Students in 4K meet together in small groups to reflect on their learning. We hope you enjoy reading about what we've been up to!
Math
By Tori, Alec, Clara and Jack
During our Math block each day, we are learning about obtuse, acute, and right angles, not angels! We are also learning about parallel and perpendicular lines. We have been exploring and perfecting our use of protractors to measure the degrees of the obtuse, acute, and right angles. We are also learning about area. Area is the measurement of units inside of a shape. Another skill we have been working on is symmetry. An object is symmetrical when one half is a mirror image of the other half. The last unit we have been working on are quadrilateral. Quadrilateral shapes are shapes that have more than three straight and closed sides. Sometimes, we use a math app called IXL. IXL is a math learning app that lets you learn and do more math activities that link to our curriculum. I hope you have enjoyed what we have been doing in 4K math!
Next in our math unit we will be working on Large Numbers and Landmarks.
Math joke of the week: Why was the math book so sad? (He had too many problems.)
Reading
By Alex, Grant, Isabella and Aoife
During our Reading block, we are reading amazing texts like Dear Mr. Winston, José! Born to Dance, Hurricanes Earth’s Mightiest Storms. The text genre for Dear Mr. Winston is realistic fiction. The essential question for Dear Mr. Winston is “What are some different ways to do research?” The text is called Dear Mr. Winston, and it is about a girl named Cara who is wrote an apology letter to the librarian that fainted when she brought a snake into the library. She wanted to find out what kind of snake she got from her friend. Jake Lambert was the boy who gave Cara the snake. The author if this text is Ken Roberts and the illustrator is Andy Hammond.
This story is called “José! Born to Dance” The text is about José Limón’s life from a child to an adult. It talks about how and why José became a dancer. It tells you when he first experienced music and dancing. It also tells you why he moved to the U.S. he first moved to California. Then he moved to New York to pursue his dreams. We had a special presenter visit the fourth graders as an extension to our story. She is a dancer from Oak Park, IL who presented the same style and form.
We love going places in our Journeys text and discovering new genres!
Social Studies
By Zoe, Bella, Martina, Bryce & Rose
In Social Studies, we are learning about the history of our country from the Civil War to the Civil Right Movement. Did you know that the Civil Rights Movement happened over a hundred years after the Civil War? That was a long time for people to reconstruct and reorganize! In the Civil Rights Movement, there were three big leaders who influenced human rights in different ways. The three big leaders were Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, and Linda Brown.
Martin Luther King Jr, MLK Jr. gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech during the March on Washington. He is also the face of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960's. Rosa Parks was another great influence in the Civil Rights Movement because Rosa refused to give up her seat on the bus for a white man. She went to court and got put in jail. She appealed her guilty verdict and asked to be heard by a higher court. Both during and after that, the Montgomery Bus Boycott began. Black citizens, and those part of the movement, refused to ride busses for over a year! This lead to segregated busses being legally banned. Last, Linda Brown was an example because her father fought for her rights. There was a white only school just a few blocks away from her home. But they didn’t let her in so she was forced to go across town to go to a all black school. Linda Brown was the reason for the famous Brown v Board of Education case, that integrated all students into all schools.
As you can see, things back then were unjust and unfair, and thanks to these three leaders, and so many more who fought for human rights, the United States is now a more free and equal country.
We will begin our final project on the South next week; a timeline that highlights the influential events and people in our history.
Science
By Zoe, Bella, Martina, Bryce & Rose
In Science we have been learning about land and water. We made stream tables out of humans, gravel, clay, and sand as a mini replica of the earth.We’ve been learning about what does and does not stick to magnets. Objects that have iron or metal attract to magnets. We did an experiment to see how many washers it takes to break the force of a magnet, with or without plastic chips. In class we been using an app on our iPad called Explain Everything to record our data. We rubbed a magnet on a nail so the nail could attract a paperclip. We also got to see how many objects two magnets could still connect through. Magnets connect because their magnetic domains line up.
We’ve also been working with electricity, meaning connecting wires to light bulbs, batteries, and objects to try to make an electrical current. Our first experiment with electricity was using a wire, battery, and lightbulb to make the lightbulb light. When someone lit the bulb they would yell we did it or WOW. We also took light switches so we could turn the bulb on and off. Electricity can travel through water and metal. We have been using Brainpop a lot. Brainpop is is an app where you can watch videos that connect to our curriculum.
Overall, we are learning a lot about magnetism and electricity!
Writing Workshop
By Griffin, Hailey, Olivia & Kenny
We just finished our second opinion piece! We have written an Opinion and a Fiction piece so far. Both have been awesome! We use a checklist/rubric to guide our process and reflect on our piece. We sort the different parts of our piece with highlighters. We use are easel to guide us and give us options during workshop. We also make paragraphs to keep our story organized. When we are done with typing, we use a stuffed animal as our printing pass (thanks, Alec!).
For our opinion piece, we stated a claim, which is the same as creating a thesis. We put three reasons to make our piece strong, and for each reason there has to be three pieces of evidence. In the beginning, we used transition words connect out ideas, such as, "for instance, for example, and one reason." When we write, we have to make sure that we are detailed, and most importantly, we aim to make the piece convincing and reliable. We are working hard at using facts to support our thinking.
