Science Fair is officially in full swing! Students are getting excited as I’ve shared with them the outline of what is expected this year and the categories. Please review expectations from the rubric and checklist with your child.
Here are some key points to remember!
FBCS science fair: Friday, April 12th *which also Dress Like A Scientist Day! A great way to truly get into character! (:
Rotary Science Fair: Saturday, April 27th
Science Fair is mandatory! Students can work individually or in groups; no more than 4 people.
There are 4 categories: Engineering, Model, Demonstration and Scientific Process.
Students will be working outside of class to complete projects. They will NOT be completed in class. Students will be given some time for research, writing and group collaboration.
All students will be given copies of these to have in groups or individuals .
Please review the rubric, that will be used by the judges and myself for grading. I will review how students divided up the responsibilities and if everyone gave equal participation.
The checklist was created as a way for students to keep accountable to their timeline and what they need to complete before science fair.
Very excited for everyone and what they come up with! We’ve already heard some exciting ideas and discussions. Keep up the encouragement and investigating!
Parents: please make sure you are guiding your child and not doing the project for them. It is a great opportunity for them to practice problem solving skills, going through the scientific process, communicating ideas, thinking through what they know and exploring!
Grammar – Combine pronouns and verbs to write contractions. – Proofread for contractions errors. – Distinguish between the homophones its and it’s, they’re, their, and there, and your and you’re. – Proofread for pronoun and homophone usage. – Unit 6 Review NOTE: Pronoun Test on Monday (April 1st)
Reading
Number the Stars – Here’s a quick summary of the utter greatness that you can expect from this book:
As the German troops begin their campaign to “relocate” all the Jews of Denmark, Annemarie Johansen’s family takes in Annemarie’s best friend, Ellen Rosen, and conceals her as part of the family.
Through the eyes of ten-year-old Annemarie, we watch as the Danish Resistance smuggles almost the entire Jewish population of Denmark, nearly seven thousand people, across the sea to Sweden. The heroism of an entire nation reminds us that there was pride and human decency in the world even during a time of terror and war.
Winner of the 1990 Newbery Medal.
Be sure to ask you child/children what they think of the book, and to summarize what we’ve read of the book each day.
Some of the learning objectives (or WALT as we refer to them in Grade 4; We Are Learning To) that we will cover while reading are:
Describe the characters’ traits, feelings, and motivations in Number the Stars.
Refer to the text for evidence to support answers.
Form an opinion about a character’s trait based on the character’s actions, feelings and motivation.
Explain how the characters’ actions contribute to the sequence of events.
Engage in discussions sharing their ideas and listening to others.
Use context clues to determine the meaning of unknown words or phrases in Number the Stars.
Distinguish literal and non-literal language and determine its meaning.
Gain information about the past.
Build upon their background knowledge of World War II.
Explore themes of friendship and bravery during the times that scare us the most.
Writing We’re still working through our rough drafts this week. – Sentence Fluency – Continue to revise writing for sentence fluency, including sentences that flow and a variety of shorter and longer sentences to add impact to their writing conventions. – Students will use CUPS to go through and edit their rough drafts. – Peer Editing – Students will review and edit each others work.
Spelling Spelling Words were sent home to prepare for our test on Friday. Please remind your child to study his/her spelling words. Check for your group to know your words!
Dragons and Vipers – study the words above (Dragons were assigned Chapter 3 words and a select 5 words from Chapter 4). Pegasus Group!
Numeracy: Students will be using their skills from probability and data collection to create and interpret graphs! Students will be creating a class survey and collecting information this week to create a chart and visual graph.
Science: Students are diving deeper into our understanding of Earth’s Resources. We will learn to identify and know the characteristics of various bodies of water. We will also learn the meaning of ‘living downstream’ and if that is possible here in Cayman.
Social Studies – Explore Caribbean culture. Choose on aspect of Caribbean culture, create poster, and write a paragraph on it. Find out where and when it began, how it has spread through the Caribbean, and what form it takes today.B
HOMEWORK and TESTS
Numeracy: Review of multiplication and division of 10, 100 and 1000 on Mathletics
Students started a new topic last week in Numeracy and Science. It was a busy week of new, so here are some photos to share
Numeracy: We learned about probability and understanding how it can be used in real life, finding it in data and collecting data.
Science: Our new topic is Earth’s Resources, we began by learning the importance of natural resources. Students learned about natural resources here in Cayman and around the world.
Wow, I can’t believe it is time! There was an email sent out in January about the Yellow Pages competition and it’s already time to compete. I apologize for the last minute update, but I hope students can still try to participate!
Due: Friday, March 29th!
Bring in any Yellow Pages phonebooks in the years BEFORE 2019 and we can get a class pizza party! Some have already brought some in and it’s already a great collection so far. Keep it up!
In Chapel this week, Rubis representatives came to share their ‘Top Student’ competition. It is a very exciting opportunity where students send in a 2 minute video sharing what they are most passionate about (sports, academics, music, art, technology etc.). In those 2 minutes they should show their abilities, share what they would do with the prize money and why they are so passionate about their talent.
First prize is $5,000 and others as must as $1,000! I would encourage all students to send in an entry and really think about all the amazing skills they have and to share them!
Deadline for entry is April 12
Here are some links giving more detailed information! Click HERE for the application form and best of luck (:
Some exciting events happening this month! Here are a few to keep in mind.
Thursday, 21st March Down Syndrome Awareness Day
One way that we show awareness is wearing our craziest socks! School uniform still applies, but their socks can be as fun and bright as they want, brighter the better. (:
CLICK HERE to view the poster with more information.
Wednesday, 27th March Executive Function Informational Meeting
This is a great opportunity for parents and those just curious to learn more about how executive function looks and is used.
