Skip to main content
Main Menu Toggle

4th Grade

Course Description

4th Grade Year    ---Ready for Action---that is a 4th grader is a nutshell!
 
From start to finish, this year is about integrating the pre K/K years to 3rd Grade. The kids have been part of a school environment to understand the concept of school, responsibilities, consequences and learning. This year is really cooperative--that means growth personally, socially, and academically.  From the kids sitting with different classmates each day at their tables to having Home Base Bins for their things, 4th grade is learning about being flexible learners and stretching their thinking on what they can do and what we can do together. Through meta-cognition (the term means to think about what and how you are thinking, learning, behaving), the kids reflect and grow in deep meaningful ways. 9 and 10 year olds are curious, inventive, and aware.
 
The concept of time becomes more real. I help the kids realize that we learn in quarters and each one has certain concepts that we focus on. Our weekly schedule is packed with Social Science, Readers and Writers Workshop, Physical, Earth, Biological Science, Chinese, Music, Art, P.E., Cursive and Grammar,Technology, Keyboarding, and Math. We go on plenty of field trips to support their curriculum and many guests or experts come to our class to teach. Many of you may be part of our learning! :) 4th Graders want to see how things relate to each other.
 
The flow of the day is up on the white board in our room. We go over it every morning in our Morning Meeting.  The MM has a format that they learn and will begin to lead in January. The structure has 4 parts- Greeting, Sharing or Reading, Activity, and Announcements. It gives us a chance to get to know each other, set the tone for the day, and learn how to discuss ideas. At the end of the day, we have TBaA. Those letters stand for Think Back and About. During this last half hour, we review what we learned and what we did to learn the material. It is very important to reflect because it helps wire information to long term memory.
 
The kids all have class jobs and work in partners. These jobs rotate weekly. Learning how to talk to each other and work with a partner is very important in life. Negotiating and Compromising are things I do with them if there is a problem. They have to learn the skills of conversation and listening, problem solving and building relationships of all types.
 
The main tool for communication, besides our website, is through the Planner. It is a calendar type of tool that really helps kids learn to organize themselves. It is very useful for Parents to write to me or messages to their kids. When you notice their learning-- they love it! It is in the Planner that we write the TBaA. It gives you a way, parents, to talk about what is happening each day. 
 
Homework means reading. It has been proven through research that doing that one thing each day after school makes a huge difference in learning. Please have your child read every day/night for 40 minutes. They have reading logs to keep up with this and 3 are required to be filled out each quarter. There are 15 lines on each-- so you get the idea-- it adds up to good habits and increased stamina for focus. They can read or be read to. The goal is an sustained 40 minutes. Other homework is usually work that isn't completed. That happens on occasion, but there is plenty of time to come in at lunch-- 15 minutes or before school to do those things. The kids are very tuned in to if they have puttered or progressed through an assignment or project. :)
 
Assessments or tests are integrated in each day. I let the kids know that how they behave, how they work, what they get done, how well they work with a partner, how work gets done, and what they have learned is measured.  The goal is to have them take ownership of their learning, get them to ask questions, and for us to create a dynamic and interesting space.There are many ways to check in on how they are doing- through verbal or written communication, or projects, or having them reflect with a partner. Even doing 'thumbs up or down' with a few questions helps the whole class tune in. Cooperation for all to learn is key. That is why the kids remember to do Job #1 Learn, and Job #2 Let Others Learn.
 
Student Teacher Parent Conferences are a very essential piece of finishing up the first quarter. Each student will lead their parent(s) through several academic areas and discuss with their parents and me what they learned, and how they learned it. It is a wonderful time for the kids to see us all together. I love these conferences because I get to see how proud each child is telling about their work and how interested and amazed the parents are seeing through this conversation where their child is academically. 
 
Parents are always welcome to visit our class and if you want to make an appointment to have some sit down time together, that is great! My goal is to have 4th grade be a wonderful stimulating year.:)
 
Birthdays-- we Love them. If your child wants to share a treat, that is great. We sing Happy Birthday and share the treats at 2:30.
 
