Welcome to Fourth Grade at The Children's School!

The Book Fair is Open!

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 11:03:24 -0800

Dates: November 29 to December 5, 2012

Where: In the Library

Times: At Lunch Recess and After School until 4:00 each day.

Extended Hours:

Parent Breakfast Sale Friday, November 30 from 8:45 to 10:30

Wednesday, December 5, 2012 2:30 until 6:00

Book Fair Closes 6:00 Wednesday December 5!

Come check us out!!

Fall/Winter Gardening

Fri, 05 Oct 2012 16:12:28 -0700

Over the past week, the fourth graders have been preparing for our fall/winter planting season. They tilled the garden beds and amended the soil with organic fertilizer (“Chickety Doo Doo” has to be the BEST name ever for fertilizer!). Today, they planted some flower seeds (marigolds and nasturtiums) around the edges of the garden beds as rabbit deterrents. Next week, we will plant a variety of winter vegetables, including beets, cabbage, carrots, radishes, turnips, kale, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, chard, brussel sprouts, peas, and onions.

We are also experimenting with self-watering pots/seed-starters. Today, we reused plastic bottles and made pots that suck up water to keep their soil constantly moist. You cut the bottle in half, invert the top half, punch a hole in the lid, and string yarn through the hole. The yarn wicks the water from the reservoir below into the soil, keeping it damp. I did the cutting and hole-punching, and the fourth graders inserted the yarn and filled the pots with soil. To see our inspiration, check out this website:

http://skruben.blogspot.com/2012/03/how-to-self-watering-seed-starter-pots.html

Here are a few pictures of our seed starters. They are watered and ready to plant seeds in next week!

Meet Juliana!

Fri, 05 Oct 2012 15:58:00 -0700

Last year, Lisa D. connected with an organization called Light in Africa, founded and run by a British woman named Mama Lynn, which helps homeless and orphaned children in Tanzania. This year, we are continuing this relationship. This week, the fourth graders “met” a teenager named Juliana, who was born with disfigured legs. Lisa met Juliana in real life during her trip to Tanzania last February, and we watched some videos and learned about Light in Africa and Juliana’s story. After many months of waiting, Juliana came to the US in August for surgery to remove her lower legs and be fitted with prosthetics. She is currently recuperating in Orange County at Children’s Hospital. The fourth graders were inspired by Juliana’s story and her courage, so we wrote her a letter and made her a book to help her learn English words which will be taken up to her this weekend by a TCS family.

If you would like to learn more about Juliana’s story, you can watch the videos below. We watched the short ones together in class.

Juliana (2 min)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOkH3Zk12Uk

Mama Lynn talking about Light in Africa (27 min) – This video is best for adults.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5HnbYcFryBI#!

Mama Lynn’s Story - Light in Africa – Tanzania (3.5 min)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyMpPv3a7r8&feature=relmfu

The Children of Light in Africa (6 min)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKP_iUAcwjY&feature=relmfu

Mirerani Food Kitchen run by Light in Africa (3.5 min)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94ibrRtshDg&feature=relmfu

California Relief Maps

Fri, 05 Oct 2012 14:25:07 -0700

Before we learn about California’s fascinating history, we are learning about its geography. In order to better understand our state’s four main regions, we are making relief maps. The fourth graders are having to look carefully and study our classroom maps to make sure that their maps are accurate.

We enjoyed looking at real historical maps last week at the La Jolla Map and Atlas Museum. It was interesting to see what cartographers and other people thought the west coast looked like centuries ago before the days of GPS! Check out the maps below that we saw showing California as an island!

Math Games

Fri, 05 Oct 2012 14:05:00 -0700

Playing math games is a fun way to practice our skills. Here the fourth graders are rolling dice and making rectangles, calculating the area of the rectangles using multiplication facts, trying to use their spacial skills to fit the rectangles together so that there is no empty space on their graph paper, and then practicing multi-digit addition by adding up all the areas.

Painting Birdhouses

Fri, 05 Oct 2012 14:01:00 -0700

Sometimes it’s fun to do something just for fun! We enjoyed painting colorful birdhouses to decorate our classroom windows!

Reading Buddies

Fri, 05 Oct 2012 13:58:00 -0700

Connecting with our second grade reading buddies each week is something the fourth graders look forward to! We do a variety of activities; recently we’ve shared joke books with each other and worked on preparing readers’ theaters (and making puppets) that the groups will present next week. Reading buddies is an opportunity to create cross-grade connections, and it gives the fourth graders a chance to be mentors and friends - academically and socially - to their younger counterparts.

Welcome to a new school year!

