Class of 2016

I hope you all enjoyed a lovely Memorial Day with your family and friends. We also Celebrated Shavuot this weekend. As we continue to plug through the ABC countdown, please make sure to refer to it each morning to make sure your child has what he/she needs for the day. I have so many fabulous pictures to share from May. We can start with Special Visitor’s Day. It was such a pleasure to have family from nearby and faraway join us for the morning of math stations. The classroom was buzzing with excitement, collaboration and hard work.

The third and fourth graders have been knee deep in the Rocks and Landforms science unit. We conducted an experiment with different types of rocks and vinegar to figure out the damage to the environment from acid rain. The children discovered that certain rocks were affected more than others.  We also ventured around our own schoolyard to experiment with different soil and various types of rocks. They had to categorize the rocks by shape, color, size and texture. Next week we will conduct tests on soil in stream tables as we examine deposition and we will find out how to detect the hardness of a rock or mineral using the Mohs scale of mineral hardness.

We have spent many of our mornings together in open circle. We talked about the fourth graders hopes and dreams for fifth grade and they all wrote five paragraph essays to Mrs. Woods about next year.We discussed ways to be kind and support one another inside and outside the classroom. We also held many discussions about redesigning recess at JCDS.  I asked them  the following question:

“What would the perfect recess look like to you?”

In math we are finishing up the geometry unit as we discuss the area and perimeter of many different shapes. We will be wrapping up the year with symmetry and measurement. I was so impressed with the final Newbery Award book reports and presentations. The students all had to design their own project to accompany the written report. Their personalities and creativity shined through!

 

 

 

Dates for your calendar:

June 11th=Beatle Torah

June 15th=field Day

June  17th=Graduation and early dismissal

I think we can safely say that winter is behind us. We had an amazing STEAM week with a lot of workshops from Brown and RISD students. The highlight of the week for many was a visit by Sam Drazin. He spoke about acceptance and loving ouselves despite  our faults. You could have heard a pin drop when he spoke. He tied a lot of his struggles back to the book Wonder. He lived a life that had many similarities to Auggie’s life. His message was to be kind and that we are all in this together.

We also celebrated earth day last week. The weather was cooperating and we planted, weeded, raked and watered the soil. The fourth grade plot is ready to grow!

We continued experimenting with rocks and landforms in science class. We used water and force (shaking rapidly) to physically weather rocks. We also collected rock samples on our own playground and garden. We discussed terms such as acid rain, erosion and humus. The children are all very engaged in these hands on experiments. Next week we will explore chemical weathering.

Just a gentle reminder that all Newbery book reports are due Monday, May 11th. Have a great week.

 

Melissa

As we relax on our Passover break, I wanted to share some pictures from our field trip last week. The fourth graders visited Foxborough Regional Charter School to partake in their Holocaust stamp project. This project started with a fifth grade class a few years ago and was inspired by the documentary, Paper Clips. Their goal is to collect 6,000,000 stamps to represent the lives lost in the Holocaust. The students turn the collected stamps from all over the world into beautiful mosaics that are displayed around the school. They truly are works of art. The school aspires to create 18 (Chai) mosaics in total.

When we arrived, we had a tour of the school and then the children received stamps to cut, glue and put on a new mosaic. It was exciting to be part of such a special and meaningful project, especially after reading the novel, Number the Stars and listening to Holocaust survivor, Alice Goldstein. This is a powerful unit which I hope has touched all of the fourth graders in some shape or form.

We began last week with a spring activity with our kindergarten buddies. We listened to The Lorax, by Dr. Suess, and then collaborated to create paper mache pictures of trees and flowers. Even a little snow on the ground can’t stop our spring thoughts! As always, we cherish the time spent with our special little friends.

 

We are deep into our next two class novels. Blown Away is a historical fiction story about the 1935 hurricane in the Florida Keys. The Magic Half is a story of Miri, a middle child caught in between two sets of twins (Hello Mrs. Davis). We are also beginning our new class read aloud, Out of My Mind, by Sharon Draper. We are practicing book talks and literature circles with the children facilitating the discussion by themselves. Different roles include discussion director, passage picker, connector and word finder.

 

 

In social studies, the third and fourth graders are working in cooperative groups to research and design a travel brochure about a city in the USA. They were assigned a region and they had to narrow down the state and city. We are learning about New York City, Denver, Cape Cod and Philadelphia just to name a few. They are conducting research using the library, Ipads and the computer lab.  They will be presenting and sharing their information with their peers.

We finally finished our fourth grade picture books, the largest writing assignment of  the year. The children are so excited to show off their finished work to their classmates tomorrow. We have drafted, edited, typed and illustrated these masterpieces.

Our next writing unit involves all aspects of Greek Mythology. We are reading myths and finding common traits of the heroes and the Gods. We created our very own Greek monsters which are proudly displayed on the class bulletin board. We are performing Greek myths in our upcoming readers theater and we will be working on writing our very own Greek myth in a few weeks. This is such a high interest and creative unit and the kids are enthralled!

Upcoming Events:

April 1=Field trip to Foxboro School for Holocaust Project

April 2-10=Passover Break

April 15=Conferences

April 22=Wonder guest speaker Sam Drezin

May 7th=Zimriyah

May 8th=Special visitors Day