Fourth Grade Update

Students participated in several exciting learning experiences this week!

Mystery SKYPE
Students participated in their first Mystery SKYPE this week. During a mystery SKYPE the fourth grade SKYPEs with another fourth-grade class somewhere in the world. Students work in collaborative groups to develop their speaking and listening skills by developing questions to ask the mystery class to determine their exact location. Students also develop their geography and map skills by using an Atlas to develop effective and specific questions to ask the mystery class. The mystery class does the same, trying to guess our location. Our first Mystery SKYPE class was from Ottawa, Canada!

Archeologist Visit
Mrs. Silvia, of the Haffenreffer Museum at Brown University visited our classes again to present information about the Native people of the Arctic. Mrs. Silvia brought real artifacts to help students learn about how the culture of these people is greatly impacted by their unique climate. Students tried traditional Inuit games that were used to build hunting skills, dressed in traditional Inuit clothing, and tried a traditional ceremonial dance. Thank you to the JFK PCC for funding this great learning experience!

Creative Arts Friday
In Project-based learning students presented their weather station projects to the class. Students reflected on the Engineering Design Process and their work as a team to make decisions and solve problems. Many groups were able to test their weather stations outside to collect rain and test wind direction. Several groups concluded that we received 1.75 inches of rain during the last rain in late November. On the other hand some some groups realized that their weather station would need more support to with-stand strong winds when left outside; a valuable lesson on the Engineering Process.

Fourth Grade Update

Our Kennedy 4th graders began our week with a story during our morning meeting.  The book, Strictly No Elephants, by Lisa Mantchev connected beautifully to Inclusive Schools Week. Students also are working on sharing ways that they feel included. These ideas have been shared on the intercom in the mornings, and will be visible at JFK on our large ladybug.

On Friday, all 4th graders participated in the Hour of Code.  The response was VERY positive.  Your child can share a lot about this, and can try other projects at this website. 

As we begin our second term, these homework tips might help students move toward independence and responsibility.

GENERAL HOMEWORK TIPS FOR PARENTS 

(Reposted from the Department of Education. You can see the full article here.)

✪ Make sure your child has a quiet, well-lit place to do homework. 

Avoid having your child do homework with the television on or in places with other distractions, such as people coming and going.

✪ Make sure the materials your child needs, such as paper, pencils and a dictionary, are available. Ask your child if special materials will be needed for some projects and get them in advance.

✪ Help your child with time management. Establish a set time each day for doing homework. Don‘t let your child leave homework until just

before bedtime. Think about using a weekend morning or afternoon for working on big projects, especially if the project involves getting together with classmates.

✪ Be positive about homework. Tell your child how important school is. The attitude you express about homework will be the attitude your child acquires.

✪ When your child does homework, you do homework. Show your child that the skills they are learning are related to things you do as an adult. If your child

is reading, you read too. If your child is doing math, balance your checkbook.

✪ When your child asks for help, provide guidance, not answers. Giving answers means your child will not learn the material. Too much help teaches your child that when the going gets rough, someone will do the work for him or her. 

✪ When the teacher asks that you play a role in homework, do it. Cooperate with the teacher. It shows your child that the school and home are a team. Follow the directions given by the teacher.

✪ If homework is meant to be done by your child alone, stay away.

Too much parent involvement can prevent homework from having some positive effects.  Homework is a great way for kids to develop independent, lifelong learning skills.

✪ Stay informed. Talk with your child‘s teacher. Make sure you know the purpose of homework and what your child‘s class rules are.

✪ Help your child figure out what is hard homework and what is easy homework. Have your child do the hard work first. This will mean he will be most alert when facing the biggest challenges. Easy material will seem to go fast when fatigue begins to set i

Strategies for Organization and An Interesting Ted Talk

If you have time, check out this Ted Talk.  It was given by student Stephen Tonti from Carnegie Mellon University.  He has ADHD and speaks candidly about his experiences.  Whether you have a child with ADHD not, his message is important, and worth the time.

We found this brief article by Lexi Walters Wright here.  some of the text is copied below, in order  to share 10 strategies to help your child with organization.  If you would like to read the full text, you can find it here.

