Making our Mark

 It was another fantastic week in 4th grade.  The children are still reviewing procedures and routines.  I am getting to know each student and we are all very engaged in learning and discovery.

Our first in person assembly took place, after a few years of being virtual, it was wonderful to see everyone gathered together.  Mr. Pacitto talked about STAR qualities and what we need to do to be safe, trustworthy, accountable and responsible in all areas of the school.

Learning continues in all content areas.  The children are working cooperatively and collaboratively in groups.  Wonderful discussions are taking place, questions of inquiry are being asked and the social emotional piece is also being represented.  I love reading books to the children and hearing their thoughts and what qualities the characters represent.  This leads to our morning meeting discussions and conversations about themes of books.

Dot Day is one of my favorite days.  It took place on September 15th.  First I read the book, The Dot by Peter Reynolds.  Then stations were set up where each one had a different activity to be completed.  The story is about a girl who thinks that she cannot draw.  Her teacher gives her a piece of paper, tells her to draw a dot and sign it.  The girl, Vashti, sees it hanging up the next day and this begins her days of making pictures with dots.  The lesson of the story is to make your mark and see where it will take you.

We have some very imaginative and inspiring students in class.  They built structures, created pictures with dots and designed their own dots.  This was such a great day to see their creativity and use their imaginations.

The children were engaged and coming up with plans on what to build.  The discussions were impressive and watching them made me content.  

In Math we are reviewing place value and our Postcard Exchange project is coming along nicely.  We are going to be sending 49 postcards to states all around the US.  We are also gong to be receiving postcards also.  I  can't wait to start getting them and displaying them on our map.  

It was a very successful and productive week of learning.  The children are acclamating themselves to what the expectations are and I am feeling very pleased with my class.  It looks like we are on the right path.  Can't wait to see how much they grow and learn with one another.

We are also learning about Hispanic Heritage.  We started watching vidoes and slides about variious places in the world and how they are celebrating.  So far we have learned about Belize, Mexico and Chile.