April 26, 2024
Hello 4G Families!
This week we went turbo-mode in MCAS review. A few days we actually had double math periods to really get it all in there. First, we worked on division with larger numbers. Now the kids can do something like 3,456/3! Those are some big numbers! We have been practicing a division strategy called the area model. Kids draw a long rectangle and multiply up to get to the dividend. So for the example above, they might start with
3x 1,000=3,000. They have 456 more to go.
3x100=300. They now have 156 more to go.
3x50=150. They only have 6 more to go.
3x2=6. That's it!
Then within all of that work they have to find their answer. Final answer: 1,152. Ask your fourth grader how that answer is reflected in the work above!
After division, we reviewed a ton of fractions (adding and subtracting with different denominators, mixed numbers and improper fractions) and some geometry terms they will need to know (perpendicular, parallel, etc.) We took a few practice tests as well and familiarized ourselves with what kinds of questions will be on the test. We also took a look at the TestNav tools for those of us taking the test on the computer.
Apart from MCAS, we worked on editing in writing. We spent one day focusing on periods and one day focusing on commas. A few months ago, we did the ELA Minute during morning meeting. We learned how to fined verbs and subjects in sentences. A refresher of this came in handy when searching for where to put periods. Radin actually gave me the idea to teach a specific lesson on commas (it's not in the curriculum and he was wondering how to use them! Thank you Radin!) We watched a super fast-paced but super informative video in the vein of Schoolhouse Rock (click here if you want to see it for yourself!) We learned about three different rules for when to use commas: when writing a list, separating two clauses, and separating out non-essential information. Kids practiced writing sentences on their whiteboards that followed these rules and shared them out. They got pretty silly! After that they were able to go back into their own persuasive writing and find spots to add in commas. Ask your fourth grader where they should put commas in the following sentence: "Readers of the Westing Game will have to figure out who is the bomber the burglar the bookie and the mistake."
Things in the Westing Game are really heating up. This week, we learned who the bomber was: Angela!! No one saw that coming! Angela is such an interesting character, with a lot of thoughts and feelings she keeps bottled up inside. Only her sister Turtle and her partner Sydelle know that she is the bomber. And us of course. We also learned that Jake Wexler is the bookie! Many of us think the burglar and the mistake are the other two members of the Wexler family. What a family they are!
Have a wonderful weekend! Enjoy the gorgeous weather we have coming up!
~Ms. Glickstein
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April 12, 2024
Happy April Break 4G Families!
We made it to Break! The kids were so excited and I think all of their Rose Bud and Thorns today included April Break. Earlier in the week we finished up the ELA MCAS. Phew! Lots of hard work. Ask your fourth grader how their MCAS experience was so far. We celebrated by having another nice long snack and extra recess. We also had a drawing contest! The theme was Spring. After examining the anonymous, finished drawings the kids voted for Cora as the winner! Go Cora!
The rest of the week, we spent a lot of time on our read aloud The Westing Game. Thursday, we wrote diary entries from the perspective of one of the characters. Some kids chose Judge Ford, with her careful deliberation of the facts. Others chose James Shin Hoo, with his failing restaurant and bitter feelings towards Mr. Westing. Some of us chose Angela, who we all inferred correctly that she doesn't even want to get married! I love doing assignments like this because it lets kids be creative while analyzing the characters of this very complicated story. We learned some cool things about the heirs this week. Flora Baumbach made Mr. Westing's daughter Violet's wedding dress. Violet died on the eve of her wedding so this was very suspicious to a lot of us. More twists and turns ahead!
In math, we focused on two-digit-by-two-digit multiplication. We have been learning about the area model. Have your fourth grader draw a two-by-two square for you and show you how to solve a problem like 39 x 87! Some students were ready to move on to 3 by 3! On Friday, many of us tried problems like 387x294! These result in HUGE numbers, so we had to be extra careful when showing our work, being mindful of lining up the numbers so it all adds up correctly.
Have an awesome break!
~Ms. Glickstein
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April 5, 2024
Hi 4G Families!
Phew! Day 1 of ELA MCAS is done! The kids have been working so hard the past couple of weeks preparing. We have read some passages together and looked at the kinds of questions the test will ask. We also spent a day with Ms. Mazzocchi looking over the TestNav application to see how the test looks and how to use the functions (answer eliminator, bookmarks, highlighters etc.) Next we spent several days working on the essay response. When writing a good essay, it really starts with understanding the passage, so we went over lots of pre-reading strategies. The other thing to keep in mind is to answer the question carefully. We looked over a ton of prompts from past MCAS's and determined what is Given and what are the Variables. Givens are what every essay must include and Variables are what each MCAS test taker could choose to include. After that we talked about writing really strong topic sentences that utilized words right from the prompt. This style of writing is pretty different from what we've been focusing on all year. Susi pointed out that the student samples we looked at from the MCAS website were written in a boring way. That's true! Usually in 4G, we focus on description and voice and making your writing as interesting as possible for the reader. But this test style of writing is very formulaic and we had to remember to include the necessary elements that the test graders are looking for.
After the MCAS test was finally over, we had a nice long snack, enjoyed a nice long recess and because of a scheduling snafu, enjoyed Art class with 4R! Give your fourth grader a big, congratulatory hug tonight. They worked so hard today and I am so proud of them.
MCAS prep didn't take up our entire week though. At the beginning of our week we did the March Madness Weather Debate! (The timing didn't quite work out since it's already April, but close enough.) The kids worked so hard last week writing incredibly persuasive speeches as to why their topic was the most dangerous and destructive. They included some very shocking statistics about numbers of people lost, dollars of damage, and speeds of winds and rain. They also explained how scary it might be for any of us to be in the middle of these weather events. In pairs (except for Max who bravely agreed to go on his own), the kids gave their impassioned speeches. We voted democratically with each group paired up against another group. The winner of that round would go on to the next round, battling another winner. And so on and so forth until...Tsunamis and Floods were proven the most dangerous!! Congratulations Stella and Harper!! This was a super fun way to wrap up the unit and allowed the kids to showcase the persuasive writing skills we have been working on during Writing Workshop. Ask your fourth grader who they battled in March Madness!
In science, we finally carried out our ice cube experiment! (Monday morning, much to our dismay I realized I had forgotten to put the ice cube tray in the freezer. Woops!) Wednesday, we put ice cubes in each group's container and checked back periodically to see how it did. Groups who used a lot of cotton balls found the best result. This is because the cotton balls soaked up any melted water. We know that ice cubes that are already in water will speed up the melting process. These cotton balls acted as insulation and kept the heat out. We have one more experiment in this unit on States of Matter: evaporation!
Have a wonderful weekend!
Ms. Glickstein
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March 28, 2024
Hello 4G Families!
It's my favorite day of the year! Today is Arts Equinox!! Many of you witnessed the outstanding performances at Kids 4 Kids. Congratulations to Kaiden, Keaton, Campbell, Gabriel, Aria, Heedaya, Susannah, Harper, and Bea for bravely and beautifully showcasing their talent. We got to see acts on the piano, guitar, singing, and even in pantomime! It was so, so fun and the kids really did an amazing job. The rest of the day was filled with art projects. We had a calming weaving project where kids pulled out strings on a burlap square to make a cool checkered pattern, then layered it with strips of colored paper. We participated in the All School Project and painted our portion of cut up paper towel rolls green. These will be combined with the rest of the classes to make one giant, multi-colored work of art. We also welcomed two visiting artists: Darren the bucket drummer, and the hip hop dance crew at Reaction Dance Company NYC. The kids LOVED the bucket drumming. Some of them got to solo while the rest accompanied them with eighth notes on their buckets! Next they played "poison rhythm," where one kid tapped out a rhythm and the others had to echo it perfectly. The hip hop performance was also so cool. A bunch of kids got to showcase their moves during the group tutorial! This year, we got a New Orleans style jazz band to play us out as we all headed to the gym for the closing ceremony. 4G headed off a multi-grade-wide conga line. Tons of fun!!
The rest of this short week was still packed with academics. We have been working hard on adding and subtracting fractions with different denominators. Just one problem has about a million steps, but the kids got much better at remembering them after some practice. Ask your fourth grader what would be a good common denominator for 1/6 + 7/8! We have been sneaking in some comparing fraction review too. One day, we played a game with a spinner made from a pencil and a paperclip. Kids flicked the paperclip and added the fractions that it pointed to.
We started our next read aloud and my personal favorite book, children's or otherwise: The Westing Game. This book is a 4G read aloud tradition! (Those of you with older siblings, tell them not to spoil it!) I adore this book. Every time I read it I get something new out of it. It is such a perfectly intricate, Agatha Christie-like mystery. The kids are riveted! So far we have met all the characters and heard Sam Westing's very strange will. We saw a bunch of clues, and heard each character try to solve the mystery. Turtle Wexler thinks it has to do with the stock market. Judge Ford (and several 4G students) are not totally convinced Sam Westing was even murdered. The kids have some very interesting and creative ideas about the clues too! Ask your fourth grader who they think is the murderer and why!
In science this week, we prepared for our experiment next week: keeping the heat out. Last week we sped up melting and now we have to slow it down. In pairs or individually, the kids made containers for an ice cube using a short list of materials. We will have to wait until Monday to see which container is able to keep an ice cube alive (so to speak.)
Have a wonderful long weekend!
~Ms. Glickstein
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March 22, 2024
Hi There, 4G Families!
We dipped our toe into MCAS practice this week. Kids who will take the test on computers familiarized themselves with that format and kids who will take the test on paper took a look at a practice passage. Ms. Mazzocchi came by on Monday and we did an interesting scavenger hunt using the TestNav tools. The kids learned how to highlight, bookmark, review their answers, scroll inside passages, and use the answer eliminator tool. We will do a little bit more MCAS stuff each week until the ELA test, which is in another two weeks. (The kids were thrilled to learn that the test was moved and is no longer on April Fools' Day! Hmm, wonder what that means for me that day...)
In math, we've been working on adding and subtracting fractions with the same denominator. This is quick and easy since you only have to focus on the numerator. We also worked a lot on changing improper fractions into mixed numbers. Ask your fourth grader how to turn a fraction like 7/4 into a whole number and a fraction! They might use numbers or pictures to explain their thinking. We have used both in our lessons. On Wednesday, we took a pause from the curriculum and did a fun decimal activity. I gave the kids the menu from Stoked Pizza (adjusted to reflect a 6.25% sales tax so we could have some interesting decimals to work with.) We pretended we all got a $100.00 gift card to Stoked. Their job was to order as much food as they could without going over the gift card limit! It was a super fun activity. Many students who were done early completed the extra challenge: tipping their waiter generously. We decided if we really loved the service, we should tip 25%. (That's the total divided by 4!)
In writing, we worked on how to make our persuasive writing arguments even stronger. Writers often use data to do so. Every kid wrote down one open response question and one multiple choice question in order to collect quotes and statistics from the rest of the class. Next, I compiled these questions into a google form and everyone took it. I printed out everyone's results and then they incorporated their data into their writing. They used sentence starters like "As one fourth grade student put it..." or "Over 50% of fourth graders agree..." The kids really enjoyed seeing what people thought of their topics!
In science, we did our first experiment of the unit. We had talked a lot about the different properties of each state of matter, and next it was time to observe changing states of matter. I gave each table group a bag with an ice cube in it and they decided where in the room they wanted to put their bag in order to speed up the melting process. One group put their ice cube next to the window, another taped theirs at the top of the door under the light, and two groups found an interesting loop hole and put their ice cubes in their own tablemates' hands or in their pockets! Those two tables had the fastest melting ice due to the heat source of their own bodies being much stronger than the light bulb or the sun through the window. It was super interesting!
Have a wonderful weekend!
~Ms. Glickstein
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March 15, 2024
Happy Friday 4G Families!
We had another great week! In math, we have been comparing and ordering both fractions and decimals. This can be tricky work especially when there are lots of numbers to sort and not just two to compare. The kids have been doing an excellent job of using benchmark fractions (0, 1/2, 1, and 2) to order the fractions. With decimals, kids have to take place value into account. Now the kids are experts at determining which is bigger 0.2 or 0.15. Since the 2 is in the tenths place that means that it would be bigger than 0.15 with a 1 in the tenths place. Ask your fourth grader to show you how to put the following decimals in order from smallest to biggest:
0.9, 0.14, 0.19, and 1.08.
In reading, we wrapped up our first weather research topics in pairs. The kids wrote sticky notes with vocabulary for anyone who chooses their topic in the second round. We shared the most important facts about these first expert topics. This was a great share to showcase their new understandings of their topics. They have really absorbed so much throughout these last few weeks of research! The kids then picked their second weather research topic, this time to be done individually. We added two new research topics to the original list--wildfires and avalanches. A lot of kids wanted to forge their own path and pick one of these new topics that no one had studied the first round! During the first few days of research, the kids proved they really had gotten the hang of it, coming up with subtopics and paraphrasing with ease. Ask your fourth grader to share their second weather topic and one interesting thing they've learned so far!
We wrapped up our social studies unit on Native America by looking at artifacts from different regions. The kids did a great job using critical thinking to decide what these artifacts could have been used for based on the shape and materials. Some people predicted their artifacts were used for cooking or hunting, war, clothing, or just plain old beautiful decoration. After making their predictions and recording their evidence as to why they thought that, we revealed what each of these items was used for. There were some surprises! The Northwest group was surprised to learn that their artifact actually belonged on a headdress meant for a chief. The Southeast group correctly predicted their artifact had to do with war, but they learned that it was actually a gun powder holder, not a horn to call for battle. Interesting! We moved on to the first lesson of our next science unit: states of matter! There are some fun science experiments coming up in this unit, so stay tuned.
Have a wonderful weekend!
~Ms. Glickstein
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March 8, 2024
Hi 4G Families!
Woops! I skipped last week's blog post! I will fit everything into this one. The most exciting part of last week was Fort Day on Tuesday! Thank you for sending in all the building materials. There was enough for kids to split themselves into three groups and make three really interesting forts! After the building, we spent all of Reading Workshop in there, reading good books snuggling the stuffies we brought in. The building process was a lot of trial and error and kids had to get creative to problem solve. Those slippery blankets kept falling off of desks! Kids used just about every book in the library to anchor their blankets in place. At the end of the day, 4G pulled off the most efficient and calmest cleanup in HISTORY. I gave them the steps to clean up and set a timer, and off they went returning every. Single. Item. And they did it within 10 minutes with everyone working, no one getting off task, no one dawdling!! Even Ms. Goldberg, who came in for that week's class meeting, was impressed. Proud teacher over here.
In reading workshop the past few weeks, we've been working on our big weather research project for this unit. I split the kids into pairs and trios and everyone picked a natural disaster or weather event: tornadoes, volcanoes, earthquakes, blizzards, etc. First we read books and found different subtopics. Most kids found subtopics like causes or how to stay safe. Next, we combed through the books and practiced paraphrasing facts to write underneath each subtopic. The kids have done an excellent job paraphrasing! We talked about how not to plagiarize: use synonyms and say the fact in another way. After a few days finding information in the books, the kids used a tool called Padlet which compiles a bunch of different articles from websites like Newsela and PebbleGo on each topic. The kids found even more information through these online articles.
This week, they wrote about their weather research. This writing activity required a little bit of pushing, as the criteria was not just rewrite the facts but also add in their own thoughts, reactions, and connections to the text. First they tried this style of writing by responding to an article about droughts, our whole class research topic. Next, they used facts from their own research to respond to. Wow! That is a ton of thinking and a massive set of literacy skills! They ranked, compared, questioned, analyzed, connected, and synthesized!
In math, we have moved on to fractions and decimals. We spent a few days last week looking at place value very carefully. We used a 10 by 10 grid and made that 1 whole. One column would be 1/10, or 0.1 of the square. One little square would be 1/100, or 0.01 of the square. We practiced coloring in different decimal values. 0.53 would be 5 columns and 3 small squares for example. If there is only 3 small squares colored in, that means 0.03, not 0.3. Ask your fourth grader to show you how to represent a decimal like 0.16 on a 10 by 10 grid!