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 16:04:07 -0700

This blog is the ongoing site for the TCS Fourth Grade. Check back frequently for pictures and information about our activities and learning.

One of the exciting things we do in fourth grade is gardening. Last year, we started a relationship with Suzie’s Farm and visited their location in south county. Recently, the Union Tribune printed an article highlighting the farm. Going there is truly a wonderful experience that I can’t wait to share with this year’s class.

Click the link below to read the article:

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/sep/11/crops-and-consciousness/#?popup=true

TCS is helping the Monarch School!

Wed, 16 May 2012 11:39:02 -0700

The fourth graders and their global buddies in Lisa D.’s Kindergarten are doing one last community service project this school year: helping the Monarch School! We watched the video from The Ellen Show and discussed how the Monarch School helps local children affected by homelessness. Yesterday, we looked at the school’s “Wish List,” and talked about how, when helping others, it is important to find out what they need, rather than assuming we know what is best for them. In light of this, I am sharing the Monarch School’s “Wish List,” in the hopes that your family can provide any of the items they desperately need. The TCS children are very excited to do something kind for their fellow San Diego schoolchildren!

Wish List

* Due to space limitations we currently are not accepting computer items of any kind, books, or backpacks.

The Wish List are items needed throughout the year, or for emergency purposes to support programs and students. With these donated items Monarch is able to redirect its operating budget to the critical educational needs of our students. Thank you in advance for helping making these students’ dreams come true.

Wish List Items – Current Needs

New or nearly new clean, youthful shoes and clothing in all kids’ sizes, ages 5-18 (urgent need for extra small children’s & teen girl xxlarge sizes 18-24)
New socks and underwear: Socks for teen girls and boys of all ages; teen and boy’s boxers; teen girl hipsters or boy cut underwear, sizes 5 and up; little girl underwear, sizes 6-8
Boys/mens jeans, waist sizes 26-31
Vans and Chuck shoes in all sizes and colors, for both girls/women and boys/men
Second-hand strollers for our students’ parents who also have babies and toddlers
Haircare products for African-American hair (shampoo, conditioner, styling lotion, gel)
Small travel sized alarm clocks (batteries included)
Plastic or paper dinnerware (plates, silverware, cups, napkins) for our family dinner program
Gift cards to Target, Payless Shoes, and local movie theatres – extremely important for weekends, holidays and rainy days as it provides a shelter and experience
Gift cards to local grocery stores
Card Stock Paper- all colors

Artists’ Supplies

New items only

3B, 4B, 6B, 8B, HB drawing pencils; charcoal; soft and oil pastels
Paint brushes for water color and acrylic painting
16 oz tempera and acrylic paints in all colors (NOT little paint or artist kits, or children’s watercolors)
Sketchbooks/ artist pads/ journals and drawing paper of all sizes and weights
Masking or painter’s tape; scissors (adult size-not kid size)
Tissue papers and decorative papers
Canvases and canvas boards of all sizes
Modeling clay and self drying clay
Mod podge sealer/finish

Homophone Storyboards

Tue, 15 May 2012 16:14:27 -0700

Here are a few of the finished homophone storyboards we’ve been working on! The homophone sets on each card are underlined.

Learning "Scratch"

Tue, 15 May 2012 16:08:00 -0700

For the past two weeks, the fourth graders have been learning the program “Scratch” during technology time. Some of them already knew a little about it, and others were learning for the first time. Yesterday, we buddied up with the other fourth grade and made some creative animated projects. Eighth grader Sherif came and was our mentor!

Fun Night - Registration Closes Tonight!

Mon, 14 May 2012 20:45:24 -0700

Fun Night is this Saturday, May 19th! It promises to be a great parents’ night out with wonderful auction items, food, and entertainment. You won’t want to miss it!

TODAY IS THE LAST DAY TO RSVP AND REGISTER. Get your ticket today: https://tcslj.ejoinme.org/MyEvents/FunNight2012TheRoaring20sandAllThatJaz/FunNight2012Registration/tabid/352458/Default.aspx

Bake Sale Tomorrow!

Mon, 14 May 2012 20:36:00 -0700

Lisa D.’s Connecting Communities class is having their FINAL BAKE SALE tomorrow at 3:15pm under the Big Tree. All items will be between $0.50 and $1.00. Please encourage your students to bring their money to support the Monarch School, a school for homeless children in San Diego.

For more info on the Monarch school check out the video below for the Ellen Show.

