Fourth Grade 2014-2015

Fourth Grade 2014-2015

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

The Christmas Season

Our Jesse tree is now almost complete. We've finally arrived at the stories surrounding the birth of Jesus, and will hear about Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, and the magi. As we approach Christmas, please remind your child that this is a season of giving, which can include gifts like hugs, smiles, or kind deeds, and that Jesus should be the center of our celebrations.

We are almost done with several different subject areas now. We only have one chapter left to read of The Whipping Boy, where we have been talking about cause and effect. We've also discussed different elements of a plot, including rising action, climax, falling action, and solution, and made "story mountains" for books we've read in class and the play we went to see. We are also discussing parts of a paragraph and adding good topic sentences, transition words, and conclusions to how-to paragraphs. In science, we're learning about the solar system, which is leading to many interesting questions. If your child wants to explore this subject some more, some websites I recommend include:

http://www.kidsastronomy.com/
http://spacekids.hq.nasa.gov/osskids/index.html
http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/en/kids/

Finally, we have been talking about the economy and government in social studies, and doing activities like creating business plans for our own businesses and nominating people (sometimes imaginary) to serve in the various branches of the government. We will have an open notebook test tomorrow on the topics we have covered in social studies.

Friday, December 5, 2008

Advent Joy







As we begin this season of Advent, it's important to remember to be awake, watchful, and ready to celebrate the birth of Jesus and his entrance into our lives. In school, we are creating a Jesse Tree, which begins with the story of the creation of the world and tells the stories of the ancestors of Jesus and the prophets in the Old Testament. So far, we've heard about Joseph, who was the son of Jacob, who was the son of Isaac, who was the son of Abraham, as well as the story of Adam and Eve and the creation of the world. Each student has at least one story, is making a symbol to represent the story to put on our tree, and is sharing a summary of the story with the class. To continue the spirit of prepartion during Advent at home, I encourage you to pray with your child and find time to be silent and reflect on what Christmas really means to us.

We finished our science unit on adaptations with some "Insect Olympics," where students tested what adaptations that insects had allowed them to win various events, such as drinking water from a puddle, jumping, and digging for food. Right now, students are creating their own insects that could live in our classroom, drawing a picture and writing a paragraph about its adaptations.

The students took the English test on nouns on Wednesday. Due to the many low grades, students have an opportunity to retake the test on Tuesday if they have returned the original test signed and have completed the review packet I put together. I will also hold an optional review session before school on Tuesday morning, from 7:30-8.

Please remember to come to the Christmas concert this Sunday! It starts at 2:30, but students should be there by at least 2:15 (or earlier) so that we can get ready.

The pictures are from the day before Thanksgiving, where we celebrated worms. Students acted out parts of the book How to Eat Fried Worms, and they got to take actual fried worms home with them to try if they wanted to.