Next we worked on comparing fractions. We used laminated fraction cards several times this week. We found equivalent fractions, put them in order from least to greatest, place them along a number line as accurately as we could, and even played some Fraction War! We noticed that all the fractions that are equivalent to 1/2 have a numerator that is half of the denominator. Ask your fourth grader to give you an example of a few equivalent fractions! We talked about how since 4/8 is equivalent to 1/2, we would know where to put 6/8-- in between 1/2 and 1 whole.
In social studies, we have continued working in our Native American cultural group research pairs (it's all research all the time in 4G!) Recently, they've been reading fables from their cultural group. We learned about the importance of storytelling and how in the Native American tradition, it was oral storytelling, and wasn't written down until later.
Have a great weekend!
~Ms. Glickstein
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February 16, 2024
Happy February Break 4G Families!
What a week! What with the snow day and our Valentines party, there was barely time to fit anything else in! This week we focused mainly on getting our Community Meeting hosting gig set and ready for Friday morning. Last week, we cast the show. Monday, we finalized the script, a combo of the kids' ideas and my own editing. Next, the kids worked hard on the slideshow you all saw. Kids who were gone Friday were still able to contribute to the slides. The kids picked topic-appropriate pictures and gifs and some of them even added in transitions! Next, we practiced the show from top to bottom. Some parts of the script were timed with pictures and transitions, so I had to make sure I was focusing too! We all had worked on enunciating and speaking clearly, and practiced using the microphone. Sadly, the microphone decided to stop working partway through the actual show, but wow the kids really took it well! They tried a few times to be heard, then waited patiently until Ms. Cecchini saved the day.
On Wednesday we had a super fun Valentine party! Kids got paper bags and a choice of a traditional heart or a human heart that they could color to decorate it (in my experience, there's always a few kids who roll their eyes at the sappy hearts, and like the more gory option!) Ms. Lui was so kind and also supplied some fun stickers. After decorating, kids who made valentines passed them out. Cora gave each kid a tiny lego kit so that kept us occupied for a while! Some kids needed a little assistance, but everyone was able to figure out how to build their little gift and in the end we had a whole buffet of lego foods: hamurger, pizza, cake, soda, nachos, popsicle, hotdog, fries! Lastly, thanks to the Azrins we had a bunch of beautiful origami paper to learn how to make origami hearts! It took a few tries, but by the end we had a good handful of cute little hearts. It was a great day! Later the kids sang happy birthday to me and Campbell, Theo, Keaton, and Radin even made me the giant collage heart and bow and arrow! I loved it!
We were able to fit in a little bit of academics in this wacky week. We finished up our subtraction unit after several days of working on the standard algorithm. The kids have done a great job with this, the most efficient strategy for subtracting, and the one they will be expected to use from now on. We also did some work with word problems. We had two or three pages of problems that all referred to a table showing data about the sizes of arenas. We worked with big, big numbers, up into the 10,000s! The kids answered questions about how many people could be in the different arenas when some of them hadn't arrived yet. These problems were sometimes a little confusingly written, as they required kids to use answers from previous questions and data from a few pages back. During the wrap up for each lesson, we made sure we were clear on what these questions were asking and how exactly to find the answer.
Lastly, we finished our read aloud Front Desk! It ended VERY dramatically, with Mia's parents about to get a dangerous loan from the loan sharks in order to buy the motel from Mr. Yao. At the last possible minute, Mia learns they don't actually need to raise any more money and the Tang family, along with help from their community, are motel owners! Hooray! The kids were on the edge of their seats with this emotional story. Ask your fourth grader what they thought of the ending of this book! It has yielded some great discussions about poverty, determination, friendship, and yes, even the unrequited crush of Jason Yao. Our next read aloud is a recommendation from Kaiden, The Magic in Changing Your Stars. This book is a departure from the last one, it involves time travel and a little magic! It is perfect for this month too, since it has characters named after famous black artists, the theme for our door decorating contest for Black History Month!
And now...it's February Break!! Have a wonderful week off, I hope you get some good relaxation in.
~Ms. Glickstein
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February 9, 2024
Happy Friday 4G Families!
Thursday we had our annual Driscoll Lunar New Year Celebration! This is one of my favorite days of the year. The auditorium was a sea of red clothes as a lot of kids dressed up for the occasion. We got to see an excellent performance of the Lion Dancers, who added a new audience participation aspect into the show this year! The new multipurpose room is set up such that the Lion Dancers could weave their way through the crowd and up the aisles, blinking its little eyes and wagging its tail for all the kids. A bunch of them got to touch the lion too! Sadly, no 4G kids caught an orange (thrown out of the lion's "mouth"), but in a real showstopper moment, the lion kicked one of the oranges aaaaall the way to the back row where a bunch of 7th graders jumped on it! See if your fourth grader can demonstrate! Next, each grade got up and performed songs and dances. 4th Grade did a fantastic job in their song about the signs of the Chinese Zodiac!
This week in social studies we did a ton of work in groups. The kids continued their research of their assigned Native American region, this time using an article and several maps. They learned about the climate of their region, the food, the plants and animals, the homes, the clothing, and the traditions and beliefs. Next, we mixed the groups up even more. We did two rounds of sharing, one with a kid who studied a region similar to theirs and one with a region very different. The kids are doing a great job of thinking critically during this activity. Bea made an excellent observation about the different traditions between two regions, one valued elders and the other valued young people as the leaders and visionaries! Interesting! It is important to learn that not all Native American groups are the same. Additionally, we learned that with every group all over the globe, their way of life is dictated by the climate they live in.
In reading, we have continued working on nonfiction. Some kids are really excited by this and are really enjoying the nonfiction books they checked out from the library. Others much prefer fiction and are itching to get back into those books. Unfortunately for them...we have a few more weeks of nonfiction. This week, we learned about nonfiction text features and different text structures. Texts can either be organized chronologically (first, next, then, last), or by problem/solution, cause and effect, compare/contrast, or even categorical (where the author describes different subtopics of a larger topic.) We practiced by reading an article about the DNA similarities between chickens and dinosaurs. We agreed that that text was written in a compare/contrast structure. Next, the kids read their own nonfiction books and decided which text structure best fit their own book choice. These skills will help us to get ready for our research project coming up later in the unit. Stay tuned!
We are almost done with our read aloud Front Desk. Mia's story of struggle and determination has really captivated a lot of 4G! In the last few chapters, Mia was finally able to get some encouragement from her mom and we learned why she said those unsupportive things in the past. She was really talking to herself, and was ashamed of her own less than perfect English. Ask your fourth grader what they think will happen with the Calivista and if Mia will be able to help her family get off "the rollercoaster." (They'll explain what that means.)
Have a great weekend!
~Ms. Glickstein
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February 2, 2024
Happy February 4G Families!
This week, we finished our round of book clubs. At the end of it, the kids filled out a Book Club Retrospective. They thought about their own participation and how their group did staying on topic. They also thought about the book analysis, and determined the theme and life lesson of their book. This unit has allowed the kids to exercise a TON of different skills. They had to work together during the discussions, listen carefully to one another, build off of each other's comments, stick to one topic together. They had to do a lot of work on their own too--determining character traits and motivation, and distilling the book down to the main theme. They all did an excellent job! Ask your fourth grader what they thought of book clubs, and if they would be interested in doing another round of them! (Spoiler alert: another round is already coming in the Spring whether they want to or not.)
In math, we have moved onto multi-digit addition and subtraction. This unit also focuses heavily on place value. Each day for our warmup, we take a number and stretch it out to expanded form. Then we round that number to the nearest 1,000, 100, and 10. These activities solidify number sense, place value understanding, and facility with the numbers. We looked at a lot of different strategies for addition, but by the end pretty much everyone preferred the standard algorithm (the way we all learned as kids.)
We have moved onto our social studies unit: Native Americans. We watched a few videos on the importance of combatting stereotypical imagery. Next, we split into pairs to research different cultural regions of Native America. In the past, when I have taught something similar, we split the kids into 5 groups. But with this new curriculum, they split North America up into 10 groups, much more accurate to the distinctions of Native American culture! I model the research and note taking with the Northeast region, a region we are all quite familiar with. Then the kids go off and research their own region. Ask your fourth grader what region they got assigned and one interesting fact they learned!
Have a great weekend!
~Ms. Glickstein
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January 26, 2024
Happy Friday 4G Families!
This week we worked a ton on our rock skits to get them performance-ready. Kids made props and practiced in small groups and in front of the whole class. This is such a great project for kids to practice those group work skills: how to disagree with each other, how to make sure everyone's voice is heard, how to compromise, how to stick with a task and complete it even though you're tempted to socialize. The skits have come a long way! I'm excited for you all to see the final performances on Monday. (Bea, Cora, Kaiden, Gabriel, and Radin's group actually already presented their skit at community meeting today!) We also had one last computers class with Ms. Mazzocchi to finish up our coding project. As a millenial who is not fantastic at computers, I am so impressed with their tech skills! The kids were really able to take the building blocks of coding and make a really cool scene. You will all get to see those on Monday's parent share too.
In reading this week, we moved forward in our book club books. As we near the end of our books, we are thinking about what these stories are mostly about. We used a tool called the Event-o-Meter which measures plot events on a scale of Not That Important (small details) to The Most Important (this represents what the story is all about.) With a stack of post-its referencing different plot events, each book club got together to debate the ranking. Which event should go in Most Important? Which event was still important but a little bit lower? Why did they think that? They used lots of evidence to support their thinking and even had some disagreements about what should go where! Ask your fourth grader what they think was the most important event in their book club book.
While working on our informational chapter books this week, we finally got into researching. One of our drafting strategies was to add in specific details like numbers, names, and quotes. Unfortunately, kids don't always know those specific details! Many kids had to type _____ in the middle of their document, to save that spot for when we got the answers online. Wednesday and Thursday, we used the Driscoll library databases to research our topics and fill in those gaps. Their chapters are coming along and are much more detailed than when we started. Ask your fourth grader what their three chapter titles are! Some students have written more than three!
Have a wonderful weekend!
~Ms. Glickstein
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January 19, 2024
Hi 4G Families!
Today was Science Solstice, one of my favorite traditions at Driscoll School! Our day was jam-packed with science experiments and talks. Big thank you to Theo's mom for teaching us all about Elephant Toothpaste! We traveled all over the building for the other Science Solstice presentations. We also got to watch the Mad Science presentation, super engaging, super wild! On top of Elephant Toothpaste, we learned about building Mars Rovers, infectious diseases and microbes. Ask your fourth grader what their favorite part of the day was!
The rest of the week was jam packed too. In science, we have been working diligently on our rock scripts to prepare for the parent share. Kids were split into groups of 4 or 5. Together, they wrote the story of the rock cycle and how rocks change from one to the next. They are VERY excited about this project and have so many ideas! There are some fun costume changes and props to design!
In reading, we are chugging along in our book clubs. This week, we focused on asking questions to guide the book club discussions. We talked about what makes a question deep rather than shallow. Shallow questions have one answer you can point to in the text. Deep questions require some inference to be made. Shallow questions often have a yes or no answer. Deep questions have many answers depending on the opinion of the reader. The kids continued to practice their group discussions, and aimed to add on at least three comments per question to keep the conversation going. I am hearing some great things coming from these discussions! Kids are using evidence and inferring and making connections to other books. It's beautiful to see! Ask your fourth grader what is happening right now in their book club book and what they predict will happen next!
Have a wonderful weekend! Stay warm!
~Ms. Glickstein
Hello 4G Families!
This week we went turbo-mode in MCAS review. A few days we actually had double math periods to really get it all in there. First, we worked on division with larger numbers. Now the kids can do something like 3,456/3! Those are some big numbers! We have been practicing a division strategy called the area model. Kids draw a long rectangle and multiply up to get to the dividend. So for the example above, they might start with
3x 1,000=3,000. They have 456 more to go.
3x100=300. They now have 156 more to go.
3x50=150. They only have 6 more to go.
3x2=6. That's it!
Then within all of that work they have to find their answer. Final answer: 1,152. Ask your fourth grader how that answer is reflected in the work above!
After division, we reviewed a ton of fractions (adding and subtracting with different denominators, mixed numbers and improper fractions) and some geometry terms they will need to know (perpendicular, parallel, etc.) We took a few practice tests as well and familiarized ourselves with what kinds of questions will be on the test. We also took a look at the TestNav tools for those of us taking the test on the computer.
Apart from MCAS, we worked on editing in writing. We spent one day focusing on periods and one day focusing on commas. A few months ago, we did the ELA Minute during morning meeting. We learned how to fined verbs and subjects in sentences. A refresher of this came in handy when searching for where to put periods. Radin actually gave me the idea to teach a specific lesson on commas (it's not in the curriculum and he was wondering how to use them! Thank you Radin!) We watched a super fast-paced but super informative video in the vein of Schoolhouse Rock (click here if you want to see it for yourself!) We learned about three different rules for when to use commas: when writing a list, separating two clauses, and separating out non-essential information. Kids practiced writing sentences on their whiteboards that followed these rules and shared them out. They got pretty silly! After that they were able to go back into their own persuasive writing and find spots to add in commas. Ask your fourth grader where they should put commas in the following sentence: "Readers of the Westing Game will have to figure out who is the bomber the burglar the bookie and the mistake."
Things in the Westing Game are really heating up. This week, we learned who the bomber was: Angela!! No one saw that coming! Angela is such an interesting character, with a lot of thoughts and feelings she keeps bottled up inside. Only her sister Turtle and her partner Sydelle know that she is the bomber. And us of course. We also learned that Jake Wexler is the bookie! Many of us think the burglar and the mistake are the other two members of the Wexler family. What a family they are!
Have a wonderful weekend! Enjoy the gorgeous weather we have coming up!
~Ms. Glickstein
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April 12, 2024
Happy April Break 4G Families!
We made it to Break! The kids were so excited and I think all of their Rose Bud and Thorns today included April Break. Earlier in the week we finished up the ELA MCAS. Phew! Lots of hard work. Ask your fourth grader how their MCAS experience was so far. We celebrated by having another nice long snack and extra recess. We also had a drawing contest! The theme was Spring. After examining the anonymous, finished drawings the kids voted for Cora as the winner! Go Cora!
The rest of the week, we spent a lot of time on our read aloud The Westing Game. Thursday, we wrote diary entries from the perspective of one of the characters. Some kids chose Judge Ford, with her careful deliberation of the facts. Others chose James Shin Hoo, with his failing restaurant and bitter feelings towards Mr. Westing. Some of us chose Angela, who we all inferred correctly that she doesn't even want to get married! I love doing assignments like this because it lets kids be creative while analyzing the characters of this very complicated story. We learned some cool things about the heirs this week. Flora Baumbach made Mr. Westing's daughter Violet's wedding dress. Violet died on the eve of her wedding so this was very suspicious to a lot of us. More twists and turns ahead!
In math, we focused on two-digit-by-two-digit multiplication. We have been learning about the area model. Have your fourth grader draw a two-by-two square for you and show you how to solve a problem like 39 x 87! Some students were ready to move on to 3 by 3! On Friday, many of us tried problems like 387x294! These result in HUGE numbers, so we had to be extra careful when showing our work, being mindful of lining up the numbers so it all adds up correctly.
Have an awesome break!
~Ms. Glickstein
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April 5, 2024
Hi 4G Families!