1. Break Tasks into Chunks
2.  Make Checklists and To-Do Lists
3.  Teach Calendar and Time Management Skills: 
4.  Establish Daily Routines
5.  Introduce Idea Organizers
6.  Use Color Coding
7. Create Fun Memory Aids
8.  Create an Organized Work Space
9.  Do Regular Backpack Checks
10. Help Your Child Think Ahead

Finally, remember to set your DVR for Thursday 12/1 at 5:10 and 6:10.  Fourth graders will be featured during Danielle Niles' forecast on WBZ!

Fourth Grade News!!

We began our week with our Fourth Grade Community meeting, where the fourth graders received a surprise package!  It was filled with a penguin, a penguin puzzle, and our new Interactive Read Aloud, Mr. Popper's Penguins, by Florence and Richard Atwater.  What a fun way to introduce our book!  We began reading this week, and the children are enjoying reading about Mr. Popper and Captain Cook!

This week, fourth graders were treated to a presentation about the Natives of the Northeast, and about archaeology.  Students participated in an "archaeological dig" right at JFK.  Mrs. Silvia, of the Haffenreffer Museum at Brown University, brought real artifacts, and explained to the students how archaeologists find artifacts and estimate their age.  We look forward to learning more from this program throughout the year.  Thank you to the JFK PCC for funding this awesome experience!

Fourth Graders were also lucky enough to have a visit from author Nick Bruel, author of the Bad Kitty Series.  Mr. Bruel wrote a story with the 3rd, 4th and 5th grader about a "Happy Hamster" who lived in a golden cage.  Your child can fill in the details of this awesome event. Mr. Bruel also signed books for our students, and even did a quick lesson on how to draw a cat face, and change the emotion of the cat with just a few lines.  Thank you to Mrs. Williams for organizing this, and to An Unlikely Story Bookstore in Plainville, who presented this opportunity to us!

Creative Arts Friday!

Students began building their weather stations today! Students are challenged to build a weather station that measures two weather phenomena such as rain fall, humidity, air pressure, temperature, wind direction, or wind speed. After planning last week, students were very excited to start building today. Students are again learning how to work in groups and deal with disagreements and other problems that might arise when using the Engineering Design Process. Today many groups found that some of the materials they planned to use for their weather station did not work the way they planned them to. Students worked on persevering and problem solving to determine alternative materials to use meet their needs. We will continue to build next week. We all look forward to getting these weather stations outside and working soon so we can use them to observe the current weather conditions. 

Puffmobile Races!

Students used the Engineering Design Process to create Puffmobiles that lead to our much anticipated Puffmobile races this week. Not only did students work on Engineering skills, but they also learned important strategies for working in a group.

Overall Puffmobile Winning Team

"Top Racers" racing from each class

Mrs. Merten's Top Racers

Mrs. A Williams' Top Racers

Mrs. E Williams' Top Racers

Final class winners in grade level finals race

"Top Girls" racing from each class

Mrs. Merten's Top Girl Racers

Mrs. A Williams' Top Girl Racers

Mrs. E Williams' Top Girl Racers

"Top Boys" racing from each class

Mrs. E Williams' Top Boy Racers

Mrs. Merten's Top Boy Racers

Top girl and boy racers from each class 

Fourth Grade News

Fourth Graders enjoyed another busy week! We began with our Community Meeting on Tuesday, where our mantra was "We are Family!". This mantra was important this week as we prepared to share our learning with families at Open House. We talked about how we are a fourth grade family as well.

Fourth Graders also enjoyed some exciting science activities this week. On Wednesday students created terrariums. Students will observe their terrariums daily to see if they can find evidence of the water cycle happening within. 

In Project Based Learning this Friday students began their weather station challenge. Students are challenged to work in collaborative groups to design and build a weather station that measures two different weather phenomena such as rainfall, temperature, humidity, air pressure, wind direction, or wind speed. Students will use their knowledge of the weather tools learned in class to complete this project in the coming weeks. Students will then get to put their weather station to the test, and collect data about the weather.