Ah, the fall season is upon us, complete with soccer games and cross-country races and beautiful crisp days (when it is not raining).
What a vibrant school we are all a part of.
Fourth graders enjoyed doing a skit on the stage at All School Meeting last week and are begging for their next chance to perform. I am proud of them and the way each student spoke slowly and clearly to our audience.
We are beginning a new math unit understanding how to represent and analyze data. Today we learned that there is a mean (average) of 85 raisins in a 1.5-ounce box. Some boxes only contain 69 raisins while others have up to 96; that’s a range of 27! It is hard to guess how many raisins will be in the next box you get with a range like that.
Students have started writing a report on a topic about beavers. I taught a lesson about how to begin the report with a good lead or hook to capture our reader’s attention. We are well into this draft and I am seeing students weave scientific facts and stylistic writing to convey their knowledge and enthusiasm for beavers. I am so impressed with everyone’s outline and draft.
Today we did the work of the beaver, by damming up a pipe with mud, leaves, sticks, and other available resources near the pond. No one got too muddy and it was a lot of fun. I think the kids can really appreciate how stopping the flow of water is harder than it sounds. Beavers are skilled at their work. We will try this experiment again next week and change some of the variables to compare our results.
We spent time learning about the geography of Tanzania and we started a new read aloud book called Listening for Lions that takes place in Kenya during the 1919 pandemic influenza outbreak. The images of East Africa are both beautiful and so exotic compared to our lives in New England. It is a fascinating study. We have also made some interesting connections between colonial Africa and the early settlers we are reading about in Sign of the Beaver.
So much to learn… So much to talk about…
Enjoy the weekend; it is supposed to be lovely and warm!
---Emily
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