Phew! Day 1 of ELA MCAS is done! The kids have been working so hard the past couple of weeks preparing. We have read some passages together and looked at the kinds of questions the test will ask. We also spent a day with Ms. Mazzocchi looking over the TestNav application to see how the test looks and how to use the functions (answer eliminator, bookmarks, highlighters etc.) Next we spent several days working on the essay response. When writing a good essay, it really starts with understanding the passage, so we went over lots of pre-reading strategies. The other thing to keep in mind is to answer the question carefully. We looked over a ton of prompts from past MCAS's and determined what is Given and what are the Variables. Givens are what every essay must include and Variables are what each MCAS test taker could choose to include. After that we talked about writing really strong topic sentences that utilized words right from the prompt. This style of writing is pretty different from what we've been focusing on all year. Susi pointed out that the student samples we looked at from the MCAS website were written in a boring way. That's true! Usually in 4G, we focus on description and voice and making your writing as interesting as possible for the reader. But this test style of writing is very formulaic and we had to remember to include the necessary elements that the test graders are looking for.
After the MCAS test was finally over, we had a nice long snack, enjoyed a nice long recess and because of a scheduling snafu, enjoyed Art class with 4R! Give your fourth grader a big, congratulatory hug tonight. They worked so hard today and I am so proud of them.
MCAS prep didn't take up our entire week though. At the beginning of our week we did the March Madness Weather Debate! (The timing didn't quite work out since it's already April, but close enough.) The kids worked so hard last week writing incredibly persuasive speeches as to why their topic was the most dangerous and destructive. They included some very shocking statistics about numbers of people lost, dollars of damage, and speeds of winds and rain. They also explained how scary it might be for any of us to be in the middle of these weather events. In pairs (except for Max who bravely agreed to go on his own), the kids gave their impassioned speeches. We voted democratically with each group paired up against another group. The winner of that round would go on to the next round, battling another winner. And so on and so forth until...Tsunamis and Floods were proven the most dangerous!! Congratulations Stella and Harper!! This was a super fun way to wrap up the unit and allowed the kids to showcase the persuasive writing skills we have been working on during Writing Workshop. Ask your fourth grader who they battled in March Madness!
In science, we finally carried out our ice cube experiment! (Monday morning, much to our dismay I realized I had forgotten to put the ice cube tray in the freezer. Woops!) Wednesday, we put ice cubes in each group's container and checked back periodically to see how it did. Groups who used a lot of cotton balls found the best result. This is because the cotton balls soaked up any melted water. We know that ice cubes that are already in water will speed up the melting process. These cotton balls acted as insulation and kept the heat out. We have one more experiment in this unit on States of Matter: evaporation!
Have a wonderful weekend!
Ms. Glickstein
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March 28, 2024
Hello 4G Families!
It's my favorite day of the year! Today is Arts Equinox!! Many of you witnessed the outstanding performances at Kids 4 Kids. Congratulations to Kaiden, Keaton, Campbell, Gabriel, Aria, Heedaya, Susannah, Harper, and Bea for bravely and beautifully showcasing their talent. We got to see acts on the piano, guitar, singing, and even in pantomime! It was so, so fun and the kids really did an amazing job. The rest of the day was filled with art projects. We had a calming weaving project where kids pulled out strings on a burlap square to make a cool checkered pattern, then layered it with strips of colored paper. We participated in the All School Project and painted our portion of cut up paper towel rolls green. These will be combined with the rest of the classes to make one giant, multi-colored work of art. We also welcomed two visiting artists: Darren the bucket drummer, and the hip hop dance crew at Reaction Dance Company NYC. The kids LOVED the bucket drumming. Some of them got to solo while the rest accompanied them with eighth notes on their buckets! Next they played "poison rhythm," where one kid tapped out a rhythm and the others had to echo it perfectly. The hip hop performance was also so cool. A bunch of kids got to showcase their moves during the group tutorial! This year, we got a New Orleans style jazz band to play us out as we all headed to the gym for the closing ceremony. 4G headed off a multi-grade-wide conga line. Tons of fun!!
The rest of this short week was still packed with academics. We have been working hard on adding and subtracting fractions with different denominators. Just one problem has about a million steps, but the kids got much better at remembering them after some practice. Ask your fourth grader what would be a good common denominator for 1/6 + 7/8! We have been sneaking in some comparing fraction review too. One day, we played a game with a spinner made from a pencil and a paperclip. Kids flicked the paperclip and added the fractions that it pointed to.
We started our next read aloud and my personal favorite book, children's or otherwise: The Westing Game. This book is a 4G read aloud tradition! (Those of you with older siblings, tell them not to spoil it!) I adore this book. Every time I read it I get something new out of it. It is such a perfectly intricate, Agatha Christie-like mystery. The kids are riveted! So far we have met all the characters and heard Sam Westing's very strange will. We saw a bunch of clues, and heard each character try to solve the mystery. Turtle Wexler thinks it has to do with the stock market. Judge Ford (and several 4G students) are not totally convinced Sam Westing was even murdered. The kids have some very interesting and creative ideas about the clues too! Ask your fourth grader who they think is the murderer and why!
In science this week, we prepared for our experiment next week: keeping the heat out. Last week we sped up melting and now we have to slow it down. In pairs or individually, the kids made containers for an ice cube using a short list of materials. We will have to wait until Monday to see which container is able to keep an ice cube alive (so to speak.)
Have a wonderful long weekend!
~Ms. Glickstein
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March 22, 2024
Hi There, 4G Families!
We dipped our toe into MCAS practice this week. Kids who will take the test on computers familiarized themselves with that format and kids who will take the test on paper took a look at a practice passage. Ms. Mazzocchi came by on Monday and we did an interesting scavenger hunt using the TestNav tools. The kids learned how to highlight, bookmark, review their answers, scroll inside passages, and use the answer eliminator tool. We will do a little bit more MCAS stuff each week until the ELA test, which is in another two weeks. (The kids were thrilled to learn that the test was moved and is no longer on April Fools' Day! Hmm, wonder what that means for me that day...)
In math, we've been working on adding and subtracting fractions with the same denominator. This is quick and easy since you only have to focus on the numerator. We also worked a lot on changing improper fractions into mixed numbers. Ask your fourth grader how to turn a fraction like 7/4 into a whole number and a fraction! They might use numbers or pictures to explain their thinking. We have used both in our lessons. On Wednesday, we took a pause from the curriculum and did a fun decimal activity. I gave the kids the menu from Stoked Pizza (adjusted to reflect a 6.25% sales tax so we could have some interesting decimals to work with.) We pretended we all got a $100.00 gift card to Stoked. Their job was to order as much food as they could without going over the gift card limit! It was a super fun activity. Many students who were done early completed the extra challenge: tipping their waiter generously. We decided if we really loved the service, we should tip 25%. (That's the total divided by 4!)
In writing, we worked on how to make our persuasive writing arguments even stronger. Writers often use data to do so. Every kid wrote down one open response question and one multiple choice question in order to collect quotes and statistics from the rest of the class. Next, I compiled these questions into a google form and everyone took it. I printed out everyone's results and then they incorporated their data into their writing. They used sentence starters like "As one fourth grade student put it..." or "Over 50% of fourth graders agree..." The kids really enjoyed seeing what people thought of their topics!
In science, we did our first experiment of the unit. We had talked a lot about the different properties of each state of matter, and next it was time to observe changing states of matter. I gave each table group a bag with an ice cube in it and they decided where in the room they wanted to put their bag in order to speed up the melting process. One group put their ice cube next to the window, another taped theirs at the top of the door under the light, and two groups found an interesting loop hole and put their ice cubes in their own tablemates' hands or in their pockets! Those two tables had the fastest melting ice due to the heat source of their own bodies being much stronger than the light bulb or the sun through the window. It was super interesting!
Have a wonderful weekend!
~Ms. Glickstein
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March 15, 2024
Happy Friday 4G Families!
We had another great week! In math, we have been comparing and ordering both fractions and decimals. This can be tricky work especially when there are lots of numbers to sort and not just two to compare. The kids have been doing an excellent job of using benchmark fractions (0, 1/2, 1, and 2) to order the fractions. With decimals, kids have to take place value into account. Now the kids are experts at determining which is bigger 0.2 or 0.15. Since the 2 is in the tenths place that means that it would be bigger than 0.15 with a 1 in the tenths place. Ask your fourth grader to show you how to put the following decimals in order from smallest to biggest:
0.9, 0.14, 0.19, and 1.08.
In reading, we wrapped up our first weather research topics in pairs. The kids wrote sticky notes with vocabulary for anyone who chooses their topic in the second round. We shared the most important facts about these first expert topics. This was a great share to showcase their new understandings of their topics. They have really absorbed so much throughout these last few weeks of research! The kids then picked their second weather research topic, this time to be done individually. We added two new research topics to the original list--wildfires and avalanches. A lot of kids wanted to forge their own path and pick one of these new topics that no one had studied the first round! During the first few days of research, the kids proved they really had gotten the hang of it, coming up with subtopics and paraphrasing with ease. Ask your fourth grader to share their second weather topic and one interesting thing they've learned so far!
We wrapped up our social studies unit on Native America by looking at artifacts from different regions. The kids did a great job using critical thinking to decide what these artifacts could have been used for based on the shape and materials. Some people predicted their artifacts were used for cooking or hunting, war, clothing, or just plain old beautiful decoration. After making their predictions and recording their evidence as to why they thought that, we revealed what each of these items was used for. There were some surprises! The Northwest group was surprised to learn that their artifact actually belonged on a headdress meant for a chief. The Southeast group correctly predicted their artifact had to do with war, but they learned that it was actually a gun powder holder, not a horn to call for battle. Interesting! We moved on to the first lesson of our next science unit: states of matter! There are some fun science experiments coming up in this unit, so stay tuned.
Have a wonderful weekend!
~Ms. Glickstein
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March 8, 2024
Hi 4G Families!
Woops! I skipped last week's blog post! I will fit everything into this one. The most exciting part of last week was Fort Day on Tuesday! Thank you for sending in all the building materials. There was enough for kids to split themselves into three groups and make three really interesting forts! After the building, we spent all of Reading Workshop in there, reading good books snuggling the stuffies we brought in. The building process was a lot of trial and error and kids had to get creative to problem solve. Those slippery blankets kept falling off of desks! Kids used just about every book in the library to anchor their blankets in place. At the end of the day, 4G pulled off the most efficient and calmest cleanup in HISTORY. I gave them the steps to clean up and set a timer, and off they went returning every. Single. Item. And they did it within 10 minutes with everyone working, no one getting off task, no one dawdling!! Even Ms. Goldberg, who came in for that week's class meeting, was impressed. Proud teacher over here.
In reading workshop the past few weeks, we've been working on our big weather research project for this unit. I split the kids into pairs and trios and everyone picked a natural disaster or weather event: tornadoes, volcanoes, earthquakes, blizzards, etc. First we read books and found different subtopics. Most kids found subtopics like causes or how to stay safe. Next, we combed through the books and practiced paraphrasing facts to write underneath each subtopic. The kids have done an excellent job paraphrasing! We talked about how not to plagiarize: use synonyms and say the fact in another way. After a few days finding information in the books, the kids used a tool called Padlet which compiles a bunch of different articles from websites like Newsela and PebbleGo on each topic. The kids found even more information through these online articles.
This week, they wrote about their weather research. This writing activity required a little bit of pushing, as the criteria was not just rewrite the facts but also add in their own thoughts, reactions, and connections to the text. First they tried this style of writing by responding to an article about droughts, our whole class research topic. Next, they used facts from their own research to respond to. Wow! That is a ton of thinking and a massive set of literacy skills! They ranked, compared, questioned, analyzed, connected, and synthesized!
In math, we have moved on to fractions and decimals. We spent a few days last week looking at place value very carefully. We used a 10 by 10 grid and made that 1 whole. One column would be 1/10, or 0.1 of the square. One little square would be 1/100, or 0.01 of the square. We practiced coloring in different decimal values. 0.53 would be 5 columns and 3 small squares for example. If there is only 3 small squares colored in, that means 0.03, not 0.3. Ask your fourth grader to show you how to represent a decimal like 0.16 on a 10 by 10 grid!
Next we worked on comparing fractions. We used laminated fraction cards several times this week. We found equivalent fractions, put them in order from least to greatest, place them along a number line as accurately as we could, and even played some Fraction War! We noticed that all the fractions that are equivalent to 1/2 have a numerator that is half of the denominator. Ask your fourth grader to give you an example of a few equivalent fractions! We talked about how since 4/8 is equivalent to 1/2, we would know where to put 6/8-- in between 1/2 and 1 whole.
In social studies, we have continued working in our Native American cultural group research pairs (it's all research all the time in 4G!) Recently, they've been reading fables from their cultural group. We learned about the importance of storytelling and how in the Native American tradition, it was oral storytelling, and wasn't written down until later.
Have a great weekend!
~Ms. Glickstein
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February 16, 2024
Happy February Break 4G Families!
What a week! What with the snow day and our Valentines party, there was barely time to fit anything else in! This week we focused mainly on getting our Community Meeting hosting gig set and ready for Friday morning. Last week, we cast the show. Monday, we finalized the script, a combo of the kids' ideas and my own editing. Next, the kids worked hard on the slideshow you all saw. Kids who were gone Friday were still able to contribute to the slides. The kids picked topic-appropriate pictures and gifs and some of them even added in transitions! Next, we practiced the show from top to bottom. Some parts of the script were timed with pictures and transitions, so I had to make sure I was focusing too! We all had worked on enunciating and speaking clearly, and practiced using the microphone. Sadly, the microphone decided to stop working partway through the actual show, but wow the kids really took it well! They tried a few times to be heard, then waited patiently until Ms. Cecchini saved the day.
On Wednesday we had a super fun Valentine party! Kids got paper bags and a choice of a traditional heart or a human heart that they could color to decorate it (in my experience, there's always a few kids who roll their eyes at the sappy hearts, and like the more gory option!) Ms. Lui was so kind and also supplied some fun stickers. After decorating, kids who made valentines passed them out. Cora gave each kid a tiny lego kit so that kept us occupied for a while! Some kids needed a little assistance, but everyone was able to figure out how to build their little gift and in the end we had a whole buffet of lego foods: hamurger, pizza, cake, soda, nachos, popsicle, hotdog, fries! Lastly, thanks to the Azrins we had a bunch of beautiful origami paper to learn how to make origami hearts! It took a few tries, but by the end we had a good handful of cute little hearts. It was a great day! Later the kids sang happy birthday to me and Campbell, Theo, Keaton, and Radin even made me the giant collage heart and bow and arrow! I loved it!
We were able to fit in a little bit of academics in this wacky week. We finished up our subtraction unit after several days of working on the standard algorithm. The kids have done a great job with this, the most efficient strategy for subtracting, and the one they will be expected to use from now on. We also did some work with word problems. We had two or three pages of problems that all referred to a table showing data about the sizes of arenas. We worked with big, big numbers, up into the 10,000s! The kids answered questions about how many people could be in the different arenas when some of them hadn't arrived yet. These problems were sometimes a little confusingly written, as they required kids to use answers from previous questions and data from a few pages back. During the wrap up for each lesson, we made sure we were clear on what these questions were asking and how exactly to find the answer.
Lastly, we finished our read aloud Front Desk! It ended VERY dramatically, with Mia's parents about to get a dangerous loan from the loan sharks in order to buy the motel from Mr. Yao. At the last possible minute, Mia learns they don't actually need to raise any more money and the Tang family, along with help from their community, are motel owners! Hooray! The kids were on the edge of their seats with this emotional story. Ask your fourth grader what they thought of the ending of this book! It has yielded some great discussions about poverty, determination, friendship, and yes, even the unrequited crush of Jason Yao. Our next read aloud is a recommendation from Kaiden, The Magic in Changing Your Stars. This book is a departure from the last one, it involves time travel and a little magic! It is perfect for this month too, since it has characters named after famous black artists, the theme for our door decorating contest for Black History Month!
And now...it's February Break!! Have a wonderful week off, I hope you get some good relaxation in.
~Ms. Glickstein
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February 9, 2024
Happy Friday 4G Families!