4th Graders are very capable and the more they find out what they can do, the more they will do. 
I look forward to being with your child this year and getting to know you too. 
 
Thanks, Ms. Bonzo
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Posts

q
 Writing dialogue for illustrations is hard. The kids have really been looking at the illustrations of Garth Williams and how they fit with E.B White's story.
Today, all the kids read with their partner their 2 lines. Then classmates evaluated work. It was a very interesting and process.
Here you can see Gracelyn and Jack in the front of the class reading their work. So many types of standards are covered with doing some work like this from cooperating, writing, analyzing, and presenting.
It was cool to see the kids revise their work to make the character's words more meaningful to the particular part of the book and more emotional to show the relationship of Charlotte and Wilbur. 
 
Chickpeas
Josiah took to heart and action the good ideas presented to 4th Grade on Monday by Jessie of the Moscow School District.  She came and surveyed the kids about flavors on baked chickpeas or as we say in 4th since it's funny- Ms.BonzoBeans!
       To the delight of his classmates, Josiah went home and prepared some baked chickpeas for our class. He measured out 1/4 cup for everyone, counted out how many chickpeas were in a serving (81!) and then the kids got to enjoy them during math where they are working on measurement and conversion. Yay for applying knowledge!! 
          It was fun to see the kids snacking on the chickpeas and working. Plus, we had Chelsea Chickpea, a.k.a Jessie, visit and talk about chickpeas.
It is so cool that the district is doing taste tests to find out what kids like and adding nutritious options. Our class liked Ranch flavor best, then cheesy, and then spicy.
        Also, we have been reading Charlotte's Web (almost done with this sweet story of friendship) and the kids have been analyzing how illustrations support text. In the pictures, they are coming up with dialogue between Charlotte and Wilbur. We will share and see how well the friendship has been captured. It was hard and fun they said to do this. The picture they used for the assignment was one from the story with Charlotte hanging by a drag line near Wilbur.
Conferences
How to sign up for Student-Parent-Teacher Conferences- Nov.1 or 2--20 minute slots
 
This chart is on the front whiteboard in our 4th Grade Classroom. After you and your child have figured out the right 20 minute time slot, they will come in and write their name in that spot.
All of us together will meet and they will take you through their work and progress. It gives us time to talk about the changes and note growth. We also talk about how to make improvements for the next quarter.
This is a fabulous learning experience for them. They will be prepared to share and for you to ask questions. The conferences are designed for them show you what and how they are learning.They are so proud and excited to do this with you!
I look forward to these first conferences every year. It is one of the best days of the year as I get a chance to be with both parents and their kids.
If you can't meet on the days provided, select another day and time and we will get together.
See you soon-- it's just 2 weeks from now!
AHM
The kids took a lot of notes about artifacts like the perfleche and learned their height in Hands. We converted to feet and inches. They observed the landforms while riding on the bus and now know the three main traits for the breed.
Lots of good learning-- riding the public transit has been one of the biggest lessons from learning how to read the schedule to estimating distance.

Appaloosa Horse Museum Field Trip

Today, the 4th Grade learns at the Appaloosa Horse Museum the importance of this animal to the people of the Nez Perce Tribe. The also learn the science of breeding-- how the Nez Perce created the right animal for the life of moving around their huge homeland. Because the area has so many landforms the Nez Perce's breed helped the tribe move and remain together.
The video link has good information from Nez Perce Elders and those interested in the horse and its connection with the tribe.
This short video is incorporated into a museum exhibit at the National Museum of the American Indian at the Smithsonian Institution on Washington D.C.

