far they have been progressing. The students will perform selections from their books, as well as a song they learned by ear! Students should be practicing in their books for 15-20 minutes, 3-4 times a week. Overall, we are progressing at a great rate, and are excited for our performance!
Strings
Strings are still working on polishing the piece we will play for the Winter Concert (Thursday February 2 at 6:30). There is so much complexity in performing a piece of music; each person is responsible for playing his or her own part, but also for making sure that the individual part is lined up exactly with everyone else’s! Our fingers have to go on the right spot on the fingerboard, our bows have to move together, and - if we are doing it right - it looks easy. After the concert we will move back into the Essential Elements method book to learn new skills like ¾ time and dotted half notes!
Wellness (December/January):
For Wellness in December, the 4th graders engaged in a discussion about the power of our words. We began by discussing what it means to say “our words are like toothpaste”. The students were able to understand that our words are similar to toothpaste in that once you squeeze out the toothpaste you cannot put it back in the tube just like how we cannot put our words back in our mouths once we have said them. We discussed the importance of apologizing and taking ownership when we hurt others with our words but also discussed how damaging our words can be to others even when we do apologize. Therefore, we discussed how intentional we need to be with what we say and how important it is to think about others before we say things. We then read a book called “Mr. Peabody’s Apples” by Madonna. This book tells the story of a little boy who sees his little league coach take an apple without paying for it from the local market. The boy tells everyone in town. He then finds out that his coach had paid for the apple ahead of time. The coach teaches the boy a lesson about the power of his words by asking him to cut up a down pillow and let all the feathers blow away in the wind. The coach then asks the boy to go and collect all of the feathers. The boy says this would be impossible and the coach explains to the boy that it would be just as impossible to undo the damage that his words have done by spreading the rumor that he is a thief. The students enjoyed the book and were able to have a lively discussion about the moral of the story and the power of our words.
This month in Wellness, we are moving forward with ongoing discussions about conflict management and conflict resolution. We began our conversation with a discussion about the definition of conflict and listed examples of conflicts. We then discussed examples of positive and negative ways to solve various conflicts. The 4th graders had great ideas and also discussed the idea that positive things can come out of conflicts if they are solved in the right way. We then moved on to discussing the concept of using “I messages” to solve conflicts. We engaged in conversation about what an “I message” or “I statement” is and why it is is helpful to solve conflicts using “I statements” instead of “you statements”. We will then move on to examining different conflict scenarios and coming up with “I statements” for each scenario to help solve the conflict. Finally, the students will have an opportunity to get into groups and come up with an example of a realistic conflict for their age. These groups will then role-play the conflict and role-play a positive and realistic way to solve that conflict.
Technology: In January, we continued to further explore JavaScript in Khan Academy. Students now know how to code basic shapes, color backgrounds, shapes, and lines, and know how to use use variables to shorten their code. Some of the students have also started to animate their online creations. If you want to learn along with your child, go to Khan Academy’s Intro to JS: Drawing & Animation. To read up on some of the basic concepts that are taught in mini-lessons, you can also consult the student’s JavaScript help sheet.