Math
By Tori, Alec, Clara and Jack
During our Math block each day, we are learning about obtuse, acute, and right angles, not angels! We are also learning about parallel and perpendicular lines. We have been exploring and perfecting our use of protractors to measure the degrees of the obtuse, acute, and right angles. We are also learning about area. Area is the measurement of units inside of a shape. Another skill we have been working on is symmetry. An object is symmetrical when one half is a mirror image of the other half. The last unit we have been working on are quadrilateral. Quadrilateral shapes are shapes that have more than three straight and closed sides. Sometimes, we use a math app called IXL. IXL is a math learning app that lets you learn and do more math activities that link to our curriculum. I hope you have enjoyed what we have been doing in 4K math!
Next in our math unit we will be working on Large Numbers and Landmarks.
Math joke of the week: Why was the math book so sad? (He had too many problems.)
Reading
By Alex, Grant, Isabella and Aoife
During our Reading block, we are reading amazing texts like Dear Mr. Winston, José! Born to Dance, Hurricanes Earth’s Mightiest Storms. The text genre for Dear Mr. Winston is realistic fiction. The essential question for Dear Mr. Winston is “What are some different ways to do research?” The text is called Dear Mr. Winston, and it is about a girl named Cara who is wrote an apology letter to the librarian that fainted when she brought a snake into the library. She wanted to find out what kind of snake she got from her friend. Jake Lambert was the boy who gave Cara the snake. The author if this text is Ken Roberts and the illustrator is Andy Hammond.
This story is called “José! Born to Dance” The text is about José Limón’s life from a child to an adult. It talks about how and why José became a dancer. It tells you when he first experienced music and dancing. It also tells you why he moved to the U.S. he first moved to California. Then he moved to New York to pursue his dreams. We had a special presenter visit the fourth graders as an extension to our story. She is a dancer from Oak Park, IL who presented the same style and form.
We love going places in our Journeys text and discovering new genres!
Social Studies
By Zoe, Bella, Martina, Bryce & Rose
In Social Studies, we are learning about the history of our country from the Civil War to the Civil Right Movement. Did you know that the Civil Rights Movement happened over a hundred years after the Civil War? That was a long time for people to reconstruct and reorganize! In the Civil Rights Movement, there were three big leaders who influenced human rights in different ways. The three big leaders were Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, and Linda Brown.
Martin Luther King Jr, MLK Jr. gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech during the March on Washington. He is also the face of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960's. Rosa Parks was another great influence in the Civil Rights Movement because Rosa refused to give up her seat on the bus for a white man. She went to court and got put in jail. She appealed her guilty verdict and asked to be heard by a higher court. Both during and after that, the Montgomery Bus Boycott began. Black citizens, and those part of the movement, refused to ride busses for over a year! This lead to segregated busses being legally banned. Last, Linda Brown was an example because her father fought for her rights. There was a white only school just a few blocks away from her home. But they didn’t let her in so she was forced to go across town to go to a all black school. Linda Brown was the reason for the famous Brown v Board of Education case, that integrated all students into all schools.
As you can see, things back then were unjust and unfair, and thanks to these three leaders, and so many more who fought for human rights, the United States is now a more free and equal country.
We will begin our final project on the South next week; a timeline that highlights the influential events and people in our history.
Science
By Zoe, Bella, Martina, Bryce & Rose
In Science we have been learning about land and water. We made stream tables out of humans, gravel, clay, and sand as a mini replica of the earth.We’ve been learning about what does and does not stick to magnets. Objects that have iron or metal attract to magnets. We did an experiment to see how many washers it takes to break the force of a magnet, with or without plastic chips. In class we been using an app on our iPad called Explain Everything to record our data. We rubbed a magnet on a nail so the nail could attract a paperclip. We also got to see how many objects two magnets could still connect through. Magnets connect because their magnetic domains line up.
We’ve also been working with electricity, meaning connecting wires to light bulbs, batteries, and objects to try to make an electrical current. Our first experiment with electricity was using a wire, battery, and lightbulb to make the lightbulb light. When someone lit the bulb they would yell we did it or WOW. We also took light switches so we could turn the bulb on and off. Electricity can travel through water and metal. We have been using Brainpop a lot. Brainpop is is an app where you can watch videos that connect to our curriculum.
Overall, we are learning a lot about magnetism and electricity!
Writing Workshop
By Griffin, Hailey, Olivia & Kenny
We just finished our second opinion piece! We have written an Opinion and a Fiction piece so far. Both have been awesome! We use a checklist/rubric to guide our process and reflect on our piece. We sort the different parts of our piece with highlighters. We use are easel to guide us and give us options during workshop. We also make paragraphs to keep our story organized. When we are done with typing, we use a stuffed animal as our printing pass (thanks, Alec!).
For our opinion piece, we stated a claim, which is the same as creating a thesis. We put three reasons to make our piece strong, and for each reason there has to be three pieces of evidence. In the beginning, we used transition words connect out ideas, such as, "for instance, for example, and one reason." When we write, we have to make sure that we are detailed, and most importantly, we aim to make the piece convincing and reliable. We are working hard at using facts to support our thinking.