Thursday we had our annual Driscoll Lunar New Year Celebration! This is one of my favorite days of the year. The auditorium was a sea of red clothes as a lot of kids dressed up for the occasion. We got to see an excellent performance of the Lion Dancers, who added a new audience participation aspect into the show this year! The new multipurpose room is set up such that the Lion Dancers could weave their way through the crowd and up the aisles, blinking its little eyes and wagging its tail for all the kids. A bunch of them got to touch the lion too! Sadly, no 4G kids caught an orange (thrown out of the lion's "mouth"), but in a real showstopper moment, the lion kicked one of the oranges aaaaall the way to the back row where a bunch of 7th graders jumped on it! See if your fourth grader can demonstrate! Next, each grade got up and performed songs and dances. 4th Grade did a fantastic job in their song about the signs of the Chinese Zodiac!
This week in social studies we did a ton of work in groups. The kids continued their research of their assigned Native American region, this time using an article and several maps. They learned about the climate of their region, the food, the plants and animals, the homes, the clothing, and the traditions and beliefs. Next, we mixed the groups up even more. We did two rounds of sharing, one with a kid who studied a region similar to theirs and one with a region very different. The kids are doing a great job of thinking critically during this activity. Bea made an excellent observation about the different traditions between two regions, one valued elders and the other valued young people as the leaders and visionaries! Interesting! It is important to learn that not all Native American groups are the same. Additionally, we learned that with every group all over the globe, their way of life is dictated by the climate they live in.
In reading, we have continued working on nonfiction. Some kids are really excited by this and are really enjoying the nonfiction books they checked out from the library. Others much prefer fiction and are itching to get back into those books. Unfortunately for them...we have a few more weeks of nonfiction. This week, we learned about nonfiction text features and different text structures. Texts can either be organized chronologically (first, next, then, last), or by problem/solution, cause and effect, compare/contrast, or even categorical (where the author describes different subtopics of a larger topic.) We practiced by reading an article about the DNA similarities between chickens and dinosaurs. We agreed that that text was written in a compare/contrast structure. Next, the kids read their own nonfiction books and decided which text structure best fit their own book choice. These skills will help us to get ready for our research project coming up later in the unit. Stay tuned!
We are almost done with our read aloud Front Desk. Mia's story of struggle and determination has really captivated a lot of 4G! In the last few chapters, Mia was finally able to get some encouragement from her mom and we learned why she said those unsupportive things in the past. She was really talking to herself, and was ashamed of her own less than perfect English. Ask your fourth grader what they think will happen with the Calivista and if Mia will be able to help her family get off "the rollercoaster." (They'll explain what that means.)
Have a great weekend!
~Ms. Glickstein
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February 2, 2024
Happy February 4G Families!
This week, we finished our round of book clubs. At the end of it, the kids filled out a Book Club Retrospective. They thought about their own participation and how their group did staying on topic. They also thought about the book analysis, and determined the theme and life lesson of their book. This unit has allowed the kids to exercise a TON of different skills. They had to work together during the discussions, listen carefully to one another, build off of each other's comments, stick to one topic together. They had to do a lot of work on their own too--determining character traits and motivation, and distilling the book down to the main theme. They all did an excellent job! Ask your fourth grader what they thought of book clubs, and if they would be interested in doing another round of them! (Spoiler alert: another round is already coming in the Spring whether they want to or not.)
In math, we have moved onto multi-digit addition and subtraction. This unit also focuses heavily on place value. Each day for our warmup, we take a number and stretch it out to expanded form. Then we round that number to the nearest 1,000, 100, and 10. These activities solidify number sense, place value understanding, and facility with the numbers. We looked at a lot of different strategies for addition, but by the end pretty much everyone preferred the standard algorithm (the way we all learned as kids.)
We have moved onto our social studies unit: Native Americans. We watched a few videos on the importance of combatting stereotypical imagery. Next, we split into pairs to research different cultural regions of Native America. In the past, when I have taught something similar, we split the kids into 5 groups. But with this new curriculum, they split North America up into 10 groups, much more accurate to the distinctions of Native American culture! I model the research and note taking with the Northeast region, a region we are all quite familiar with. Then the kids go off and research their own region. Ask your fourth grader what region they got assigned and one interesting fact they learned!
Have a great weekend!
~Ms. Glickstein
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January 26, 2024
Happy Friday 4G Families!
This week we worked a ton on our rock skits to get them performance-ready. Kids made props and practiced in small groups and in front of the whole class. This is such a great project for kids to practice those group work skills: how to disagree with each other, how to make sure everyone's voice is heard, how to compromise, how to stick with a task and complete it even though you're tempted to socialize. The skits have come a long way! I'm excited for you all to see the final performances on Monday. (Bea, Cora, Kaiden, Gabriel, and Radin's group actually already presented their skit at community meeting today!) We also had one last computers class with Ms. Mazzocchi to finish up our coding project. As a millenial who is not fantastic at computers, I am so impressed with their tech skills! The kids were really able to take the building blocks of coding and make a really cool scene. You will all get to see those on Monday's parent share too.
In reading this week, we moved forward in our book club books. As we near the end of our books, we are thinking about what these stories are mostly about. We used a tool called the Event-o-Meter which measures plot events on a scale of Not That Important (small details) to The Most Important (this represents what the story is all about.) With a stack of post-its referencing different plot events, each book club got together to debate the ranking. Which event should go in Most Important? Which event was still important but a little bit lower? Why did they think that? They used lots of evidence to support their thinking and even had some disagreements about what should go where! Ask your fourth grader what they think was the most important event in their book club book.
While working on our informational chapter books this week, we finally got into researching. One of our drafting strategies was to add in specific details like numbers, names, and quotes. Unfortunately, kids don't always know those specific details! Many kids had to type _____ in the middle of their document, to save that spot for when we got the answers online. Wednesday and Thursday, we used the Driscoll library databases to research our topics and fill in those gaps. Their chapters are coming along and are much more detailed than when we started. Ask your fourth grader what their three chapter titles are! Some students have written more than three!
Have a wonderful weekend!
~Ms. Glickstein
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January 19, 2024
Hi 4G Families!
Today was Science Solstice, one of my favorite traditions at Driscoll School! Our day was jam-packed with science experiments and talks. Big thank you to Theo's mom for teaching us all about Elephant Toothpaste! We traveled all over the building for the other Science Solstice presentations. We also got to watch the Mad Science presentation, super engaging, super wild! On top of Elephant Toothpaste, we learned about building Mars Rovers, infectious diseases and microbes. Ask your fourth grader what their favorite part of the day was!
The rest of the week was jam packed too. In science, we have been working diligently on our rock scripts to prepare for the parent share. Kids were split into groups of 4 or 5. Together, they wrote the story of the rock cycle and how rocks change from one to the next. They are VERY excited about this project and have so many ideas! There are some fun costume changes and props to design!
In reading, we are chugging along in our book clubs. This week, we focused on asking questions to guide the book club discussions. We talked about what makes a question deep rather than shallow. Shallow questions have one answer you can point to in the text. Deep questions require some inference to be made. Shallow questions often have a yes or no answer. Deep questions have many answers depending on the opinion of the reader. The kids continued to practice their group discussions, and aimed to add on at least three comments per question to keep the conversation going. I am hearing some great things coming from these discussions! Kids are using evidence and inferring and making connections to other books. It's beautiful to see! Ask your fourth grader what is happening right now in their book club book and what they predict will happen next!
Have a wonderful weekend! Stay warm!
~Ms. Glickstein
January 12, 2024
Hello 4G!
This is the busiest time of the year, when all the most detailed projects get underway. And we are swimming in them! We just started a super fun project in science where the kids get in groups to write and perform skits about the rock cycle! There was so much energy yesterday and the kids were absolutely bursting with ideas. We will refine those ideas over the next few weeks as they finish up their scripts and rehearse. I'm so excited for you to see them live!
In math, we have moved on to measuring angles. First, we used the Power Polygons, colored plastic tiles that we had used for lessons on polygon attributes like parallel and perpendicular sides. By fitting angles together, we learned we could make right angles. We also learned that if two equal sized angles made a 90˚ angle, that must mean each of those smaller angles measured 45˚. Then we used a new tool: the protractor! Now kids are able to measure any angle from 0 to 180˚ accurately! We broke it down step by step and made sure to set up the protractor just right. Have your fourth grade take a look at the image above and tell you the measurement of the angle!
In reading workshop, we started our book club books! Kids are split into groups of 2 and 3 reading one of the following: Frindle, No Talking, How Tia Lola Came to Viist, Rules, Lily's Crossing, or Bridge to Terabithia. Each day I assign the kids a portion to read. At the end of the period, they meet with their groups to discuss. These discussions have been based around character traits, predictions for what will happen next, and the kids own stop-and-jot comments written on post-its on parts of the book they find important. Ask your fourth grader what book they are reading and what has happened so far! We are continuing to practice the conversation techniques we had worked on last week. The kids are doing a good job of adding onto each others' thoughts to keep the conversation going.
Have a great long weekend!
~Ms. Glickstein
Hello 4G!
This is the busiest time of the year, when all the most detailed projects get underway. And we are swimming in them! We just started a super fun project in science where the kids get in groups to write and perform skits about the rock cycle! There was so much energy yesterday and the kids were absolutely bursting with ideas. We will refine those ideas over the next few weeks as they finish up their scripts and rehearse. I'm so excited for you to see them live!
In math, we have moved on to measuring angles. First, we used the Power Polygons, colored plastic tiles that we had used for lessons on polygon attributes like parallel and perpendicular sides. By fitting angles together, we learned we could make right angles. We also learned that if two equal sized angles made a 90˚ angle, that must mean each of those smaller angles measured 45˚. Then we used a new tool: the protractor! Now kids are able to measure any angle from 0 to 180˚ accurately! We broke it down step by step and made sure to set up the protractor just right. Have your fourth grade take a look at the image above and tell you the measurement of the angle!
In reading workshop, we started our book club books! Kids are split into groups of 2 and 3 reading one of the following: Frindle, No Talking, How Tia Lola Came to Viist, Rules, Lily's Crossing, or Bridge to Terabithia. Each day I assign the kids a portion to read. At the end of the period, they meet with their groups to discuss. These discussions have been based around character traits, predictions for what will happen next, and the kids own stop-and-jot comments written on post-its on parts of the book they find important. Ask your fourth grader what book they are reading and what has happened so far! We are continuing to practice the conversation techniques we had worked on last week. The kids are doing a good job of adding onto each others' thoughts to keep the conversation going.
Have a great long weekend!
~Ms. Glickstein
January 5, 2024
Happy New Year 4G!
We returned from break a little bleary-eyed, a little unused to waking up early, but were able to slip back into school mode really well. On Tuesday, we all wrote New Year's Resolutions. I passed out a sheet with a grid filled with inspirational words hidden--create, move, organize, compassion, seek, and about a hundred others! Kids picked the words that spoke to them and then did some writing about how they wanted to focus their year around that word. Kids made resolutions about creating more in their spare time, showing who they are to others, and even watching less TV! Ask your fourth grader what their New Year's Resolution was!
In writing workshop, we started a new unit on writing informational chapter books. The first several lessons require kids to speed write their drafts, switching their topics every other day or so. After they run through a couple of topics, then we will go back into their favorite topic to revise and publish. We learned a few strategies for how to keep going if you are stuck: asking and answering Who? What? When? Where? questions and adding in specific details like specific names, numbers, quotes, etc.
In math, we have moved forward in our geometry unit. We have been looking at polygons using some colorful plastic tiles to move around and manipulate. One day, we had to make polygons using two smaller polygons. Kids grabbed the trapezoid and a small triangle to make a bigger triangle, a rhombus and a triangle to make a rectangle, and even a whole mess of polygons to make some very interesting shapes! This unit is very vocabulary-heavy. Ask your fourth grader to define the following words for you: parallel, perpendicular, vertex, right angle.
In reading workshop, we are starting Book Clubs! My favorite unit of the year! This week, we focused on discussion. I have been reading a thought-provoking picture book read aloud each day. I put up the guiding questions and the kids discuss in their groups of 2 and 3. We read The Butter Battle Book by Dr. Seuss, a truly excellent picture book based on the Cold War arms race. The kids had a ton to say about that one, and were even able to apply it to their own lives! They knew that if you keep one-upping someone, it will only end poorly. A great lesson for world powers and elementary schoolers to learn. Next we read After the Fall and The Quickest Girl in Clarksville. Again, the kids did a great job of getting right to the heart of the story. They have been been practicing active listening throughout these discussions. Listeners can be one of three types: a judge (do I agree with what my group mates are saying?) a researcher (can I find evidence for this thought?) and a journalist (repeating their thought so they are sure they understand it.) We learned how to add on comments so that the conversation flows and they stay on one topic for as long as possible. Every day the kids' discussions get richer and richer!
Have a great weekend!
~Ms. Glicsktein
December 22, 2023
Happy Holidays 4G Families!
Wahoo! We made it to Winter Break! The kids were vibrating with excitement all week in anticipation of holidays, vacations, presents, family time, and some relaxing time off. Gabriel, Youssef, and Max will celebrate their birthdays over the break too! But the kids were able to keep it together for the most part, so good for them:)
In writing, we spent the week working on parts of speech. We watched a bunch of videos from Schoolhouse Rock (remember those?) We listened to the songs for nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and verbs. They are so catchy! If you are interested, click on each part of speech in the previous sentence to take a trip down memory lane. We looked at sentences and highlighted the different parts of speech we knew. The kids also completed some super fun and silly Madlibs. We will have to do that activity again sometime, big crowd pleaser.
In reading we finished our SEL unit on The Hundred Dresses. The kids had really insightful things to share in our discussions. We talked about how Wanda probably did know that the other girls were teasing her. We looked closely at quotes that proved Maddie felt more genuinely sorry than Peggy did, and analyzed both girls' reactions to Wanda moving away because of the bullying. The kids did a great job determining theme this time around. We agreed that the theme of this book was courage, friendship, and growing up. They did some writing about reading on the theme and the life lesson. We also talked about how to apply these lessons to our own lives, an important exercise.
In math we practiced some more measurement and talked about perimeter. Monday, the kids broke into pairs to measure the perimeter of various objects around the room: the classroom rug, two bookcases, two easels, the door, the smartboard. We have talked about a few different strategies for finding perimeter: adding up all the sides, or multiplying one side by 2 and the other side by 2 and adding those together. We had one quick geometry lesson as a preview of what we will be learning about after the break. We talked about what makes a polygon (straight sides, closed shape.) Ask your fourth grader to draw an example of a polygon for you and to explain why it works! After the break we will jump into some more vocabulary and eventually get into measuring angles (my favorite!)
On Wednesday, we also finally shared who had who for secret snowflake! For the past week and a half the kids have been so secretive and excited about making and delivering these gifts. Some kids got handmade drawings, others got printed out coloring pages of their own special interests. Many kids got slideshows with gifs and images of all their favorite things that appeared in their Shared with Me folders on google drive! And kids got super creative on the secret part too! Stella swore to Radin that she had Hao, but she actually had Radin the whole time! He was very surprised at the reveal! This was a super fun holiday activity and everyone had a fun time with it.
Have a fantastic break! See you all in 2024!
~Ms. Glickstein~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
December 15, 2023
Hello 4G Families!
We started out the week with an amazing field trip to the Peabody Museum of Natural History! It was quite a day! Long T ride to the museum, tons of cool exhibits for independent exploration, and an information-packed guided tour of the different kinds of Native American homes. The kids really enjoyed themselves! Ask your fourth grader which exhibit they liked the best: glass flowers, taxidermied animals, climate change, bugs, prehistoric fossils, or gems! There is so much to see and learn at this museum! The guided tour was fantastic. It served as a preview for our next social studies unit on Native America. The guide explained that every group around the world utilizes local resources for the three pillars of survival: food, clothing, and shelter. We saw Inuit homes made of snow and ice, Navajo clothing made of white cotton to keep you cool, and the different hunting tools used in the Northwest.
