Hello, 4A families!
Peek inside our class! These photos and descriptions of learning are here to support you and your child in conversations about learning.
Upgrading Our Writing Skills…
As writers, how can we learn to capture our readers’ attention right away? Students worked in term one on writing topic sentences, and this important learning continues.
However, it is time to add some style and depth to our paragraph writing by crafting hooks!
This was lesson 1 of 3 before students will be asked to apply their new hook writing skills next week in an expository paragraph on topic of their choosing for a final unit assessment. (Before then, for practice they will write dozens of hooks and a few practice paragraphs and get feedback on them.)
Below you can see a graphic organizer students have used this year to plan their writing and some rubrics to assess and provide feedback.
Our Novel Study…
We finished reading E.B. White’s novel, “The Trumpet of the Swan” and have been discussing its five major themes: finding your voice, perseverance and hard work, responsibility and honesty, friendship and support, and the fact that everyone has value.
*Here is a link to a YouTube video of an audio recording of the whole novel.
Bible Study: The Prodigal Son
We have been studying Jesus’s early life and ministry, especially his parables.
We also did a deep dive on the Parable of the Lost Son (Prodigal Son). Stay tuned for a future full blog post on this unit of study once students are finished the creative dimension of this work.
Students have begun plans for plays, comics, songs, videos, puppet shows, and more to deepen and communicate their learning of the lessons Jesus has for us in this story.
Below is a video of Christian music artist Josiah Queen’s song, The Prodigal. We played this song in class today to illustrate how we can creatively engage with ideas in the Bible.
Skating was awesome!
In Math…
We are continuing with daily practice of the Partial Quotients method of division. I have assigned all students to do 3 division questions at home each night (like complete their daily math worksheet that they bring home in their agenda or make up new questions to check with a calculator, parent, or with multiplication).
Math stories continue as well.
Students who finish their work early are invited to explore grade 5+ level worksheets, choose math enrichment handouts, play math card games, work with manipulatives, or dive into math stories that challenge them to apply their understanding in new ways.
In our class, math leaders have a special role—anyone can work their way to becoming a math leader. Once they demonstrate mastery of a topic in an assessment and complete their own regular work, they are “deployed” first as helpers (serving their peers for a few minutes) before moving on to new enrichment challenges or choice activities. (Doing your homework pays off!)
Learning Coats…
They are coming along beautifully! The symbolism and thought expressed in this textiles project is powerful! We can’t wait to show you!
Perhaps ask your child to share with you something he/she has newly added…
Tiffany Poirier 