We have been so very busy these past 2 weeks! The days have been so exciting that I'm sure your kids have shared lots of details with you! In light of that, I'm just going to share pics from all our great events! Enjoy! CASSANO'S OPERATION HILLSIDE PRESENTATIONSMARKET DAY4th grade picniC
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One of the two big things we have been focusing on in SS/ELA is our MARKET DAY! Children are busily working on their Choice Board activities so they can earn market dollars to spend on their friends' goods and services! We take time each day to work on these tasks that include reading books, watching videos, interviewing people, creating posters and timelines, and recording jingles and commercials! Children should be working on their Market Day products at home to have 24 ready by May 19...unless, of course, it's a baked good! The second big thing we are focusing on is our Operation Hillside Opinion piece. These have really taken shape this week. Students have typed first drafts, and spent a lot of time editing...their own pieces, and each others'! Our next step is getting to our final copies, so we can start practicing for PRESENTATIONS! On May 12, students will present their opinion pieces to students in 4E or 4P, and one group will be chosen to present to our stakeholders on May 16. Operation Hillside is coming to fruition, and we are EXCITED! Here are some pics of kids working hard on their writing. To go along with our opinion pieces, the kids are hard at work building models of their plans for the hillside during math/science time! There's a lot going on these last 3 weeks. Please pay close attention to emails and your kids' assignment books!
We are so proud of the children and the grit and perseverance they showed throughout these 2 weeks of testing. Now that we have finished with testing, we will have 2 main areas of focus in SS and ELA... OPERATION HILLSIDE OPINION PIECE We are nearing the end of this year long project. Our focus right now is writing a collaborative opinion piece, with the goal of "selling" each team's plan for the hillside. Teams have completed graphic organizers and are in the very early stages of writing their rough drafts. AND MARKET DAY On Monday, I will kick off a fun experience for the kids in which they will become entrepreneurs! Please keep your eyes open for a letter to come home next week explaining this project, as it will have an at-home component. FIELD TRIP PROJECTS It has been a lot of fun to see the field trip projects as they've come in. Thank you for taking part in this project. I will be sending a survey home about this project so we can tweak it for next year. Please fill out this survey when it arrives via email. GRAETER'S To celebrate the end of testing, as well as a tie-in to math, science, and social studies, we had a presentation by Graeter's Ice Cream on Friday. Children were treated to fun stories about the history of the company, as well as some awesome dry ice demonstrations. Thank you to the PTO for providing this experience for us! HAVE A FABULOUS WEEKEND!
As I sit here and look out my window on an April morning, I am astounded to see snow! Ahh, springtime in Ohio! I'm so grateful that Mrs. Walther is such a firm believer in getting our kids outside; they had a fabulous time visiting Centennial Park this week, despite the less than perfect weather. I can't wait to read the Voices in the Field posts to learn about what was seen and done during this trip! ELA UPDATE We have spent quite a bit of time learning about point of view and perspective in writing. Along with this topic, came the introduction of first-hand and second-hand accounts. Students have read books and articles that show different people's perspective of the same event, as well as discussed how writing in the first vs third person point of view can change the telling of a story, and the reader's understanding of it. We have also spent the last couple of weeks working on some test prep. My goal was to expose the kids to as many different types of questions as they might see on the AIR test next week. One of the articles we read as part of our test prep was about the State Quarters and Beautiful Parks coin programs. I pulled out my collections of each of these coin programs, and the kids were intrigued! Thanks so Steve, we were able to complete our State Quarters collection, which students have been working on for over 5 years here at Harman! And many students have brought in Beautiful Parks coins to get that collection started. What a great way to learn about our states and parks! SOCIAL STUDIES UPDATE
Inventors from Ohio were the topic of discussion in SS, as we learned about Thomas Edison, Garret Morgan, Charles Kettering, James Spangler, Granville Woods, Charles Richter, and, of course, the Wright Brothers. We are now into our last SS unit, Economics. Students have learned about the Factors of Production, which we will see in action at our Cassano's field trip in May. We have moved on to learning about savings and budgets. Entrepreneurship is one of the key topics of this unit, and children will get first hand practice with this later this year. On April 25, we will kick off our Market Day project...keep your eyes and ears open for info about this to come home that week! Field trip projects are coming in as well. We have learned about the Underground Railroad in Springboro, the Underground Museum in Cincinnati, Serpent Mound, the Wright Cycle Shop, the Amish, Cincinnati....with much more to come! Students eagerly await each new project and are enjoying learning about all these great places and the fascinating history of Ohio. OPERATION HILLSIDE UPDATE Students are at the synthesis point with this project. They have spent months researching and learning from experts, now it's time to put all that learning together to create a cohesive plan. On Friday, student teams spent time together going through what they have learned and pulling out the big ideas that were important for them to include in their proposals. Opinion pieces will be written in ELA class in the upcoming weeks, and models of the hillside will be created in math/science classes. It's hard to believe that these little people are just one quarter and some summer days away from being fifth graders! We have some action packed weeks ahead, full of new and culminating learning experiences. It's going to be GREAT! GA-gA!Have you heard all about it? Harman little people are loving our new Ga-ga pit! This has inspired a new love of play outside at recess. Our Harman staff is working out the very best way to maximize the opportunity for kids to play, and is developing a common set of rules and language for managing this playground addition. OPPORTUNITES FOR MORE SCIENCE: |
We made some great mistakes in 4K and 4W this week! Through those mistakes some awesome learning emerged. Ask your child to share a mistake from his/her week. Ask your child to explain what was learned. If the learning isn't yet clear, help him/her to reflect on the experience and talk it through together. Thank you for supporting your child's growth mindset! |
FRACTION MODELING
Learners are developing an understanding of addition and subtraction of fractions.
SPEED PROBLEM SOLVING
Speed problem solving is a body and brain workout! Learners move between working with a variety of partners on a variety of problems that apply the skills we are working on. Physical exercise such as jumping jacks, planks, sit ups, and crossovers are built in to this fast paced problem solving hour!
COOKIE-OLOGY
How does a regular Oreo stand up to a Double Stuf Oreo?
Learners worked this week to compare and contrast a sample of each type of cookie. Qualitative observations were made with a naked eye and with a microscope. Students practiced drawing like a scientist. Digital scales, pan balances, rulers, measuring tapes, and graduated cylinders were used to measure the mass, volume, diameter, radius, and circumference of each type of cookie.
Questions learners discussed:
What relationship do you notice between the diameter and radius of each cookie?
What do you notice about the relationship between the diameter and the circumference?
Will the mass of the cookie change if you crush it in to little pieces?
How do the two cookie types compare?
COMING NEXT....
Students will create a testable question about which cookie type will float longer in milk, and will carry out the experiment.
STAY TUNED!
Learners worked this week to compare and contrast a sample of each type of cookie. Qualitative observations were made with a naked eye and with a microscope. Students practiced drawing like a scientist. Digital scales, pan balances, rulers, measuring tapes, and graduated cylinders were used to measure the mass, volume, diameter, radius, and circumference of each type of cookie.
Questions learners discussed:
What relationship do you notice between the diameter and radius of each cookie?
What do you notice about the relationship between the diameter and the circumference?
Will the mass of the cookie change if you crush it in to little pieces?
How do the two cookie types compare?
COMING NEXT....
Students will create a testable question about which cookie type will float longer in milk, and will carry out the experiment.
STAY TUNED!
THOUGHTFUL DISCUSSIONS
Our Google Classroom space is full of great thinking and ideas right now! Ask your child to share this space and his/her contributions with you!
Author
Anne Kenney
Kimberly Walther
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