This week in reading we started a short unit on The 100 Dresses. This is a pretty old book, but it has a ton of relevant themes about bullying and exclusion. Some of you may have read it when you were kids! In this book, there is a girl named Wanda who says she has 100 dresses all lined up in her closet, but the other girls laugh cruelly at her because they know she can't afford it. We have been doing a close reading of each chapter, scouring the pages for evidence of what our main character Maddie says thinks but doesn't dare say out loud, and analyzing the dynamic between Peggy and Wanda. The kids are using such excellent critical thinking skills during our discussions!
After finishing Winn Dixie, we started another new read aloud, Front Desk. This one will be outside of the reading workshop curriculum, instead it's just a great story to share as a class. This story takes place in 1993. The main character Mia Tang helps her family run a motel, even though she is just 9 years old! She and her family experience the hardships of immigration and learn that nothing in America is free. It's an excellent story with a ton to think about and notice in our society: race, poverty, workers' rights. This read aloud always yields great conversation, and the kids are already very vocal and indignant whenever the Tang's terrible boss does something unfair.
In math we moved on to a new unit on measurement. (Youssef, Bea, Hao, and Keaton presented the 4th grade share on this very topic at today's Community Meeting! Great job guys!) First we spent a few days measuring different things around the room: the windows, the height of the door, ourselves. Next, we moved on to measuring perimeter. We also talked about converting different units. There are 12 inches in 1 foot. Ask your fourth grader how many inches would be in 3 feet! There are 100 centimeters in 1 meter. Ask your fourth grader how many centimeters are in 6 meters! Challenge: ask your fourth grader how many centimeters are in 1/2 a meter!
Have a wonderful weekend!
~Ms. Glickstein
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December 8, 2023
Hi 4G Families!
Each day we had a different spirit day this week. A ton of kids were so creative in their fits this week, I loved seeing them! This week in Reading Workshop, we finished up our lessons on the character unit and celebrated by watching Because of Winn Dixie on Friday. The kids loved it! We focused our lessons on theme and life lessons. Given a word bank of common themes in children's literature, the kids were able to determine the theme of their own books. Lots of kids were reading books with the theme of good vs. evil. Others read books about friendship or growing up or family. Next we learned about life lessons. The main character learns a lesson specific to his or her story. The next step is to apply that lesson to our own lives. These are some advanced skills for fourth graders! They did a great job, and we will be returning to theme and life lesson in the next few weeks with some other mentor texts.
In math, we finished up our unit on multiplication and division. This week the kids were finally able to use the smart board pens! They were so excited! First we practiced signing our names to get used to writing with the pens. And of course...about two minutes in the pens stopped working. Womp, womp. The next day we did a lesson where kids could come up to the board and share their thinking on a series of multiplication problems. The smart board pens worked...for about 10 minutes. But the third day, they worked the whole lesson! The kids are doing a great job at following the smart board expectations despite all of these technological issues: use your best handwriting, only write their math thinking on the board, nothing superfluous, etc. Ask your fourth grader how the smart board pens are different from Expo markers. It will definitely take some getting used to.
In science, we read a book called Gary's Sand Journal. The scientist in the book observed different types of sand under a microscope. Small grains meant small waves brought that sand to the shore. Bigger grains meant bigger waves. If the sand was smooth and round, that meant it was old sand since it was clear it had been weathered. Jagged sand grains meant younger sand. This reminded Max of what it feels like to rub a sandy towel on your arm at the beach, ouch! Then we looked at a few different samples of sand under the loupes. The kids made some great observations! Later, we will work with Ms. Mazzochi to take everything we learned about weathering and erosion and turn it into some code to teach others! Stay tuned!
On Thursday, we had another meeting with our buddies in 1C! It's been a while since we saw them last. The kids shared that this time went much smoother than the last time. This time, the fourth graders gave the first graders a tour of our new classroom. 4G tour guides showed the first graders our stuffies, Kevin and Patricia, the picture books in the library, their own books bins, and all of the flexible seating options we have in this new room. Those little first graders were really impressed! Being with their buddies really brings out the best in them. I reminded the kids during morning meeting that the first graders would be looking up to us fourth graders so we needed to show extra expected behavior. They really took that to heart. They were SO incredibly kind to the younger kids. I heard some really kind tones and lots of good conversation starters. It's so sweet to see! Ask your fourth grader to tell you all about their 1C buddy!
Have a great weekend! Happy Hanukkah!
~Ms. Glickstein
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December 1, 2023
Happy First Day of December 4G Families!
Hard to believe it's already December! Everyone is SO excited about the Holidays and Winter Break in 4G, but we are still staying pretty productive and focused with all of the projects we have going on (with a little sizzle of holiday cheer thrown in.) We finished Because of Winn Dixie this week. The kids loved this incredibly sweet story and had a ton of insightful things to say about the characters. This week we talked about complications in character: how characters can behave differently around different people. In groups, kids thought about the different character traits Opal shows when she is around the Dewberry boys (rude), Gloria Dump (kind and caring) and the Preacher (obedient.) Next, they did the same work for their own books. We have a few more lessons on theme and life lessons coming up and then we are set to watch the movie next Friday.
We started our first science unit of the year! We are learning about rocks and changes in the Earth's surface. First we looked at some cool images showcasing the different types of weathering. We learned about four different ways that rocks get broken down: plants, water, wind, ice/frost. Click this link to see the images for yourself. Have your fourth grader explain how each category breaks rocks down. (The pictures in wind weathering are especially cool!) Later in the week we were able to do some science outside. Usually I do this lesson around the school building looking for cracks in the sidewalk and examples of weathering. But this new school building is just too new and nothing has been weathered yet! So we went across the street instead and found some better examples of weathering on Salisbury Road.
We are lucky to have Ms. Mazzochi in our room every Monday for the next few weeks. She started us on a Scratch project. Everyone is super excited! I have to say, it is pretty amazing to see kids figuring out how to code largely on their own. First they got introduced to the basics of Scratch: moving their little Sprite around and using the "if clicked" function. This project will tie in with what we are learning in science. We will eventually be able to make our little characters explain weathering and erosion and go through the process themselves. Fun!
In writing we continued revising our fiction narratives. The kids were tasked with a very difficult job: decide what to keep and what to take out. In my experience, kids have a hard time looking critically at their own writing and erasing those superfluous details. But as we learned, not every story event is created equally. In a story about winning a championship game, the part where the main character wakes up and has breakfast, not so important. However, the part where the main character shoots and misses, that would be more important and should have several sentences dedicated to it. The kids were ruthless in looking at their own writing and thought carefully about what to cut and what to elaborate. Their writing is really coming along! I'm excited to show you the finished product when it's done.
Have a great weekend!
~Ms. Glickstein
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November 17, 2023
Hi 4G Families!
Monday was picture day and everyone brought their photogenic A-Game. The kids have noticed the class pictures from previous years that I taped to our classroom door, and are excited to see themselves represented. I can't wait for class pictures to come out! This week in math, we delved into division. We are looking at higher and higher numbers, some of them with remainders! The main strategy we've been employing is the partial products strategy. For a problem like 56/4, kids think of a high multiple of 4 they know, like 4x12=48. Then they keep counting on from there: 4x13=52, 4x14=56. Next, they have to remember what the actual answer is after all that work. (Hint: the answer is not 56. Ask your fourth grader to tell you what the final answer would be!) Many kids were able to jump from one multiple to the next. So maybe they started with 4x10=40. They knew there is 16 left to go, so that would be 4 more groups of 4. 10+4=14! We spend a few days on division with higher numbers before we moved onto remainders. We also talked a lot about what to do with the remainder. In some scenarios, you can cut up the remainder, like if you are dividing cookies. In others, you wouldn't want to do that, like splitting up kids into soccer teams!
In reading, we are focusing on story elements that make up the heart of the story. We talked about how characters and setting affect the plot, and today had a really interesting discussion about important objects. In Because of Winn-Dixie, the characters all try Littmus Lozenges, whose secret ingredient is sorrow. All the characters remember something sad when they eat the candy. Opal learns she is not the only one feeling sad and lonely. Ask your fourth grader to tell you about each of these characters' reactions to eating this candy: Otis, Sweetie-Pie Thomas, and Amanda Wilkinson.
In social studies, we are wrapping up our unit on natural resources by talking about sustainability. We did another jigsaw activity, reading assigned pages in a book about how to be sustainable at home: being mindful of wasting water, wasting electricity, etc. Then they got in new groups where each category was represented. They shared their notes with each other and copied down what their group members had found. We did a jigsaw activity earlier in the year with rousing success. This time was no different! The kids did a great job listening to each other. We will start our first science unit after the break!
There are a few adjustments as we settle into the new building, mostly around recess. We have the opportunity to have outdoor recess most days, but some we have to be flexible and do recess in the makerspace. Some of us really like being in the makerspace, playing cards, board games, and making gimp. Ask your fourth grader which space they like best: makerspace, blacktop, or Summit Hill playground on Mondays!
Have a wonderful weekend!
~Ms. Glickstein
November 9, 2023
Happy Thursday 4G Families!
Another four-day week! We started off with a bang with our reward day celebration watching Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. This movie is amazing! I had never seen it, not being a big superhero movie person myself, but the animation is truly incredible. I was a little bit in and out, concentrating on the movie and then doing other things in the room, so I am grateful to the kids for explaining everything to me when I was confused. "Wait what dimension is this??" The movie is so long that we had to watch during snack the rest of the week. We will finish it off on Monday (I'm told there is a huge cliffhanger at the end!) Ask your fourth grader what their favorite part of the movie is!
In reading, we have been talking about debatable ideas. Two readers may not share the same opinion when reading the same book. We practiced first with our mentor text Because of Winn Dixie, where kids took one side of the debate Should Opal Be Nicer to the Dewberry Boys? Next they thought about debatable ideas in their own books. While reading, they asked themselves, do I agree with my character's decision here? The kids' writing about reading is a great way for me to see inside their heads and show me what they really understand in their books.
In math, we continued working on multiplication. We split up a larger array into two and sometimes three smaller arrays. We combined two smaller arrays to make one big array. After many days of this, the kids were able to calculate large multiplication problems like 28x4! Ask your fourth grader how they would go about finding the answer (and they won't have to add 4+4+4... 28 times!)
I hope you all have a great long weekend! I am off to visit my sister and my nephew in New York. I'm very excited to hang with a very excitable toddler.
Have a great weekend!
~Ms. Glickstein
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November 2, 2023
Hi 4G Families!
Our first week in the new building! It was a super busy week. We started off our time here with a grand tour of the whole place. For those of you who have not yet been inside, the layout and look could not be more different from Old Driscoll. I took the kids to our various specials rooms, the cafeteria, our beautiful new library, our two amazingly large gyms! Our classroom is set up very differently too. The desks are taking some getting used to since they are a bit smaller than our old ones and they don't open up. After the tour, we spent a lot of time talking about routines in this new space. Some of it was a reset, with familiar expectations like learning position and voice level. Others were new, like coming up with a new plan to rotate the flexible seating. I am also learning the lay of the land with the Smartboard. I think I got the hang of it by Thursday! Someday soon, the kids will be able to use the Smartboard pens and touch the Smartboard but today...is not that day.
My favorite part of the classroom is our gorgeous new rug (huge shoutout to Oliver's family!) It makes it really homey. I also love how much sunlight our room gets. We almost never have to use the overhead lights. The light is especially beautiful in the morning (although poor Radin, Harper, and Campbell keep getting that morning sun in their eyes. Gotta be better about the shades.) I also love having all of our library books back on display! While I miss our old library closet, we miraculously have enough bookcase space for all the books. Our Paris map migrated with us too of course, and Kevin and Patricia (class stuffies) as well. Our new space is the essential 4G, just with a facelift.
After we settled in, we were able to jump back into academics. We spent a ton of time typing up our fiction narrative drafts on the computers this week. Kids have so much to say and some of their writing is incredibly detailed! We will continue to revise these pieces over the next several weeks. We are excited to show you the final product at the end of the month!
In reading, we have moved forward in our lessons on Because of Winn Dixie. We talked more about patterns in character and the kids did some writing connecting new events with Opal's old patterns. Next, we learned about using precise words for character traits. "Nice," and "mean," are not fourth grade words. "Warm-hearted," or "cruel" is more like it. The kids reached for this precise language with their own books in Thursday's writing about reading.
I have to say, I have been hugely impressed with how well the kids have adapted to this new space, despite the occasional wrench in our plans (dismissal! Recess scheduling! Etc!) They consistently follow teacher directions and are being so respectful and mindful of the new building. Well done, 4G.
Have a great weekend!
~Ms. Glickstein
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October 27, 2023
Hi There 4G Families!
What a week! It's our last full day in this building! Very bittersweet. We shared our feelings about the move at morning meeting--some good, some bad. I spent a ton of time in the new building this week getting our space all set up. I'm so happy with how it turned out! The kids were disappointed they could not take a tour of the building yet, but never fear, we will take our tour as soon as we get into the new building on Monday. Our space is airy and light and most importantly, houses all of the materials we have been missing for the past several weeks! We will finally have a working classroom, phew!
This week was light on the academics as we had pretty much nothing in the class except pencils. We did do a ton of drafting on our fiction narratives though. After we made our story arcs to plot out what would happen in our stories, the kids got to work expanding those ideas. Elaboration can be hard so the I gave the kids two strategies to do so. Sometimes, they went Slo-Mo, and wrote about each small action their character did. Other times, they described the feelings and thoughts of the characters. Some kids had the opposite problem--they had so much to say that they had to move along a little quicker to the next event! Next week we will delve back in these stories to revise them. Ask your fourth grader what happens in their stories! Some of them changed their minds about plot points and characters.
We also finished our first read aloud of the year! The Last Last Day of Summer was a complicated sci-fi story with a ton of twists and turns. We learned some sad news about the character of Sheed. Future Otto tells young Otto that Sheed dies in the future, how sad! But the boys save the day in their own time and Otto vows to save Sheed in the future. Ask your fourth grader what they thought of this wacky book!
In the new building, the kids will have new table spots, so today I passed out the homework pass. Never in my career as a fourth grade teacher has this ever happened before but...it was a four-way tie this week!! Wow! Every table got 8 points this week, so every kid got a homework pass! When the kids realized it was possible for everyone to get the point, they all encouraged the last table to catch up. They even encouraged their own group members to be ready slower so the Scary Pumpkins could get those last two points! What great teamwork and thinking of the whole group.
The other exciting thing about this week was our Beatle unit! I was SO excited to share my love of this band! First, I gave them a quick Beatle History 101 lesson. Then we watched some music videos, from the more straightforward Help! and Paperback Writer all the way to the weird and psychedelic Strawberry Fields Forever. We analyzed the lyrics to She Loves You, In My Life, and She's Leaving Home. This activity actually does utilize a ton of great literacy skills--poetry terms like rhyme scheme, inferring perspectives and true meanings of the songs. They did such a great job of thinking carefully about these beautiful songs! We talked about their different fashion eras and raced through their albums and movies. To showcase the Beatles' innovative genius, we listened to the backwards guitar solos in Tomorrow Never Knows and I'm Only Sleeping. Friday, I tested the kids' memories with a trivia game. Ask your fourth grader to share which song was their favorite and the most interesting fact they learned! (They were such good sports by indulging me in this unit. It was hard for me to pick only a few songs to showcase! It was SO fun for me, but I think they enjoyed it too!)
Enjoy the weekend!
~Ms. Glickstein
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October 20, 2023
Happy Friday 4G Families!
Phew! We are all packed up and ready to move! Our classroom looks very strange, filled with boxes in every corner. Next week it will look even stranger, with ...pretty much nothing in it! The kids were sad to see the board games get packed up, and frustrated when they realized the pencil sharpener, colored pencils, markers, and our stuffed unicorn Kevin were packed away, but don't worry we will get them all back on the other side.
