We did it. We made it. Thanks so much for sharing your little person with me this year! It has been a blast. I will remember this group for their kindness, big hearts, fun, hard work, drive to meet each challenge, and for the way they came together as a team. Proud to know them, teach them, and learn from them. Happy for those I will pass them on to next year. Congratulations! You have a FIFTH GRADER! Enjoy the summer!
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DISCOVERY QUEST!Students shared their learning in exciting, innovative, and engaging ways during presentation week! It was just fabulous to see such confidence and positive energy. We even had some first grade guests join us and participate in activities, as well as giving feedback to presenters. It was fun to share our learning beyond our own fourth grade team. I'm so proud of these kids and the work they have done with their independent studies this year! 4th Grade Business EXPOOn Tuesday morning, students had a chance to show all their hard work from our Economics unit. Students set up a booth and displayed the marketing tools they created as well as the reading, research, and projects they worked on to earn money for spending at Market Day. Business portfolios will come home in their 4th grade portfolios next week. Below are pictures from the Expo! MARKET DAY!What a glorious day! All the hard work came together and the market was buzzing! Again, SO very proud of these kids and their thinking, planning, preparation, creativity, and energy. What a way to end the year! I hope you had a great time at today's annual Hot Dog Lunch! Thank you so very much for all the time, energy, and support you have given this school year. Our Harman Community is very special because we have so much help from parents and family. Whether you helped this year with a field trip, party donations, setting up for Grand Affair, recycling, or worked to support your child at home in his/her academic, social, and emotional growth….I thank you. It is true that education is a partnership between the home and the school. I am so grateful to have had your support throughout the year. Enjoy your long weekend!
This week in 4W…We are nearing the end of 4th grade, but we have stepped in the gas! Students are deep into several projects and the work is just fantastic! I am so impressed with the TEAM's drive, creativity, and how students are applying the skills and strategies learned and practiced this year. Collaboration among business partners has been exceptional as well as the stamina I am seeing. Students are energized, focused, and ending the year strong. Next week, students will present their Discovery Quest projects on a variety of topics and Econ Choice Board Work will be complete. Then it's on to our 4th Grade Business Expo, Market Day, and before the end of the year---a publishing party and trip to Elizabeth Gardens to wrap up our Place Project. Whew! The days are flying by….you almost have a 5th grader! Conversation Starters:Tell me about the ways you are earning market dollars for market day. Which tasks have you completed? What did you learn from conducting your market survey? How will you use what you learned? Where are you in the process of publishing your informational book? Which text structure(s) are you using for your writing? Ask your child to share his/her final blog post with you----an end of year reflection on his/her areas of growth. 4th Graders gather to conduct their market surveys…Publishing!Lots of MOM LOVE from Team 4W! Have a wonderful weekend! Why do some inventions change history?Students closely read different leveled passages about various inventions throughout history. After reading and considering the key question above, students worked with others who read about different inventions. Students summarized their reading, shared how the evidence in the text helped to answer the key question, and then used the entire group's contributions to craft a written answer. Students on TEAM 4W are excellent collaborators. I was thrilled with the work they produced together! PORTFOLIO BOXESAfter the OAA Reading test, students worked on their portfolio boxes for housing their body of work from the year. Photos, Mod Podge, and sharpies were used for decorating. They turned out so cute! It was fun to see the kids enjoying looking through old photographs from the year. Final products will be on display in our classroom during Grand Affair and will come home at the end of the year. MARKET DAY!4th Grade Market Day is MAY 29th!
