First Impressions!

 Our fourth graders have thought about the impact first impressions can make. As you know, last Friday the girls dressed in something that would tell us about them or possible interests they might have. From the moment they walked into the classroom and saw their classmates clothed in something other than a BMS uniform, they thought about their first impressions of their classmates - what thoughts came into their minds when they first saw their classmates, what might the outfit tell about the person etc. The girls were partnered up and quietly observed a partner. They responded to questions like What does my partner like? What is she wearing that gives me that idea? and then, after talking with her partner, was my impression correct? As a group we discussed stereotyping, when we think something is true about someone without getting to know them. The following are some of the girls'  thoughts about the dangers of stereotyping:

"You might decide they are bad by what they are wearing and they might be good once you get to know them."

"If you say something or spread a rumor that turns out not to be true then you could really hurt their feelings."

"What you think may not be true, so get to know the person before you assume something."

"You might be wrong and never know the truth about that person."

"When you see how a person dresses and you think that it is ugly but in their culture it is actually considered pretty. They might feel bad if you tell that to them."

Ask your daughter about how she can get beyond a first impression when she meets or sees someone different from herself. Who knows, she might make a life long friend from getting beyond that first impression.



The Journey Begins......

Fourth-grade students began reading Journey to Jo'burg this week.  The novel, set in apartheid-era South Africa, complements our social studies' unit on African geography and culture while reinforcing skills in literal and interpretive comprehension.  Please feel free to ask about the discussions held in class.  For example, girls compared some of the information in this book to what Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King experienced during the American struggle for civil rights.  Reinforcing these concepts at home will expand both background knowledge and connections between historical  events.  An excellent website about the author, Beverly Naidoo, can be found at:

http://www.beverleynaidoo.com

French: Bienvenue à la classe de français!

Bonjour parents! In fourth grade, we have already progressed through four sections of our Gérard et Ses Copains Symtalk textbooks. This week, we have been discussing buying items à la boulangerie (at the bakery) and au café (you can probably guess this one...at the café). We use cards with images on them to represent vocabulary words. Whenever your daughters see a card with a heart, for example, they know to say "aime" (or "aimes", depending on the subject). Today, I told them a story about the textbook characters Gérard and Brigitte. The girls had miniature cards at their desks and formed the sentences of the story as they listened. The picture below shows you what some of our Symtalk cards look like. Quiz your daughter and ask her to read the sentence to you! (She should read: Tu manges un croque-monsieur au café avec moi.)

Music: Group Composition Project

After learning a pentatonic melody as a class, the girls learned about drone accompaniments.  Parents, a drone is a repeated accompaniment figure using the first and fifth scale degrees.  For our purposes, the drone pitches were C and G.  The girls played the four basic types of drones (chord, broken, crossover, and level) and then invented their own.

In small groups, the students were to create their own arrangement of these materials.  They were required to play the melody with a drone accompaniment.  Several groups also chose to play the melody in a canon, or even add an introduction or coda.

Here's just one example!

Math: Multiplication facts

You've heard your daughter's math teacher ask...insist...encourage...even plead with your daughter to learn her multiplication facts.  In a day and age when "memorizing facts" seems to be falling by the wayside as we can always "google it," you may wonder why we are still so insistent about this important skill.  I explain to my students that it is similar to learning the sounds that different letters of the alphabet make so that we can go on to read.  Imagine, I tell them, if you had to look up every letter's sound (or even just some of them) how long it would take to read a sentence.  This year, we will be exploring multi-digit multiplication (54 * 21 or 157 * 4, for example) and long division, as well as doing lots of work with fractions .  As we get into these multi-step calculations, it is so important that your daughter not get hung up trying to remember that 6*7 is 42.  (That particular fact was one of the hardest for me to learn!)  So encourage your daughter to practice her math facts...from old fashioned flash cards to games on the iPad, all practice is good practice.  

P.E.- Let's Get Moving!!!

Our slogan for this year in Physical Education is “Let’s Move!”  In 4^th Grade we started with a Cooperative Games unit stressing the importance in working together to succeed or accomplish a goal.  This is an age where they start to learn tactical skills to improve their overall team success in sports and activities.  To accomplish this, practice in cooperation with different size groups is very important.  Our second unit is soccer which we just started this week.

Art: Imagery self-portraits

The girls begin the year with a self portrait that considers the following questions: Who am I as an individual? Who am I as a member of a group or community? Who am I as a citizen of the world? They use chosen literal and figurative imagery fit into their silhouettes.  Here they are prepping their silhouettes and shape stencils.  

School Counselor

Talking With...the Fourth Grade

In the fourth grade, we are talking about the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King 's " I Have a Dream"speech.
We spoke about the value of RESPECT, and how this value was portrayed by Dr. King.
Together we discussed the " I Have a Dream" speech and what it means today to your girls.
Each girl was given their own sheet of paper, with "I Have a Dream" on it, in which to express
their dream and what they hope for.
Talking about this historical event, allows the girls to express themselves and build community within their new grade.
Ask your daughters about their hopes and dreams.

Math: Off to a great start!

We started the year off with a review of place value from the millions' place to the hundredths' place.  We've ordered, compared, rounded, added, and subtracted.  On Monday, each girl tried to "Conquer the Cobra," by correctly setting up and completing 19 addition and subtraction problems (remembering to line up the place values), some of which were really challenging!  The students loved it so much, they asked the teachers to create another one with a boa constrictor or a rattle snake for an extra challenge.  Of course we will!

Art: Meaning

Fourth grade explores the theme MEANING in art throughout they year.  The students will work with literal and figurative imagery, symbols, functional form, aesthetic design, and abstract art.  They will study the arts of people and places around the world and learn to infer meaning based on their observations and ask questions that touch on the universal need to express, create, and connect. 

Beginning of Fourth Grade! Watch us grow!

Ms. Strouss's Awesome Class!

Class Photo

Fourth Grade Class Starts the Day with a Smile!

Social Studies: Culture

Welcome to Social Studies in fourth grade! Before our leap into our global studies we began with discussions about culture. What is culture? The metaphor we used to better understand culture is an iceberg. There are visible aspects such as skin color and clothing and invisible aspects such as religion and expectations of families of culture. This has promoted a wonderful discussion of commonalities and differences. One child volunteered that her parent had commented that there are many more common aspects than there are differences. Of course the girls agreed! Ask your daughter to describe the various aspects of culture that we have discussed!

Ms. Keller and Ms. Strouss

Welcome to Fourth Grade

We have started our independent reading program.  You should have seen your daughters carrying books back and forth between home and school along with orange book cards.  We have set a goal of having every child complete five books per quarter with a total number of twenty volumes each year.  You can partner with us by making sure that twenty minutes of reading takes place at home every day from Monday to Thursday.  Students can take books from the school library, class library, and from home.  Ask your daughter to share her latest selection with you!

Ms. Keller & Ms. Strouss