This week we still got some good academics in. In math, we did some more work with data by looking at slow reveal graphs. This is such a great activity, and utilizes a ton of excellent critical thinking skills. Each day, I found a new slow reveal graph where I only showed one piece of the graph at a time. Slide one, the kids would only see the rectangles of a bar graph. Slide two, they might see the scale. Slide three, they might see the unit on the scale. Slide 4, we see the title of the graph and would be able to fill in the rest of the information. In between, kids shared their thinking. This activity always opens up such creative thinking. They thought carefully about scale, used estimation skills, and even multiplication skills. Ask your fourth grader what was they thought the most interesting graph was: deadliest animals, heartbeats per minute, prize winning pumpkins, or highest-paid athletes!
In writing we started one of my favorite units of the year: realistic fiction narratives! This week, the kids brainstormed their main character by thinking about inside character traits (kind, curious, shy) and outside character traits (tall, short, blond hair, glasses.) Next we thought about our character's motivation: what do they really want and what is stopping them from getting it? On Friday, we filled out Story Arcs to prepare us for drafting next week. We also learned some new story vocabulary: rising action, climax, falling action, resolution. Ask your fourth grader to tell you their plan for their writing! Who is their main character and what is their obstacle?
We also had a few periods to devote to computers this week. I introduced the basics of making slideshows: changing backgrounds, adding slides, titles, headings, text boxes, and pictures. Each kid picked a different topic to make a slideshow on. Next week we will have some more time to work on these slideshows, and learn a little more about how to make a really great presentation.
Have a great weekend!
~Ms. Glickstein
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October 13, 2023
Hello 4G Families!
We had a really interesting 4-day week with a lot of unusual schedule changes. Tuesday we spent the whole morning on our walking field trip to the Brookline Public Library. The librarians there gave a great presentation about all the different programs and resources the library offers--even video games and dvds! Then we got some browsing time and kids were able to check out books if they had library cards. I have sent home a public library card application for those who were interested. (On top of that, it was so nice to get a little fresh air on the way there and back!)
In math we moved on from factors and multiples and started our unit on data. We are looking at line plots for this unit, kind of like a proto-bar-graph. On Friday, we made a line plot by collecting data about the length of first names in 4G. We learned vocabulary words like "outlier" and "range." Ask your fourth grader where most of the data landed!
In writing we printed out the fourth grade goals, (they were sent home on Thursday afternoon) then took a little walk down memory lane by brainstorming Driscoll memories to say goodbye to this building. We visited a bunch of different areas in the building--younger grades, the art room, the library, the theater--and were flooded with memories from our time here at Driscoll. Some kids in 4G Have been here since kindergarten. Others arrived this year, but we all have fond memories of this building. After brainstorming, the kids picked one memory to write a paragraph about. We included the time, the place, the people involved, the heart (feelings at the time) and today's emotion when we remember that moment. Kids remembered the mammal project in third grade, different author visits over the years, and even just your average PE class where they won at castle ball! Ask your fourth grader what memory they wrote about!
Friday, we had our first Community Meeting of the year, and our last in this building. How sentimental! I love Community Meeting, it never fails to put a smile on my face. Kaiden and Heedaya did a beautiful job of sharing their favorite memories up onstage in front of the whole theater. They told me later they were nervous, but you wouldn't know it watching them! (Our day to host Community Meeting will be in February. More information at a later date.)
Friday we also had our first meeting with our first grade buddies! Each fourth grader was paired up with a first grader in Ms. Cuddihy's class. Those first graders were adorable. For the first day of buddies, we interviewed each other and read some picture books. Some of them, like Harper's buddy, were super chatty and absolutely talked their fourth grader's ear off. Others were really shy (and potentially intimidated by older kids), but they will open up as we get to know each other more. I am so proud of the fourth graders. They really rose to the occasion and spoke so kindly and so gently to the first graders. We had gone over expectations the day before like speaking kindly, asking questions, and being a role model for the little kids. I'm excited for our next meeting!
Have a great weekend!
~Ms. Glickstein
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October 6, 2023
Happy October 4G Families!
We had another packed week! After Radin, Cora, Heedaya, and Gabriel won the homework pass for the month of September, we switched table spots and reset for October. New opportunity to win the homework pass, who will it be this month?? Our new table names are Fall-themed: The Scary Pumpkins, the Grim Reapers, the Leaf Blowers, and SMAK the Leaves (made up of the first initials of Susannah, Max, Aria, and Keaton.)
In social studies we learned about natural resources. We had talked about the difference between renewable and nonrenewable resources earlier. Kids were split into groups to research water, soil, forests/timber, fossil fuels, or metal ore. They read an article and took notes using a note-taking guide on the challenges of using that material and sustainable solutions. Next, I mixed the groups up so one kid from each natural resource was represented. This activity is called a jigsaw, where kids get to learn from each other and bring all the pieces of the puzzle together. They were SO successful doing this activity! Jigsaws can be hard for kids as it requires you listen to each other and attend to everyone's presentation, largely on their own scatted around the room. With the help of a note-taking table, the kids were able to record the information from the other groups and share their own. Way to go 4G! Ask your fourth grader what their natural resource was and one challenge in using it!
In writing, we finished up our fourth grade goals, making it all the way through the writing process. We brainstormed and pre-wrote, drafted, revised, edited, and finally published! I was especially impressed with everyone's revision. It's really hard to revise your work, and so often kids say, "Looks good! I'm done!" But we talked about how no one's work is perfect the first time around. Campbell reminded us about something he learned at an author visit last year, that Jason Chin had gone through 64 versions of his book before he published it! Wow! In 4G, we only went through two versions, but that second version was certainly more detailed and clearer than the first! Paper copies of their work will be sent home either today or early next week (I am writing this during my prep, not sure yet if I can commit to printing everyone's final draft out by the end of the day.)
In reading, we practiced book buzzing, which is basically talking about great books with a partner. I explained the format--one partner gives a summary of what they read, the other partner asks them a question, they swap roles--then gave them some sentence starters for them to deepen their conversations. The kids did a great job of sticking to the topic. It can be hard to talk for a long time about your book! There were plot questions like "What do you think will happen next?" There were character questions like, "Why do you think your character...?" And text-to-self questions like, "Would you be friends with your character?" At the end of the week, they did some writing about reading using their partner's question that day as a prompt. Ask your fourth grader who their partner was this week and what they read in class!
On Fridays, I am implementing Fun Friday Chromebook time for WIN. Kids can earn chromebook time if they are working steadily throughout the week. They were given a choice of playing an educational game on abcya.com or working on a free write on google docs. The kids have been itching for this free chromebook time, and because they really did work super hard this week, I gave it to them. Soon we will have our new technology teacher Ms. Mazzochi in to give us some computer lessons!
Have a great long weekend!
~Ms. Glickstein
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September 29, 2023
Hey 4G Families!
It was so nice seeing some of you at the open house yesterday morning! This week in math we started the first unit in our Investigations textbook. We focused on multiplication, factors, and drawing arrays this week. We talked about how to find all the factors of a number by drawing factor rainbows. Ask your fourth grader to show you the factor rainbow for the number 24!
In writing, we started a new unit on Fourth Grade Goals. By the end of this unit, kids will have written an eight-sentence-long paragraph all about the goal they made for themselves, the steps to achieve it and why they want to. Some kids have reading goals, like Youssef who wants to read 50 books this year, some kids have music goals like Cora who wants to learn more songs on the violin, and others have sports-related goals like Hao and Harper who both want to run more and more miles (maybe even racing each other??) This week we worked on lots of pre-writing: brainstorming and plotting out what they will write using a graphic organizer. Next week, we draft.
In social studies, each group designed their own poster showcasing their region's environment and notable features. On Thursday, the kids presented their posters. We reviewed expectations for the presenters (speak loudly and clearly, turn your body at an angle so you are facing your audience) and for the audience members (listen quietly, take in the information so you can take notes.) The kids did an excellent job presenting!
We are zooming along in our read aloud The Last Last Day of Summer. This is such a complicated book and we got some interesting background on how Mr. Flux was created. Ask your fourth grader to explain how this missed opportunity arose. Today's read aloud was particularly confusing. It wasn't until the end of the chapter that I realized my dog-eared page had come un-dog-eared and somehow I had skipped ahead 30 pages! Woops! We will have to go back and fill in the gaps next week. But now we have a little preview of a conversation between Mr. Flux and Sheed...
Have a great weekend!
~Ms. Glickstein
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September 22, 2023
Hi There 4G Families!
We had a packed week of academics this week! In math we did some review of third grade concepts with an Operation Boot Camp. We refreshed our strategies for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division to get us ready for our first math unit in the textbook next week. Kids practiced a bunch of different strategies: number lines, drawing pictures of groups, and finding related facts. Ask your fourth grader what is their preferred method of solving a division problem like 48 / 4! Do they prefer drawing circles or skip counting?
In reading, we did a lot of work with inferring. We watched a couple of Pixar shorts. These are great teaching tools! These short and sweet wordless videos are chock full of evidence for kids to infer character traits, character feelings, and even predict what will happen next. The kids took notes in two columns: evidence from the short what their inference was. We watched Snack Attack and Partly Cloudy. linked here if you are interested in watching for yourself!
In writing, we finished up our stamina writing. We got all the way to 7 solid minutes of writing! Wow! We focused on some fun skills this week like figurative language. This is my personal favorite element of writing to teach because kids can get so creative with it. We learned about similes, metaphors, onomatopoeias, hyperboles, and personification. Then kids were able to come up with their own examples. Lastly, they went back into their writing and added some figurative language to their stamina writing. Ask your fourth grader what would be a good simile to describe something red: "Her face turned as red as..."
In social studies we have been studying our country's natural resources. I split the kids into 5 groups to research the different regions: Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, Southwest, and the West. Each group read texts giving information on the environment and agriculture of that region. We also talked about how the environment affects the people who live there. Then we watched some truly beautiful videos about our National Parks. Click here if you are interested in watching the video that explains them all!
We had our first library class this week with our wonderful librarian Ann Reid! We also had our first few Chinese classes with Cao Lao Tse. Ask you fourth grader what they learned in Chinese class this first week!
Happy Friday!
~Ms. Glickstein
Happy New Year 4G!
We returned from break a little bleary-eyed, a little unused to waking up early, but were able to slip back into school mode really well. On Tuesday, we all wrote New Year's Resolutions. I passed out a sheet with a grid filled with inspirational words hidden--create, move, organize, compassion, seek, and about a hundred others! Kids picked the words that spoke to them and then did some writing about how they wanted to focus their year around that word. Kids made resolutions about creating more in their spare time, showing who they are to others, and even watching less TV! Ask your fourth grader what their New Year's Resolution was!
In writing workshop, we started a new unit on writing informational chapter books. The first several lessons require kids to speed write their drafts, switching their topics every other day or so. After they run through a couple of topics, then we will go back into their favorite topic to revise and publish. We learned a few strategies for how to keep going if you are stuck: asking and answering Who? What? When? Where? questions and adding in specific details like specific names, numbers, quotes, etc.
In math, we have moved forward in our geometry unit. We have been looking at polygons using some colorful plastic tiles to move around and manipulate. One day, we had to make polygons using two smaller polygons. Kids grabbed the trapezoid and a small triangle to make a bigger triangle, a rhombus and a triangle to make a rectangle, and even a whole mess of polygons to make some very interesting shapes! This unit is very vocabulary-heavy. Ask your fourth grader to define the following words for you: parallel, perpendicular, vertex, right angle.
In reading workshop, we are starting Book Clubs! My favorite unit of the year! This week, we focused on discussion. I have been reading a thought-provoking picture book read aloud each day. I put up the guiding questions and the kids discuss in their groups of 2 and 3. We read The Butter Battle Book by Dr. Seuss, a truly excellent picture book based on the Cold War arms race. The kids had a ton to say about that one, and were even able to apply it to their own lives! They knew that if you keep one-upping someone, it will only end poorly. A great lesson for world powers and elementary schoolers to learn. Next we read After the Fall and The Quickest Girl in Clarksville. Again, the kids did a great job of getting right to the heart of the story. They have been been practicing active listening throughout these discussions. Listeners can be one of three types: a judge (do I agree with what my group mates are saying?) a researcher (can I find evidence for this thought?) and a journalist (repeating their thought so they are sure they understand it.) We learned how to add on comments so that the conversation flows and they stay on one topic for as long as possible. Every day the kids' discussions get richer and richer!
Have a great weekend!
~Ms. Glicsktein
December 22, 2023
Happy Holidays 4G Families!
Wahoo! We made it to Winter Break! The kids were vibrating with excitement all week in anticipation of holidays, vacations, presents, family time, and some relaxing time off. Gabriel, Youssef, and Max will celebrate their birthdays over the break too! But the kids were able to keep it together for the most part, so good for them:)
In writing, we spent the week working on parts of speech. We watched a bunch of videos from Schoolhouse Rock (remember those?) We listened to the songs for nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and verbs. They are so catchy! If you are interested, click on each part of speech in the previous sentence to take a trip down memory lane. We looked at sentences and highlighted the different parts of speech we knew. The kids also completed some super fun and silly Madlibs. We will have to do that activity again sometime, big crowd pleaser.
In reading we finished our SEL unit on The Hundred Dresses. The kids had really insightful things to share in our discussions. We talked about how Wanda probably did know that the other girls were teasing her. We looked closely at quotes that proved Maddie felt more genuinely sorry than Peggy did, and analyzed both girls' reactions to Wanda moving away because of the bullying. The kids did a great job determining theme this time around. We agreed that the theme of this book was courage, friendship, and growing up. They did some writing about reading on the theme and the life lesson. We also talked about how to apply these lessons to our own lives, an important exercise.
In math we practiced some more measurement and talked about perimeter. Monday, the kids broke into pairs to measure the perimeter of various objects around the room: the classroom rug, two bookcases, two easels, the door, the smartboard. We have talked about a few different strategies for finding perimeter: adding up all the sides, or multiplying one side by 2 and the other side by 2 and adding those together. We had one quick geometry lesson as a preview of what we will be learning about after the break. We talked about what makes a polygon (straight sides, closed shape.) Ask your fourth grader to draw an example of a polygon for you and to explain why it works! After the break we will jump into some more vocabulary and eventually get into measuring angles (my favorite!)
On Wednesday, we also finally shared who had who for secret snowflake! For the past week and a half the kids have been so secretive and excited about making and delivering these gifts. Some kids got handmade drawings, others got printed out coloring pages of their own special interests. Many kids got slideshows with gifs and images of all their favorite things that appeared in their Shared with Me folders on google drive! And kids got super creative on the secret part too! Stella swore to Radin that she had Hao, but she actually had Radin the whole time! He was very surprised at the reveal! This was a super fun holiday activity and everyone had a fun time with it.
Have a fantastic break! See you all in 2024!
~Ms. Glickstein~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
December 15, 2023
Hello 4G Families!
We started out the week with an amazing field trip to the Peabody Museum of Natural History! It was quite a day! Long T ride to the museum, tons of cool exhibits for independent exploration, and an information-packed guided tour of the different kinds of Native American homes. The kids really enjoyed themselves! Ask your fourth grader which exhibit they liked the best: glass flowers, taxidermied animals, climate change, bugs, prehistoric fossils, or gems! There is so much to see and learn at this museum! The guided tour was fantastic. It served as a preview for our next social studies unit on Native America. The guide explained that every group around the world utilizes local resources for the three pillars of survival: food, clothing, and shelter. We saw Inuit homes made of snow and ice, Navajo clothing made of white cotton to keep you cool, and the different hunting tools used in the Northwest.