Our 4th Grade Market Day project kickoff was this week! Students are super excited for the next four weeks of learning, preparing, marketing, and finally selling their product or service. Please ask your child to see his/her business portfolio which includes the following details: CALENDAR---includes due dates for their Business Proposal, Market Reflection, as well as dates for the 4th Grade Business Expo and Market Day. CHOICE BOARD ACTIVITIES----activities students will have class time to work on which will earn them market dollars for spending at the 4th Grade Market. MARKET DAY ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT DOCUMENT----where students will keep track of market dollars earned. THE BIG PICTURE…. Students in 4W have a business partner. It is up to the partnership to decide upon a product or service to market and sell to other 4th graders on Market Day. Part 1 of the Business Proposal is due on Monday, May 5th. After getting your parent approval (signature), students will turn the proposal in to me for my approval. Each partnership is asked to have 40 items to sell. Students are encouraged to think creatively! EXAMPLES: kid created crafts (book marks, hair bows, science experiment kits) baked goods NON-EXAMPLES: Store bought teddy bears Ele' cupcakes TEAM 4W is VERY excited and motivated! More details to come… This week's targets for learning:
Students participated in ten labs this week to address the above learning targets. Supportive reading, discussion, questioning, and writing helped to tie ideas and experiences together. Ask your child to share his/her learning with you! The Place Project…What a wonderful day for a hike to our special spots at Elizabeth Gardens! Curious about the experience? Ask your child… How has your spot changed since your last visit? What did you write about? What surprised you about your observations during this visit? What did you document for evidence of weathering and erosion? What changes do you predict for your next visit? Graeter's!Mr. Andy Brandell brought an exciting and delicious presentation to our Harman 4th graders on Wednesday! We learned about the Graeter's company history, the french pot process, and he even shared some science with us! Ask your child about what he/she learned about dry ice. Finally…we all enjoyed some ice cream! Density and Cool Conductors!We are scientists! Ask your child to share these experiences with you. Next week students will be working with circuits! Quarter 4 is off to a great start! Students returned from Spring Break refreshed and ready. Here's some of what we were up to this past week:Exploring MATTER… Students observed, inferred, measured, discussed, constructed tables, recorded data, read, and wrote in science this week. Ask your child to share about the following hands-on experiences with you! -Predicting and Measuring Mass of classroom objects -Measuring the Volume of 5 different rocks -Smashing Crackers -Ice Cubes in a Bag Some questions to get you started: What tool did you use for measuring mass this week? How is this tool different from a pan balance? How did you measure the volume of each of the five rocks? Explain what you learned from the "Smashing Crackers" and "Ice Cubes in a Bag" labs. How did the results compare to your predictions? To help build background and review matter concepts from previous years, students watched two Study Jams episodes. New concepts were supported with reading about energy sources in small teacher-led groups as well as a culminating reading in the Science text book to bring understanding to the week's hands-on experiences. Next week, we will continue exploring matter and learning about heat energy. Informational Writing… This quarter students will be exploring the process and skills for writing to inform. This week during Writing Workshop, we began to get a sense of informational books. We brainstormed topics for our own books and began to imagine how we would organize or books and what features we would include to best inform our readers. Ask your child about his/her plans! Opinion Writing… Following a NEWSELA article titled, "Studies show homework isn't much of a burden," students were asked to write to the following prompt: Do 4th grade students have too much homework? This gave students a chance to show their ability to formulate a thesis statement and back up their opinion with details and evidence. We will share these next week! Response to Literature Writing… Students regularly write about their independent reading. This writing takes the form of a letter to me and allows students to choose about what they wish to share. Students are encouraged to discuss characters, theme, setting, point of view, and share signposts and how these signpost noticings affect their understanding of the story. The objective of the assignment is for students to share their thinking about their reading. "How does point of view affect how a story is told?" We took the entire week reading to uncover the answer to this question. We read and discussed multiple pieces of historical fiction---each about folks who joined a wagon train to move West. On Friday, students worked in small groups sharing the stories they read and how the main character felt about the move West. Students discussed who told the stories and how this affected their understanding and how the story was relayed to the reader. Finally, students collaborated to formulate a written answer to the question above citing multiple pieces of evidence from various pieces of text. Ask your child to share his/her learning with you! |
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