Lisa says, “Thanks so much for all the support with all of these little Bake Sales throughout the past few years. It really makes a difference :)”

http://youtu.be/kuQrOYNUdK8

Christy adds: “The Monarch School is absolutely amazing and can always use volunteers. I volunteer for their special events and just want to pass along the info in case you have time to volunteer: http://www.monarchschools.org/get-involved/volunteer ”

Sacramento T-Shirts!

Mon, 14 May 2012 17:07:50 -0700

I got the Sacramento t-shirts this afternoon, and Cause Ignitors did a fabulous job! I will send your child’s home tomorrow. Thanks to Jenny Dunne for coordinating this effort - we will look great as a group in our fun shirts!

Literature Circles

Mon, 14 May 2012 17:02:57 -0700

In this round of literature circles, students chose from four books:

The Giant Rat of Sumatra (pirates in San Diego during the 1800s)

A Jar of Dreams (Japanese immigrants during the Great Depression)

Esperanza Rising (Mexican immigrants during the Great Depression)

There’s an Owl in the Shower (a northern California logging family makes an unlikely friend: a spotted owl)

We will wrap up these books before we leave for Sacramento and have one more round of literature circles between now and the end of the year. Each night, the students are writing a job in their journals (as they have done for every book we have read together this year). The guideline for the job has always been *at least* 5 solid sentences, written in paragraph form, explaining their thoughts thoroughly. As we near the end of the year, I expect that writing a 5-sentence paragraph should be an easy task and that a complete journal would be longer and more detailed. Editing the nightly journal is something that each fourth grader should be doing as well. I’m noticing that many students seem to be rushing through their work and making mistakes (capitalization, spelling, punctuation, clarity of thought) that I know they could easily fix. As hard as it can be to maintain focus as we approach summer break, it is important that all students end fourth grade confidently using the skills they will need at their fingertips in fifth grade.

Transcontinental Railroad

Mon, 14 May 2012 16:54:03 -0700

When we visit Sacramento later this week, we will get to go to the Railroad Museum and see *real* locomotives from different eras in California history. For now, we are studying the impact the railroad had on populating California, and the people who built it. We read two books about Chinese immigrants during the 1850s and 60s and learned about what hard workers they were and how much prejudice there was towards immigrants at that time. The students then chose a character from one of the stories and wrote letters from that character’s perspective. Some chose to be Lixia and wrote letters back home to China describing her experiences in California. Others wrote to Charles Crocker, one of the railroad’s owners, trying to convince him to change his unfair policies towards his Chinese workers, from the perspective of Winnie, a young white girl who learned about prejudice through her Chinese friend Lee’s experiences.

Analogy Books and Homophone Storyboards

Mon, 14 May 2012 16:48:30 -0700

Our grammar study during the last few weeks has included learning about analogies and homophones. The fourth graders created their own Analogy Books using analogy pairs that they made up. The books were so much fun because everyone included analogies that they drew from their interests (basketball, gymnastics, animals, video games, etc.). Right now, they are in the middle of creating storyboards with sets of homophones.

Math - Fractions and Decimals

Mon, 14 May 2012 16:44:21 -0700

For the last few weeks, we have been exploring fractions and decimals: how to add/subtract them, multiply/divide them, compare them, and convert them. Here is some of our groupwork that we shared.

We practiced making equivalent fractions and each team tried to make as many as they could!

If you build it...

Mon, 14 May 2012 16:39:04 -0700

The list of things the fourth graders are able to do independently continues to grow, and last week they added “putting together a garden bed” to their list of accomplishments! With quite a bit of elbow grease and cooperation (and virtually no help from me), they figured out how to assemble a 4x4’ garden bed (that was supposed to require a power drill, mind you!). Putting together a garden bed isn’t on the list of state standards, and cooperation and problem solving skills can be hard to quantify - but you know them when you see them, and I saw them that day. Alfie Kohn talks about how student interest should guide what we do with children, and this was a very high interest activity! If I wanted to start listing the benefits of such an activity, I could - and the list would be long - but some of the most important to me are joy, satisfaction (the kind that comes after struggle), and a common goal achieved through hard work, perseverance, and teamwork. The best part for the children was creating an additional space for growing some summer crops: gourds, sunflowers, and a giant pumpkin!

Some of the things I heard as they were working…

“I love working with tools!”

“My dad has tools and he lets me use them.”

“I want to do more things like this!”

After soaking our seeds for a few days, we were ready to plant.

We are also continuing to take care of our current crops, which include corn, squash, and beans. We are hoping for a harvest before summer vacation! Fingers crossed for more sun!

Sock Hop 2012!

Mon, 14 May 2012 16:14:00 -0700

It was a gorgeous day to shake and shimmy and rock around the clock!

Too bad no one liked the ice cream sandwiches. ;)