This week in reading we started a short unit on The 100 Dresses. This is a pretty old book, but it has a ton of relevant themes about bullying and exclusion. Some of you may have read it when you were kids! In this book, there is a girl named Wanda who says she has 100 dresses all lined up in her closet, but the other girls laugh cruelly at her because they know she can't afford it. We have been doing a close reading of each chapter, scouring the pages for evidence of what our main character Maddie says thinks but doesn't dare say out loud, and analyzing the dynamic between Peggy and Wanda. The kids are using such excellent critical thinking skills during our discussions!
After finishing Winn Dixie, we started another new read aloud, Front Desk. This one will be outside of the reading workshop curriculum, instead it's just a great story to share as a class. This story takes place in 1993. The main character Mia Tang helps her family run a motel, even though she is just 9 years old! She and her family experience the hardships of immigration and learn that nothing in America is free. It's an excellent story with a ton to think about and notice in our society: race, poverty, workers' rights. This read aloud always yields great conversation, and the kids are already very vocal and indignant whenever the Tang's terrible boss does something unfair.
In math we moved on to a new unit on measurement. (Youssef, Bea, Hao, and Keaton presented the 4th grade share on this very topic at today's Community Meeting! Great job guys!) First we spent a few days measuring different things around the room: the windows, the height of the door, ourselves. Next, we moved on to measuring perimeter. We also talked about converting different units. There are 12 inches in 1 foot. Ask your fourth grader how many inches would be in 3 feet! There are 100 centimeters in 1 meter. Ask your fourth grader how many centimeters are in 6 meters! Challenge: ask your fourth grader how many centimeters are in 1/2 a meter!
Have a wonderful weekend!
~Ms. Glickstein
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December 8, 2023
Hi 4G Families!
Each day we had a different spirit day this week. A ton of kids were so creative in their fits this week, I loved seeing them! This week in Reading Workshop, we finished up our lessons on the character unit and celebrated by watching Because of Winn Dixie on Friday. The kids loved it! We focused our lessons on theme and life lessons. Given a word bank of common themes in children's literature, the kids were able to determine the theme of their own books. Lots of kids were reading books with the theme of good vs. evil. Others read books about friendship or growing up or family. Next we learned about life lessons. The main character learns a lesson specific to his or her story. The next step is to apply that lesson to our own lives. These are some advanced skills for fourth graders! They did a great job, and we will be returning to theme and life lesson in the next few weeks with some other mentor texts.
In math, we finished up our unit on multiplication and division. This week the kids were finally able to use the smart board pens! They were so excited! First we practiced signing our names to get used to writing with the pens. And of course...about two minutes in the pens stopped working. Womp, womp. The next day we did a lesson where kids could come up to the board and share their thinking on a series of multiplication problems. The smart board pens worked...for about 10 minutes. But the third day, they worked the whole lesson! The kids are doing a great job at following the smart board expectations despite all of these technological issues: use your best handwriting, only write their math thinking on the board, nothing superfluous, etc. Ask your fourth grader how the smart board pens are different from Expo markers. It will definitely take some getting used to.
In science, we read a book called Gary's Sand Journal. The scientist in the book observed different types of sand under a microscope. Small grains meant small waves brought that sand to the shore. Bigger grains meant bigger waves. If the sand was smooth and round, that meant it was old sand since it was clear it had been weathered. Jagged sand grains meant younger sand. This reminded Max of what it feels like to rub a sandy towel on your arm at the beach, ouch! Then we looked at a few different samples of sand under the loupes. The kids made some great observations! Later, we will work with Ms. Mazzochi to take everything we learned about weathering and erosion and turn it into some code to teach others! Stay tuned!
On Thursday, we had another meeting with our buddies in 1C! It's been a while since we saw them last. The kids shared that this time went much smoother than the last time. This time, the fourth graders gave the first graders a tour of our new classroom. 4G tour guides showed the first graders our stuffies, Kevin and Patricia, the picture books in the library, their own books bins, and all of the flexible seating options we have in this new room. Those little first graders were really impressed! Being with their buddies really brings out the best in them. I reminded the kids during morning meeting that the first graders would be looking up to us fourth graders so we needed to show extra expected behavior. They really took that to heart. They were SO incredibly kind to the younger kids. I heard some really kind tones and lots of good conversation starters. It's so sweet to see! Ask your fourth grader to tell you all about their 1C buddy!
Have a great weekend! Happy Hanukkah!
~Ms. Glickstein
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December 1, 2023
Happy First Day of December 4G Families!
Hard to believe it's already December! Everyone is SO excited about the Holidays and Winter Break in 4G, but we are still staying pretty productive and focused with all of the projects we have going on (with a little sizzle of holiday cheer thrown in.) We finished Because of Winn Dixie this week. The kids loved this incredibly sweet story and had a ton of insightful things to say about the characters. This week we talked about complications in character: how characters can behave differently around different people. In groups, kids thought about the different character traits Opal shows when she is around the Dewberry boys (rude), Gloria Dump (kind and caring) and the Preacher (obedient.) Next, they did the same work for their own books. We have a few more lessons on theme and life lessons coming up and then we are set to watch the movie next Friday.
We started our first science unit of the year! We are learning about rocks and changes in the Earth's surface. First we looked at some cool images showcasing the different types of weathering. We learned about four different ways that rocks get broken down: plants, water, wind, ice/frost. Click this link to see the images for yourself. Have your fourth grader explain how each category breaks rocks down. (The pictures in wind weathering are especially cool!) Later in the week we were able to do some science outside. Usually I do this lesson around the school building looking for cracks in the sidewalk and examples of weathering. But this new school building is just too new and nothing has been weathered yet! So we went across the street instead and found some better examples of weathering on Salisbury Road.
We are lucky to have Ms. Mazzochi in our room every Monday for the next few weeks. She started us on a Scratch project. Everyone is super excited! I have to say, it is pretty amazing to see kids figuring out how to code largely on their own. First they got introduced to the basics of Scratch: moving their little Sprite around and using the "if clicked" function. This project will tie in with what we are learning in science. We will eventually be able to make our little characters explain weathering and erosion and go through the process themselves. Fun!
In writing we continued revising our fiction narratives. The kids were tasked with a very difficult job: decide what to keep and what to take out. In my experience, kids have a hard time looking critically at their own writing and erasing those superfluous details. But as we learned, not every story event is created equally. In a story about winning a championship game, the part where the main character wakes up and has breakfast, not so important. However, the part where the main character shoots and misses, that would be more important and should have several sentences dedicated to it. The kids were ruthless in looking at their own writing and thought carefully about what to cut and what to elaborate. Their writing is really coming along! I'm excited to show you the finished product when it's done.
Have a great weekend!
~Ms. Glickstein
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November 17, 2023
Hi 4G Families!
Monday was picture day and everyone brought their photogenic A-Game. The kids have noticed the class pictures from previous years that I taped to our classroom door, and are excited to see themselves represented. I can't wait for class pictures to come out! This week in math, we delved into division. We are looking at higher and higher numbers, some of them with remainders! The main strategy we've been employing is the partial products strategy. For a problem like 56/4, kids think of a high multiple of 4 they know, like 4x12=48. Then they keep counting on from there: 4x13=52, 4x14=56. Next, they have to remember what the actual answer is after all that work. (Hint: the answer is not 56. Ask your fourth grader to tell you what the final answer would be!) Many kids were able to jump from one multiple to the next. So maybe they started with 4x10=40. They knew there is 16 left to go, so that would be 4 more groups of 4. 10+4=14! We spend a few days on division with higher numbers before we moved onto remainders. We also talked a lot about what to do with the remainder. In some scenarios, you can cut up the remainder, like if you are dividing cookies. In others, you wouldn't want to do that, like splitting up kids into soccer teams!
In reading, we are focusing on story elements that make up the heart of the story. We talked about how characters and setting affect the plot, and today had a really interesting discussion about important objects. In Because of Winn-Dixie, the characters all try Littmus Lozenges, whose secret ingredient is sorrow. All the characters remember something sad when they eat the candy. Opal learns she is not the only one feeling sad and lonely. Ask your fourth grader to tell you about each of these characters' reactions to eating this candy: Otis, Sweetie-Pie Thomas, and Amanda Wilkinson.
In social studies, we are wrapping up our unit on natural resources by talking about sustainability. We did another jigsaw activity, reading assigned pages in a book about how to be sustainable at home: being mindful of wasting water, wasting electricity, etc. Then they got in new groups where each category was represented. They shared their notes with each other and copied down what their group members had found. We did a jigsaw activity earlier in the year with rousing success. This time was no different! The kids did a great job listening to each other. We will start our first science unit after the break!
There are a few adjustments as we settle into the new building, mostly around recess. We have the opportunity to have outdoor recess most days, but some we have to be flexible and do recess in the makerspace. Some of us really like being in the makerspace, playing cards, board games, and making gimp. Ask your fourth grader which space they like best: makerspace, blacktop, or Summit Hill playground on Mondays!
Have a wonderful weekend!
~Ms. Glickstein
November 9, 2023
Happy Thursday 4G Families!
Another four-day week! We started off with a bang with our reward day celebration watching Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. This movie is amazing! I had never seen it, not being a big superhero movie person myself, but the animation is truly incredible. I was a little bit in and out, concentrating on the movie and then doing other things in the room, so I am grateful to the kids for explaining everything to me when I was confused. "Wait what dimension is this??" The movie is so long that we had to watch during snack the rest of the week. We will finish it off on Monday (I'm told there is a huge cliffhanger at the end!) Ask your fourth grader what their favorite part of the movie is!
In reading, we have been talking about debatable ideas. Two readers may not share the same opinion when reading the same book. We practiced first with our mentor text Because of Winn Dixie, where kids took one side of the debate Should Opal Be Nicer to the Dewberry Boys? Next they thought about debatable ideas in their own books. While reading, they asked themselves, do I agree with my character's decision here? The kids' writing about reading is a great way for me to see inside their heads and show me what they really understand in their books.
In math, we continued working on multiplication. We split up a larger array into two and sometimes three smaller arrays. We combined two smaller arrays to make one big array. After many days of this, the kids were able to calculate large multiplication problems like 28x4! Ask your fourth grader how they would go about finding the answer (and they won't have to add 4+4+4... 28 times!)
I hope you all have a great long weekend! I am off to visit my sister and my nephew in New York. I'm very excited to hang with a very excitable toddler.
Have a great weekend!
~Ms. Glickstein
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November 2, 2023
Hi 4G Families!
Our first week in the new building! It was a super busy week. We started off our time here with a grand tour of the whole place. For those of you who have not yet been inside, the layout and look could not be more different from Old Driscoll. I took the kids to our various specials rooms, the cafeteria, our beautiful new library, our two amazingly large gyms! Our classroom is set up very differently too. The desks are taking some getting used to since they are a bit smaller than our old ones and they don't open up. After the tour, we spent a lot of time talking about routines in this new space. Some of it was a reset, with familiar expectations like learning position and voice level. Others were new, like coming up with a new plan to rotate the flexible seating. I am also learning the lay of the land with the Smartboard. I think I got the hang of it by Thursday! Someday soon, the kids will be able to use the Smartboard pens and touch the Smartboard but today...is not that day.
My favorite part of the classroom is our gorgeous new rug (huge shoutout to Oliver's family!) It makes it really homey. I also love how much sunlight our room gets. We almost never have to use the overhead lights. The light is especially beautiful in the morning (although poor Radin, Harper, and Campbell keep getting that morning sun in their eyes. Gotta be better about the shades.) I also love having all of our library books back on display! While I miss our old library closet, we miraculously have enough bookcase space for all the books. Our Paris map migrated with us too of course, and Kevin and Patricia (class stuffies) as well. Our new space is the essential 4G, just with a facelift.
After we settled in, we were able to jump back into academics. We spent a ton of time typing up our fiction narrative drafts on the computers this week. Kids have so much to say and some of their writing is incredibly detailed! We will continue to revise these pieces over the next several weeks. We are excited to show you the final product at the end of the month!
In reading, we have moved forward in our lessons on Because of Winn Dixie. We talked more about patterns in character and the kids did some writing connecting new events with Opal's old patterns. Next, we learned about using precise words for character traits. "Nice," and "mean," are not fourth grade words. "Warm-hearted," or "cruel" is more like it. The kids reached for this precise language with their own books in Thursday's writing about reading.
I have to say, I have been hugely impressed with how well the kids have adapted to this new space, despite the occasional wrench in our plans (dismissal! Recess scheduling! Etc!) They consistently follow teacher directions and are being so respectful and mindful of the new building. Well done, 4G.
Have a great weekend!
~Ms. Glickstein
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October 27, 2023
Hi There 4G Families!
What a week! It's our last full day in this building! Very bittersweet. We shared our feelings about the move at morning meeting--some good, some bad. I spent a ton of time in the new building this week getting our space all set up. I'm so happy with how it turned out! The kids were disappointed they could not take a tour of the building yet, but never fear, we will take our tour as soon as we get into the new building on Monday. Our space is airy and light and most importantly, houses all of the materials we have been missing for the past several weeks! We will finally have a working classroom, phew!
This week was light on the academics as we had pretty much nothing in the class except pencils. We did do a ton of drafting on our fiction narratives though. After we made our story arcs to plot out what would happen in our stories, the kids got to work expanding those ideas. Elaboration can be hard so the I gave the kids two strategies to do so. Sometimes, they went Slo-Mo, and wrote about each small action their character did. Other times, they described the feelings and thoughts of the characters. Some kids had the opposite problem--they had so much to say that they had to move along a little quicker to the next event! Next week we will delve back in these stories to revise them. Ask your fourth grader what happens in their stories! Some of them changed their minds about plot points and characters.
We also finished our first read aloud of the year! The Last Last Day of Summer was a complicated sci-fi story with a ton of twists and turns. We learned some sad news about the character of Sheed. Future Otto tells young Otto that Sheed dies in the future, how sad! But the boys save the day in their own time and Otto vows to save Sheed in the future. Ask your fourth grader what they thought of this wacky book!
In the new building, the kids will have new table spots, so today I passed out the homework pass. Never in my career as a fourth grade teacher has this ever happened before but...it was a four-way tie this week!! Wow! Every table got 8 points this week, so every kid got a homework pass! When the kids realized it was possible for everyone to get the point, they all encouraged the last table to catch up. They even encouraged their own group members to be ready slower so the Scary Pumpkins could get those last two points! What great teamwork and thinking of the whole group.
The other exciting thing about this week was our Beatle unit! I was SO excited to share my love of this band! First, I gave them a quick Beatle History 101 lesson. Then we watched some music videos, from the more straightforward Help! and Paperback Writer all the way to the weird and psychedelic Strawberry Fields Forever. We analyzed the lyrics to She Loves You, In My Life, and She's Leaving Home. This activity actually does utilize a ton of great literacy skills--poetry terms like rhyme scheme, inferring perspectives and true meanings of the songs. They did such a great job of thinking carefully about these beautiful songs! We talked about their different fashion eras and raced through their albums and movies. To showcase the Beatles' innovative genius, we listened to the backwards guitar solos in Tomorrow Never Knows and I'm Only Sleeping. Friday, I tested the kids' memories with a trivia game. Ask your fourth grader to share which song was their favorite and the most interesting fact they learned! (They were such good sports by indulging me in this unit. It was hard for me to pick only a few songs to showcase! It was SO fun for me, but I think they enjoyed it too!)
Enjoy the weekend!
~Ms. Glickstein
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October 20, 2023
Happy Friday 4G Families!
Phew! We are all packed up and ready to move! Our classroom looks very strange, filled with boxes in every corner. Next week it will look even stranger, with ...pretty much nothing in it! The kids were sad to see the board games get packed up, and frustrated when they realized the pencil sharpener, colored pencils, markers, and our stuffed unicorn Kevin were packed away, but don't worry we will get them all back on the other side.
