A Native American storyteller visited us from Ganondagan today! She told us many stories that teach lessons and explain the way the world works. Ask your child to share some of them with you!

Welcome back to our weekly written blog.  So many things have been happening in the 4^th grade. I can’t explain how awesome it has been the past week. 

We are studying erosion in science, Native Americans in social studies, place value in math.  We are reading about Native Americans in our reading groups. 

 We are having special things going on in specials too.  In French we are trying to say 200 French words by Halloween.  In Performing Arts we are writing a very interesting Native American play.  In Visual Arts we are weaving. 

The annual book fair is coming up with Tedd Arnold as our guest author.  I believe the majority of kids loved Henry’s birthday party because we had cookie cake!  In conclusion the Scots (people from Scotland) will be giving a general assembly at the end of today.  Now you should really love 4^th grade in general!

Mr. Kindig was in 4B yesterday and took a short video of the kids working hard on their Unit 2  pre-tests in math.  Check it out!

It was a very exciting week in Fourth Grade! Our day is busy but filled with learning.

Thursday was the busiest day. We went to Music Plus and then we went to our field trip to Ganondagan. It was a lot of fun. We got to visit a Seneca longhouse and it looks so real!

The day before Thursday it was picture day! We got to choose from three different backgrounds.

Almost every day we would read Sign of the Beaver. 

In gym we are doing Pilates and swimming. 

In French, we are trying to learn as much as 200 French words by Halloween. 

In Music Plus we are learning a song called “Liza Jane”. 

In tech we are learning how to make slides on the computer. 

In reading with Mrs. Moss we read a lot of interesting books. 

Working with Mr. Hartman is really fun.  We got to saw a board 8 feet long to build a green house.

In reading we have our reading groups. The groups are: Island of the Blue Dolphins, Eagle Feather, Indian Shoes, and Walk Two Moons.

In math, our geometry unit is coming to an end.

In writing we can write in our journals or design a witch.

Some people got to go to the food cupboard, but before we went to the food cupboard, we did math with Mr. O’Bryan.

Well this letter is coming to an end, so see you next week!

We want this blog space to be as authentic as possible.  Therefore, we are beginning student blogging.  Each week, one student will be selected to be our student blogger.  They will be responsible for taking pictures and keeping notes on what we do all week.  They will then write the blog post on Friday and the teachers will help select pictures to go up on the blog with the post.  We won’t post the name of the student blogger on the website, but it can be a great conversation starter with your child.  Below is our first student blog:

      Hello!

Welcome to what 4^th grade’s been doing

We’ve been doing polygons, angles and lines in math class,

reading No Talking (by Andrew Clements) in reading,

 studying Native Americans in social studies,

and weather in science!

Tomorrow, the fourth graders will take part in a no talking contest at school.  This is a school based project based on the book we are currently reading, No Talking by Andrew Clements.  Below are a list of the guidelines that the students came up with and voted on. 

Guidelines for No Talking Contest

 1.    You can answer teachers, or adults who work at Harley, in 3 words or less

2.    Singing doesn’t count, but can’t be used for conversation

3.    You can write on whiteboards or paper

4.    Be honest with points (Honor System)

5.    Contest is only at school, including cafeteria and recess (you can talk at home)

6.    You can talk if it is an emergency (injury, etc.)

7.    Each illegal word = one tally

8.    Work as one team. If the team meets or exceeds an overall goal, we do something special.

9.    Sign language is okay

10.  Sound effects are okay

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It was another great week in Fourth Grade! Lots of learning took place in our classrooms that we would like to share

We liked…

• Building geometric figures with marshmallows
  
• Making tornados in Science
  
• Reading more of No Talking!
  
• Playing “The Great Divide” in P.E.
  

We learned…

• About the different types of triangles
  
• More about our names
  
• About the different types of clouds
  
• About Native American artifacts
  

We are looking forward to…

• This year’s yearbook!
  
• Sundae Sunday
  
• Field trip to Ganondagan
  
• No Talking Contest

Questions you can ask us…

• When is Sundae Sunday?
• What did you use marshmallows for in Math?
• What does your triangle poster look like?
• When is the No Talking contest?
• What is No Talking! About?
• How do you make a tornado in a jar?
• What did you do in Art this week?

Here are a few more pictures of students using their bodies to represent various geometric terms!

See if you can find…

• Parallel Lines
• Line Segment
• Right Angle
• Acute Angle

What other terms can you identify?

The pictures above show the students acting out different Geometry terms.  Can you identify which student is acting out the ray? the line? the set of perpendicular lines?  Ask your child which terms they can pick out too!

We were also busy taking some pictures of the students working and playing throughout the week.  We are posting some from recess today.  Keep checking back for more pictures from our Geometry unit!

Something I liked…

• The Geometry scavenger hunt

• Writing our time capsules

• Making sculptures in Art Class

• Working on “My Summer” PowerPoint presentations in Technology

• Working on Scholastic News broadcasts

Something I learned…

• Current Events from Scholastic News

• Facts about our names

• New Geometry vocabulary words ( point, endpoint, line segment, line, ray, parallel lines, perpendicular lines, intersecting lines)

• A new song in Choir

• What supplies we will be using this year.

Something I am looking forward to…

• Sunday Sundae (Sunday, September 23^rd)

• Having a No Talking contest

• Clementine read-alouds

• Getting the rest of our supplies

 Questions you can ask me…

• What was your favorite part of the week?

• What is the No Talking contest?

• What does your name mean?

• What book(s) did you take out of the library?

• What are you learning about in math/reading/writing?