Combine sentences by making one sentence a main clause and one a subordinate clause.
Use I and me correctly
Proofread a thank-you note for correct usage of I and me
Identify possessive pronouns in sentences.
Substitute possessive pronouns for possessive nouns
READING:
Number the Stars: We started Number the Stars last week, and man, are we hooked! Be sure to ask your child to recap what we’ve covered during the day.
We’re first delving into our KWL Chart (What do we KNOW, What do we WANT to Know, and What have we LEARNED) on World War II. Some topics that were raised and will be raised are the Nazi’s and concentration/death camps. Please do discuss these very heavy topics with your child, as we will continue to discuss them in the class over the next few weeks.
Here’s a quick summary of the utter greatness that you can expect from this book:
As the German troops begin their campaign to “relocate” all the Jews of Denmark, Annemarie Johansen’s family takes in Annemarie’s best friend, Ellen Rosen, and conceals her as part of the family.
Through the eyes of ten-year-old Annemarie, we watch as the Danish Resistance smuggles almost the entire Jewish population of Denmark, nearly seven thousand people, across the sea to Sweden. The heroism of an entire nation reminds us that there was pride and human decency in the world even during a time of terror and war.
Winner of the 1990 Newbery Medal.
Be sure to ask you child/children what they think of the book, and to summarize what we’ve read of the book each day.
Some of the learning objectives (or WALT as we refer to them in Grade 4; We Are Learning To) that we will cover while reading are:
Describe the characters’ traits, feelings, and motivations in Number the Stars.
Refer to the text for evidence to support answers.
Form an opinion about a character’s trait based on the character’s actions, feelings and motivation.
Explain how the characters’ actions contribute to the sequence of events.
Engage in discussions sharing their ideas and listening to others.
Use context clues to determine the meaning of unknown words or phrases in Number the Stars.
Distinguish literal and non-literal language and determine its meaning.
Gain information about the past.
Build upon their background knowledge of World War II.
Explore themes of friendship and bravery during the times that scare us the most.
WRITING:
Start planning their narrative – plot events for the beginning, middle, and end.
Voice – Plan our beginning, thinking about how your will hook the reader and connect to the audience.
Write a rough draft
Sentence Fluency – Continue to revise writing for sentence fluency – including sentences that flow and a variety of shorter and longer sentences to add impact to their writing.
Word Choice – Revise writing to include better examples of word choice – they must justify their choices in the reflection, and make actual changes on their rough draft.
SPELLING: Spelling Test this Friday. Same spelling words as last week, as I gave an extra week to revise.
NUMERACY: Students will be learning about probability. This week we will explore how to find outcomes using different manipulatives. They will show they can collect data and then use it in a graph.
Determine simple outcomes
Using a variety of manipulatives
Collecting data and creating a graph
SCIENCE: In science this week we will be exploring different minerals and rocks that are here in Cayman. We will learn how to know if something is human-made or natural and how some resources are used here in Cayman.
Recognize the meaning for minerals and rocks
Understanding a human-made and natural resource
Understanding how resources are used
SOCIAL STUDIES: – Exploring Caribbean culture.
HOMEWORK and TESTS
Monday: Study spelling words
Tuesday:
Quizzes – GAME CODE 442203 – Ask your students to join game with this code at https://join.quizizz.com
Mathletics – Division
Wednesday:
Boom Cards – Possessive Pronouns – https://wow.boomlearning.com/ (Students will be given login details to place in their agendas.)
Thursday:
Study spelling words!
Study weekly Bible Verse
Friday:
Bible – Chapter 6
Bible Verse
Spelling Test
Numeracy: Students will be taking home a chart to collect data and then return on Monday!
Bible Verse
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your minds. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it. ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’Matthew 22:37-39
As Grade 4 begins their new class novel, Number the Stars, we took some time to delve a little deeper into World War II, as well as stroll down the streets of Copenhagen, Denmark, (with the help of technology, of course), where the novel begins.
Hooray! Winn-Dixie has be found and our dog party was a success.From Litmus Lozenges, to egg salad sandwiches, Dump Punch, and pickles…true life certainly did mimic the words within the book.
Many thanks again for helping to make this party dog-tastic!
Grade 4 had a wonderful opportunity to go on a mangrove boat tour, which coincides with our study of ecosystems. Through SeaElements, students were able to get up close and personal with some sea life, like an upside down jelly fish and many of them were brave enough to hold! As well as salt leaves from the mangroves, which are edible, in case you were wondering 😉 Students loved getting to have a taste and learn about the specific leaves that come from the different mangroves. Students learned about the special skills mangroves provide in the ecosystem around and how they protect various organisms and during hurricanes a defense to the island.
A couple of Friday’s back, some of Grade 4 were able to meet Aaron Hunt from Eco divers. He and his wife head up a very successful conservationist group that focuses on restoring coral around Grand Cayman. They have set up several coral nurseries off of South Sound and Governors Beach. They have a 5 year plan to create nurseries to surround Grand Cayman and grow up to 100,000 coral! In Cayman we have lost up to 80% of our coral reef and with what students have been learning about in habitats and ecosystems, coral is very crucial to the sea life that surrounds us. Students really enjoyed Aaron’s discussion, diagrams of coral anatomy and a new perspective of how to help in practical ways to conserve coral health. He has recommended we use waterproof sunscreen to prevent coral bleaching and some brands that can be useful are Sun Bum and Reef Safe Sun. It really got students thinking about ways they could help and even interested in getting their diving license! (watch out 😉 parents!) Very thankful he could stop by and share what is going on here in Cayman and what we can be doing to help protect our beautiful country and sea life.
Everyone really seemed to enjoy the discussions and being out in our ‘back yard’ for the morning.