This week we still got some good academics in. In math, we did some more work with data by looking at slow reveal graphs. This is such a great activity, and utilizes a ton of excellent critical thinking skills. Each day, I found a new slow reveal graph where I only showed one piece of the graph at a time. Slide one, the kids would only see the rectangles of a bar graph. Slide two, they might see the scale. Slide three, they might see the unit on the scale. Slide 4, we see the title of the graph and would be able to fill in the rest of the information. In between, kids shared their thinking. This activity always opens up such creative thinking. They thought carefully about scale, used estimation skills, and even multiplication skills. Ask your fourth grader what was they thought the most interesting graph was: deadliest animals, heartbeats per minute, prize winning pumpkins, or highest-paid athletes!
In writing we started one of my favorite units of the year: realistic fiction narratives! This week, the kids brainstormed their main character by thinking about inside character traits (kind, curious, shy) and outside character traits (tall, short, blond hair, glasses.) Next we thought about our character's motivation: what do they really want and what is stopping them from getting it? On Friday, we filled out Story Arcs to prepare us for drafting next week. We also learned some new story vocabulary: rising action, climax, falling action, resolution. Ask your fourth grader to tell you their plan for their writing! Who is their main character and what is their obstacle?
We also had a few periods to devote to computers this week. I introduced the basics of making slideshows: changing backgrounds, adding slides, titles, headings, text boxes, and pictures. Each kid picked a different topic to make a slideshow on. Next week we will have some more time to work on these slideshows, and learn a little more about how to make a really great presentation.
Have a great weekend!
~Ms. Glickstein
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October 13, 2023
Hello 4G Families!
We had a really interesting 4-day week with a lot of unusual schedule changes. Tuesday we spent the whole morning on our walking field trip to the Brookline Public Library. The librarians there gave a great presentation about all the different programs and resources the library offers--even video games and dvds! Then we got some browsing time and kids were able to check out books if they had library cards. I have sent home a public library card application for those who were interested. (On top of that, it was so nice to get a little fresh air on the way there and back!)
In math we moved on from factors and multiples and started our unit on data. We are looking at line plots for this unit, kind of like a proto-bar-graph. On Friday, we made a line plot by collecting data about the length of first names in 4G. We learned vocabulary words like "outlier" and "range." Ask your fourth grader where most of the data landed!
In writing we printed out the fourth grade goals, (they were sent home on Thursday afternoon) then took a little walk down memory lane by brainstorming Driscoll memories to say goodbye to this building. We visited a bunch of different areas in the building--younger grades, the art room, the library, the theater--and were flooded with memories from our time here at Driscoll. Some kids in 4G Have been here since kindergarten. Others arrived this year, but we all have fond memories of this building. After brainstorming, the kids picked one memory to write a paragraph about. We included the time, the place, the people involved, the heart (feelings at the time) and today's emotion when we remember that moment. Kids remembered the mammal project in third grade, different author visits over the years, and even just your average PE class where they won at castle ball! Ask your fourth grader what memory they wrote about!
Friday, we had our first Community Meeting of the year, and our last in this building. How sentimental! I love Community Meeting, it never fails to put a smile on my face. Kaiden and Heedaya did a beautiful job of sharing their favorite memories up onstage in front of the whole theater. They told me later they were nervous, but you wouldn't know it watching them! (Our day to host Community Meeting will be in February. More information at a later date.)
Friday we also had our first meeting with our first grade buddies! Each fourth grader was paired up with a first grader in Ms. Cuddihy's class. Those first graders were adorable. For the first day of buddies, we interviewed each other and read some picture books. Some of them, like Harper's buddy, were super chatty and absolutely talked their fourth grader's ear off. Others were really shy (and potentially intimidated by older kids), but they will open up as we get to know each other more. I am so proud of the fourth graders. They really rose to the occasion and spoke so kindly and so gently to the first graders. We had gone over expectations the day before like speaking kindly, asking questions, and being a role model for the little kids. I'm excited for our next meeting!
Have a great weekend!
~Ms. Glickstein
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October 6, 2023
Happy October 4G Families!
We had another packed week! After Radin, Cora, Heedaya, and Gabriel won the homework pass for the month of September, we switched table spots and reset for October. New opportunity to win the homework pass, who will it be this month?? Our new table names are Fall-themed: The Scary Pumpkins, the Grim Reapers, the Leaf Blowers, and SMAK the Leaves (made up of the first initials of Susannah, Max, Aria, and Keaton.)
In social studies we learned about natural resources. We had talked about the difference between renewable and nonrenewable resources earlier. Kids were split into groups to research water, soil, forests/timber, fossil fuels, or metal ore. They read an article and took notes using a note-taking guide on the challenges of using that material and sustainable solutions. Next, I mixed the groups up so one kid from each natural resource was represented. This activity is called a jigsaw, where kids get to learn from each other and bring all the pieces of the puzzle together. They were SO successful doing this activity! Jigsaws can be hard for kids as it requires you listen to each other and attend to everyone's presentation, largely on their own scatted around the room. With the help of a note-taking table, the kids were able to record the information from the other groups and share their own. Way to go 4G! Ask your fourth grader what their natural resource was and one challenge in using it!
In writing, we finished up our fourth grade goals, making it all the way through the writing process. We brainstormed and pre-wrote, drafted, revised, edited, and finally published! I was especially impressed with everyone's revision. It's really hard to revise your work, and so often kids say, "Looks good! I'm done!" But we talked about how no one's work is perfect the first time around. Campbell reminded us about something he learned at an author visit last year, that Jason Chin had gone through 64 versions of his book before he published it! Wow! In 4G, we only went through two versions, but that second version was certainly more detailed and clearer than the first! Paper copies of their work will be sent home either today or early next week (I am writing this during my prep, not sure yet if I can commit to printing everyone's final draft out by the end of the day.)
In reading, we practiced book buzzing, which is basically talking about great books with a partner. I explained the format--one partner gives a summary of what they read, the other partner asks them a question, they swap roles--then gave them some sentence starters for them to deepen their conversations. The kids did a great job of sticking to the topic. It can be hard to talk for a long time about your book! There were plot questions like "What do you think will happen next?" There were character questions like, "Why do you think your character...?" And text-to-self questions like, "Would you be friends with your character?" At the end of the week, they did some writing about reading using their partner's question that day as a prompt. Ask your fourth grader who their partner was this week and what they read in class!
On Fridays, I am implementing Fun Friday Chromebook time for WIN. Kids can earn chromebook time if they are working steadily throughout the week. They were given a choice of playing an educational game on abcya.com or working on a free write on google docs. The kids have been itching for this free chromebook time, and because they really did work super hard this week, I gave it to them. Soon we will have our new technology teacher Ms. Mazzochi in to give us some computer lessons!
Have a great long weekend!
~Ms. Glickstein
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September 29, 2023
Hey 4G Families!
It was so nice seeing some of you at the open house yesterday morning! This week in math we started the first unit in our Investigations textbook. We focused on multiplication, factors, and drawing arrays this week. We talked about how to find all the factors of a number by drawing factor rainbows. Ask your fourth grader to show you the factor rainbow for the number 24!
In writing, we started a new unit on Fourth Grade Goals. By the end of this unit, kids will have written an eight-sentence-long paragraph all about the goal they made for themselves, the steps to achieve it and why they want to. Some kids have reading goals, like Youssef who wants to read 50 books this year, some kids have music goals like Cora who wants to learn more songs on the violin, and others have sports-related goals like Hao and Harper who both want to run more and more miles (maybe even racing each other??) This week we worked on lots of pre-writing: brainstorming and plotting out what they will write using a graphic organizer. Next week, we draft.
In social studies, each group designed their own poster showcasing their region's environment and notable features. On Thursday, the kids presented their posters. We reviewed expectations for the presenters (speak loudly and clearly, turn your body at an angle so you are facing your audience) and for the audience members (listen quietly, take in the information so you can take notes.) The kids did an excellent job presenting!
We are zooming along in our read aloud The Last Last Day of Summer. This is such a complicated book and we got some interesting background on how Mr. Flux was created. Ask your fourth grader to explain how this missed opportunity arose. Today's read aloud was particularly confusing. It wasn't until the end of the chapter that I realized my dog-eared page had come un-dog-eared and somehow I had skipped ahead 30 pages! Woops! We will have to go back and fill in the gaps next week. But now we have a little preview of a conversation between Mr. Flux and Sheed...
Have a great weekend!
~Ms. Glickstein
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September 22, 2023
Hi There 4G Families!
We had a packed week of academics this week! In math we did some review of third grade concepts with an Operation Boot Camp. We refreshed our strategies for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division to get us ready for our first math unit in the textbook next week. Kids practiced a bunch of different strategies: number lines, drawing pictures of groups, and finding related facts. Ask your fourth grader what is their preferred method of solving a division problem like 48 / 4! Do they prefer drawing circles or skip counting?
In reading, we did a lot of work with inferring. We watched a couple of Pixar shorts. These are great teaching tools! These short and sweet wordless videos are chock full of evidence for kids to infer character traits, character feelings, and even predict what will happen next. The kids took notes in two columns: evidence from the short what their inference was. We watched Snack Attack and Partly Cloudy. linked here if you are interested in watching for yourself!
In writing, we finished up our stamina writing. We got all the way to 7 solid minutes of writing! Wow! We focused on some fun skills this week like figurative language. This is my personal favorite element of writing to teach because kids can get so creative with it. We learned about similes, metaphors, onomatopoeias, hyperboles, and personification. Then kids were able to come up with their own examples. Lastly, they went back into their writing and added some figurative language to their stamina writing. Ask your fourth grader what would be a good simile to describe something red: "Her face turned as red as..."
In social studies we have been studying our country's natural resources. I split the kids into 5 groups to research the different regions: Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, Southwest, and the West. Each group read texts giving information on the environment and agriculture of that region. We also talked about how the environment affects the people who live there. Then we watched some truly beautiful videos about our National Parks. Click here if you are interested in watching the video that explains them all!
We had our first library class this week with our wonderful librarian Ann Reid! We also had our first few Chinese classes with Cao Lao Tse. Ask you fourth grader what they learned in Chinese class this first week!
Happy Friday!
~Ms. Glickstein
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September 15, 2023
Hello 4G Families! We had a great second week! We played many more community building games. One memorable one was The Knot. Kids got into a circle and extended their hands out, grabbing onto someone else's. Then they had to untangle themselves while still holding each other's hands. Both groups were successful! We talked about what skills they needed in order to do this activity. They brainstormed communication, patience, and coordination. (See photos to the left!) In reading we have been continuing to set up Reading Workshop routines with a minilesson, independent reading, writing about reading, and a share. This week, the kids practiced envisioning while they read, almost like a movie under their eyelids. Next, they drew a picture of a scene from their book. Later in the week we worked on Million Dollar Words--tricky or interesting words they read in their books. We talked about two strategies for figuring out the meaning of these words: looking at the word parts and looking at the context of the sentences around it. In writing, we have been building up our writing stamina by writing solidly for 4 minutes, then 4 minutes 30 seconds, then 5 minutes, etc. Each day after the timed writing, we learn a new strategy for how to add on. We talked about adding sensory descriptions, adding dialogue while using other words than just "said," and slowing the moment down. After the timer went off and we learned the skill, kids go back into their writing and revise. Ask your fourth grader what topics they wrote about this week. They are all working so hard in writing! Way to go! We Driscoll fourth grade teachers are piloting a new social studies curriculum. The first unit is on natural resources. We played a fun game called Wellsnippers where kids learned about the importance of conserving a quickly dwindling resource. Ask your fourth grader to tell you how to play, and what their strategy was! Later we took some notes on vocabulary words like renewable resource, nonrenewable resource, and scarce. Have a wonderful weekend! ~Ms. Glickstein |
September 8, 2023
Happy Friday 4G!
Wow, what a week! It has been... hot. The kids were wilting a bit by Friday, but nonetheless, we have had some really positive community building experiences. I am pretty amazed by how cheerful the kids remained, despite some let's say not ideal conditions for learning. The first few days of school we focused on routines to keep our class running smoothly: procedures for going to the bathroom and getting water, morning work procedures, how to line up in the hallway, learning position, voice level, etc. etc. etc. We also brainstormed rules for our class. We talked about how we wanted our classroom to look like, sound like, and feel like. Kids highlighted working together, kind comments, feeling comfortable and safe to take a risk. The kids then drafted some important rules for how to achieve this.
We've been playing a lot of team building activities this week as well. We played a game called Left Right Center, which is a following directions game. I read a story which includes the words left, right, and center many times over. Kids have to pay close attention and pass their object in the right direction when it's called. Harder than it sounds! We also played a version of Heads Up with numbers. If a student had the number 16 on the post-it on their forehead, their partner would have to give them hints like "It's an even number," or "It's a multiple of 8." Pass the Sgt Pepper Pin had a detective guess who has Ms. Glickstein's Sgt Pepper pin behind their back. These are super fun games but most importantly, they help kids practice communication, working together, and many more important social emotional skills.
We also started our first read aloud of the year! If you had an older kid in my class in previous years, you know how important the daily read aloud is to me. We started off this year with The Last Last Day of Summer, a super fun fantasy book about two kids who accidentally stop time. It's very reminiscent of The Phantom Tollbooth if you remember that book; a wild cast of characters coming up!
We have been easing into the academics this week. We did start a fun writing project called Alphabet of Me. Kids brainstormed a word for each letter of the alphabet that describes something about them. A is for apples, my favorite fruit, B is for Beatles my favorite band, etc. Next, they picked three of those words to elaborate on. Next week, we will complete the final draft and we'll be able to display it in the classroom. I am loving getting to know the kids through the things that are meaningful to them! Now I know the names of Youssef's cousins, I know that Bea hates onions but loves peanuts, and Max loves sports, basketball, and being active!
Have a wonderful weekend! Here's to cooler weather ahead!
~Ms. Glickstein
Happy Friday 4G!
Wow, what a week! It has been... hot. The kids were wilting a bit by Friday, but nonetheless, we have had some really positive community building experiences. I am pretty amazed by how cheerful the kids remained, despite some let's say not ideal conditions for learning. The first few days of school we focused on routines to keep our class running smoothly: procedures for going to the bathroom and getting water, morning work procedures, how to line up in the hallway, learning position, voice level, etc. etc. etc. We also brainstormed rules for our class. We talked about how we wanted our classroom to look like, sound like, and feel like. Kids highlighted working together, kind comments, feeling comfortable and safe to take a risk. The kids then drafted some important rules for how to achieve this.
We've been playing a lot of team building activities this week as well. We played a game called Left Right Center, which is a following directions game. I read a story which includes the words left, right, and center many times over. Kids have to pay close attention and pass their object in the right direction when it's called. Harder than it sounds! We also played a version of Heads Up with numbers. If a student had the number 16 on the post-it on their forehead, their partner would have to give them hints like "It's an even number," or "It's a multiple of 8." Pass the Sgt Pepper Pin had a detective guess who has Ms. Glickstein's Sgt Pepper pin behind their back. These are super fun games but most importantly, they help kids practice communication, working together, and many more important social emotional skills.
We also started our first read aloud of the year! If you had an older kid in my class in previous years, you know how important the daily read aloud is to me. We started off this year with The Last Last Day of Summer, a super fun fantasy book about two kids who accidentally stop time. It's very reminiscent of The Phantom Tollbooth if you remember that book; a wild cast of characters coming up!
We have been easing into the academics this week. We did start a fun writing project called Alphabet of Me. Kids brainstormed a word for each letter of the alphabet that describes something about them. A is for apples, my favorite fruit, B is for Beatles my favorite band, etc. Next, they picked three of those words to elaborate on. Next week, we will complete the final draft and we'll be able to display it in the classroom. I am loving getting to know the kids through the things that are meaningful to them! Now I know the names of Youssef's cousins, I know that Bea hates onions but loves peanuts, and Max loves sports, basketball, and being active!
Have a wonderful weekend! Here's to cooler weather ahead!
~Ms. Glickstein