February 15, 2016
Boy, have we had such a busy year! I apologize for not updating this more. We have had such a blast learning so many new concepts.
Right now in Math, we are diving into my favorite subject to teach: geometry. The kids especially love Geometry Simon Says and all the cool crafts that can go into this unit, such as symmetry snowflakes, and angles found in nature.
In reading, we are tackling non-fiction stories at the moment, but that didn't stop us from reading, "Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing," in December/January. It was so much fun to read about Fudge's antics and to learn about various reading objectives, such as point-of-view. Right now, we are learning about non-fiction elements all while incorporating Black History Month. Our latest non-fiction stories have been about Matthew Henson and Frederick Douglass.
Within writing, we have been working on creating protagonists and antagonists, with a fun writing project with a "snow-person" as the main character.
In Social Studies, we are switching gears to basic geography, in anticipation of our Regions of the USA unit.
In Science, we are having tons of fun exploring the Human Body Systems. There are tons of fun activities, cute crafts, and yucky projects to tackle.
In Bible, we are learning about another key person of the Bible, Daniel. We are "Daring to be a Daniel," as we learn about his bravery and wholehearted commitment to God.
Lastly but not least, in grammar, we are learning about adjectives and the varying degrees of them, such as utilizing -er, and -est. This tied in nicely with our writing as we chose awesome adjectives to describe our protagonist/antagonist snowperson.
It has been such a fun Winter celebrating Jesus's birth, the New Year, Hundredth Day of School, and Valentine's Day. Learning at LCA has been fun and full of life!
October 30, 2015
It's been a while since I have written a blog post. I am trying to figure out how to keep the pictures from disappearing, on this particular website. Bear with me, as I am working on it!
The Fall season has been such a blast to teach in!
In Reading, we finished up our The Chocolate Touch novel, and started on fairy tales. We've been examining all the elements of a fairy tale and reading tons of them, while figuring out which has which element. So far, Cinderella has ALL the traits of a fairy tale. On expanding on Cinderella, we decided to choose a different shoe for her to wear to the ball. Then, we wrote a persuasive letter to her (A Chat with Cinderella) to convince her to wear our chosen shoe. We had some students choose Nikes, Converse, Wedges, and Mary Jane's for our Cinderella to wear.
Next week, we will be working on fractured fairy tales, and comparing them to the original. We will write our very own fractured fairy tale, too. How exciting!
For morning work/grammar, we had a pet visit us. Our bat friend, Shadow, visited everyday and left us grammatically incorrect messages. We would rewrite the messages, in the correct form, practicing so many grammar skills in the process. Shadow stayed with us for the month of October, and sadly left today. To bid him farewell, we read Stellaluna and watched the Scholastic video. Shadow did leave a message that his friend, Gobbles, may visit for the month of November.
In Math, we are still working on number sense. We played so many games incorporating printed leaves and pumpkins. Next week, we are starting on Pig Math and multiplication skills, which is a favorite among the 4th graders. They remember it from last year and cannot wait!
In Science, we finished up the Rocks and Minerals unit. Home made projects are due this upcoming Monday. Next week we are starting on "Colonial Times Communities" in Social Studies.
Lastly, but certainly not least, we stopped in the middle of our Joseph Bible unit to see "Joseph" in Sight and Sound, on our first field trip. It was so amazing to see the live animals and the amazing costumes and the powerful songs. The story was really brought to life. We were even able to tour backstage and see how they made these amazing sets. It was an awesome field trip, filled with Christ's love and God's mighty power.
The month of October has been amazing. I cannot wait to see how November will be even better!
September 11, 2015
Today we discussed 9/11. Most of the students had heard of 9/11, and some even knew what their parents were doing at that time. It is such a sensitive topic to teach, because you have to be careful to teach the facts, and not invoke fear. I love that we are in a Christian school, because using God's word to drive out fear is the best strategy.
We discussed the basic facts of 9/11. We watched a Brainpop on it, as well. Brainpop does such a wonderful job at really delving into WHY 9/11 happened, and the good that came out of a terrible situation. We discussed how God works ALL things together for our good, even the bad things.
We also talked about how the Bible says, "Do not fear." We talked about spiritual and physical attacks from the enemy. It was a great time of discussion.
Students colored a "heroes of 9/11" sheet, to help remind them of the brave men and women who risked and sacrificed their lives that day.
We also listened to, "The Little Chapel that Stood," on youtube. This is a great book written about St. Paul's Chapel on Broadway, in NYC. It was a haven for firefighters, as they stuck their boots on its famous fence, and just gathered there in the midst of the destruction for prayer, a cup of coffee, and God's presence. We discussed how God appeared even in the midst of tragedy. How His presence is always with us.
It was a great morning for learning.
September 1, 2015
We had a fun writing lesson today! Students explored complete sentences and how to make them wonderful! Our rules were to make them seven words or longer, making them "7UP" sentences. We explored adding details such as adjectives to help stretch out sentences.
The fun activity started by students grabbing a handful of M&M's. Based on how many M&M's they grabbed, this was how many "7UP" sentences they had to write. Most of them had anywhere from 13-20 sentences to write. They had to write each sentence about themselves. It was a great way to get to know each child, as they practiced their writing.
Oh yeah. At the end, they were able to drink the 7UP and eat their M&M's. :)
*Credit for lesson given to Pinterest.
First Day of School!
We had such a GREAT first day! We read plenty of picture books, played plenty of, "Get to Know Each Other," games and had some class challenges!
One of the first activities we did involved visualizing a favorite memory from our summer break. Then we drew that memory, on an "Instagram" template. I explained to students about this app. (None of them knew what it was, which is fine!) After they "captured" their favorite memory, like an Instagram snap, then they wrote a caption describing their memory. Some really got into it, and wrote "hashtags". I just love incorporating technology into activities, even though technically there was no technology going on.
