Poetry, Mystery, and More…
Poetry has been a constant theme this year in 4th grade. Every Monday students receive a “Poem of the Week” assignment where they read a poem and respond to questions about the poem. On Fridays we do an activity related to the poem. The poetry selections have been varied to expose students to a diverse styles, elements, and forms in poetry. Recently, students wrote more verses to Langston Hughes’ poem: Dreams. This was a great exercise in sticking to a patterned form and creating a metaphor with rhyme. Last week students read two poems about Martin Luther King and brainstormed words relating to peace and equality. Each 4th grader wrote a poem about peace and will be reading his/her poem at our All School Meeting-MLK celebration this Wednesday at 2:20. Our poems reflect each student’s creative writing style and choice of form. Sharing at our writing at All School Meeting will be another good experience in public speaking as well as be an opportunity for 4th graders to take a leadership role in school life. Every class is asked to participate and take the stage from time to time and present for the school. Our poems are terrific and will be appreciated in this MLK celebration.
We continue exploring elements of Mystery in all subjects this winter. Last week we neutralized a base (ammonia) with a strong acid (vinegar) on turmeric paper. Turmeric (the yellow spice) turns dark red when it comes in contact with a basic compound such as ammonia. We stained the turmeric paper red with ammonia and then used vinegar to magically make the red stain disappear back to yellow. This week small groups have been given an alchemist- change experiment to practice and then present to the class.
Exciting News!
“Stone Beehive” Trip planned for Mon. Jan. 30, 1-3 p.m.
Thomas Wessels, ecologist, natural historian, author, Antioch University professor, will come with us to the mysterious “beehive” stone structure on Banning Road in Putney and give us his interpretation of what this structure is and why it was built. We have several of our own Stonehenge-like structures here in Putney. It is a mystery. Who built these amazing underground stone caverns? When? Why? Tom Wessels has some interesting theories and he has offered to show us the “beehives” and tell us some fascinating stories! We will need 2-3 drivers for this afternoon outing.
Visiting the Beehives will lead us to do some research in other non-fiction mysterious phenomena such as Big Foot, crop circles, Atlantis, the Bermuda Triangle, etc. This is fascinating 4th grade material!
Please sign up for a conference- Thursday, Jan 26th (call Tammy)
Peace!
Emily