Chinese
 Learning Chinese Calligraphy
 
Our Chinese Institute Teacher who visits us twice a week brought the paper and brushes today for the kids to start to learn how to make the characters for writing. The art of this work was something the kids felt firsthand as they carefully dipped their brushes in water and wrote on the paper that has the ink inside it. Then the paper dries so you can reuse and practice for hours. It was great to see their concentration and how much effort it took for them to learn to hold the brushes correctly.  The Chinese language is a pictograph form which is the opposite of English which is based on phonetics. The kids were seeing that the image because the shape they were creating. Lots of great STEAM here!!!
leaves
Brooklyn and Abby with two of the at least 10 bags of leaves the kids of 4th raked up on Friday at Good Samaritan. It was a beautiful Idaho day and the kids worked together very well. They met the Facilities Manager Adam and he told them about taking care of 30+ acres of landscape. They learned the math of a acre and also began to appreciate that work-- since when they looked up, many of the trees still had lots of leaves!
We love to collaborate with Good Samaritan and will be over there again interacting with the residents. Plus, we can come back in the Spring and help with the grounds again. 
There are many more cute pics of the kids working and I will create a page to share them. :)
Recycle
Outreach Coordinator Stevie and Josh, Warehouse Manager, of the Moscow Recycle Center came to the 4th Grade to talk about what can and can't be recycled. They taught the kids so much about the process of recycling and their personal interest and education in the area of these materials.
Our school is collecting all kinds of plastic -- (check out this link) Pictures and Lists of Materials we are collecting at school.
The kids loved knowing what they can do to help. 
Thank you Stevie and Josh for such an engaging time. We look forward to seeing the baling process soon!

Chocolate Crisis- Discussion and Organizing Thinking

 With Ms. Winslow today, the 4th Grade used the KWL graphic organizer to spur discussion with their classmates. Before reading, they shared what they did Know,  and What they want to know. After reading with a partner they wrote What they learned from the article and the video. This type of practice was applied with reading in the Super Science magazine. The saw the sequence for the the plant-- from seed to bar. They studied the map to learn where cacao is grown, and related the process, a Text to Text connection, to what they have learned about the Trex Boards. There was ample amount of citing of information from the article and then they filled in a short multi choice assessment to show what they learned. 
Math
Great Day Back!
For Morning Meeting, the kids 'milled to music' for discussion and for math review, they started by remembering all the parts of a Place Value Chart. Then they used it to explain value and what happens to digits as each got moved to the left on the chart. They did calculator practice too to show what is occurring mathematically.
Last part of today's Math was tracking Hurricane Michael and absorbing the data that comes in the interactive maps on weather channels.
 
 As 4th grade Integration continues...The Newsela Text Set  for Social Studies was all about Hurricane Season. They have 4 articles to read and annotate. They related to people they knew and what happens here to prepare for weather. Plus, there were big changes in comprehension today-- kids stayed much longer on the articles and saw 100% on quizzes by rereading and studying! Super Cool that they made that connection. They got to see how critical thinking really is something they can do.
 
TREX
3 Large Boxes are around our school to collect plastic bags of all types. As you can see here, the 4th Grade is super excited to be doing something positive to help! The materials collected will be sent to Trex and we want our school to win the competition against other schools our size. 
parallel read
The kids learn that in our room sharing called a 'Bumblemumble' helps everyone be able to share and work. Here is a great example of two kids finding a spot in the room--they all love sitting by Clarissssa--- and working. The look is that they can see each others work, talk to each other in closer way physically that keeps the volume level manageable with so many kids, and thus for each pair to stay focused on their work because learning to work cooperatively takes A LOT of practice whether the kids are at tables, outside, or in a spot in our classroom.
Ashely visits class
Haiku High Five!! Just being funny, but seriously having Ashley Centers, writer and poet of a self published book through Amazon called Bumble, was so interesting. She taught about her process and gave her writing history and then worked with the kids. They all created a Haiku with a partner and learned about self publishing material too. Here is my Thank You-- in Haiku Form.
 
Honest and fresh words
Revealed process to learn
Her heart connected 
Pears
From the trees in our neighborhood to all types of items that have been brought in from the natural world, the kids are going through the steps in the scientific process. One of the best ways to collect information is through as senses as you can see here!