We had a lot of excitement this past week! Tuesday the PTA handed out cards and chocolates to every student for a happy Valentines Day. A couple of students brought treats to share as well; this made everyone very happy and sugared up! Wednesday we had weather that *attempted* to snow. Everyone was so excited, but disappointed that they couldn’t go out into the cold and wet pitch (sorry guys!)
In math we focused on reading the time from both analogue and digital clocks. Using our fresh knowledge of fractions, we were ale to see the clock as parts of a whole – especially helpful for the English use of ‘quarter past/to’ and ‘half past’ verbiage. Year 4 students also looked at time tables figuring out the difference of minutes and hours between different time sets.
For English we finished up out unit on Myths and Legends. On Monday students focused hard and wrote out their final drafts of their stories. We will continue to build up our writing stamina while working on grammar skills in our new unit on letter writing. We will also continue developing our paragraph writing skills while we read and respond to a variety of letters and scenarios requiring both formal and informal responses.
The end of the Bronze Age and the beginning of the Iron Age finished out unit on prehistory. We took a close look at how the changing materials of tool and weapons affected early civilizations and finished with the collapse of the mega city states of Mesopotamia and the rise of Celtic culture. To make things fun we crafted our own iron swords to symbolize the end of the metal ages.
In digital literacy we had some problems. Unfortunately some students are abusing the privilege of using technology while in school. This week there were some issues with bullying and sending unproductive messages to each other during class time. We talked a good deal about what bullying entails on Friday during PSHE so I expect all students to be more aware and proactive about the subject if they witness or experience it again.
I also hope that everyone comes to value the computer as a useful tool in learning rather than a vessel of socialization after a tech free week this coming week. We use our laptops and tablets for various learning activities, research projects, and creative presentation making. Talking with friends is wonderful and encouraged, but not during class time and not when there is work that needs to be finished. Not all students misbehaved in this manner, but a screen free week might do everyone a bit of good.
On a positive note, since Mr. Green was out this week I was able to do PE with the class and I was so very pleased with how well everyone did! A nice day and an open field can be an invitation for chaos, but everyone was very mindful, attentive, and cooperative. We had a lot of fun!
Hope everyone had a lovely weekend,
Mrs. Leah