Grade Four With Ms. Castro

Thursday, June 9, 2011

4.2's Newspaper

Today our classroom newspaper was printed and we were able to read all of the articles from the 4.2 journalists. All of our collaboration and teamwork was a success and we have a great product to show for it!

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Pizza Picnic!

Tomorrow is Grade Four's Pizza Picnic in the I-Garden. Parents are welcome to join us there from 1:15 until 2 p.m. for a pizza lunch provided by the school. We will have pizza and drinks available. If it is a rainy day, we will meet you in the foyer for lunch together.
Hope to see you there!

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Sports Day

Sports Day will be on Friday, June 3rd. Parents are invited to come and watch the children participate in the events. Fourth Grade will have their session from 2:05 until 3:30 p.m. Please make sure your child has a water bottle and is dressed appropriately for Sports Day. If the weather is nice, you might want to make sure they have sun block!

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Dismissal on the Last Day of School and Grade Picnic

Dear Parents,

Please be aware that there will be an early dismissal on Friday, June 10th. The school day will end at 12 p.m. for the last day of school.

As a reminder, we are having our end of the year picnic on Thursday, June 9th. You are very welcome to join us in the I-Garden between 1:15 and 2 p.m. The school will provide lunch, drinks and some music! We hope to see you there!

We've had a wonderful year in 4.2! Thank you for your continued support this year!

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Our Last News Broadcast!

4.2 had their last news broadcast this morning over the loudspeaker. Miriam, Mia, Brett and Douglas did a wonderful job presenting the news to the Elementary School! Well done!

To listen to their broadcast:
http://voicethread.com/share/2066466/

Monday, May 23, 2011

Our Fourth News Broadcast!

4.2 had their fourth news broadcast this morning over the loudspeaker. Bart, Carlotta, Ju Eun, and Youri did a super job presenting the news to the Elementary School! Well done!

To listen to their broadcast:

http://voicethread.com/share/2063199/

Friday, May 20, 2011

Our Third News Broadcast!

4.2 had their third news broadcast this morning over the loudspeaker. Annabelle, James, Zachary, Jonas, and Lexi did a terrific job presenting the news to the Elementary School! Well done!

To listen to their broadcast:

http://voicethread.com/share/2058175/

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Our Second News Broadcast!

4.2 had their second news broadcast this morning over the loudspeaker. Jaroscha, Oliver, Tim and Jason did a fantastic job presenting the news to the Elementary School! Well done!

To listen to their broadcast:

http://voicethread.com/share/2055160/

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Our First News Broadcast!

4.2 had their first news broadcast this morning over the loudspeaker. Florian, Julia, Peter, Theresa and Berti did an excellent job presenting the news to the Elementary School! Well done!

To listen to their broadcast:

http://voicethread.com/share/2051364/

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Portfolio Day

Grade 4 had their Portfolio Day this morning. Thank you, parents, for coming in to see our learning! We had a great time sharing with you!

What was your favorite thing about Portfolio Day?

Monday, May 16, 2011

4.2 News Broadcasts!

Soon 4.2 will be presenting the news to the Elementary School over the loudspeaker! If you would like to come listen to your child as they work in a team to present the news, please come to school on his or her scheduled day at 10:15 am and wait in the lobby to hear our News Broadcast!

We hope to see you there!

Wednesday, May 18th: Julia, Theresa, Florian, Berti, and Peter
Thursday, May 19th: Oliver, Jaroscha, Tim, and Jason
Friday, May 20th: James, Annabelle, Lexi, Jonas, and Zachary
Monday, May 23rd: Ju Eun, Carlotta, Bart, and Youri
Tuesday, May 24th: Mia, Miriam, Douglas, and Brett

Linear Measurement and Perimeter

Last week we did a lot of measuring! We looked at the different units that people use to measure and talked a lot about meters, centimeters, and millimeters. We found benchmark measurements - things that are about

the same size as a particular unit. For example, a benchmark measurement for 1cm would be the width of a small popsicle stick. A benchmark measurement for 10cm could be the length of our classroom calculators. Benchmarks help us to make estimates about certain measurements.

We found that there are 10 millimeters in 1 centimeter. We also wrote measurements in centimeters and millimeters. For example, 252 millimeters = 25.2 centimeters.

We went out to the soccer field and measure it to the nearest meter. We then found the perimeter of the field.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Reporting on Nursery Rhymes

This week we began writing news reports. As an introduction, we looked at nursery rhymes that we were familar with. We thought about how we could use the inverted triangle of news reporting to change the nursery rhymes into news reports.

Inverted Triangle of News Reporting:

                   Headline
Who? What? Where? When? Why?
        Detail 1 Detail 2 Detail 3
                    Final Detail

Take a look at some of 4.2's student work:

Girl Missing

by Carlotta

It was reported that yesterday afternoon Miss Muffet a little girl who is 7 years old from Miami went missing because she was scared off by a new type of spider. This happened at her house. She was eating her snack when she saw a spider and got scared and ran away. Miss Muffet's mom said she was 1 minute in the kitchen and then gone the next minute. She hard Miss Muffet scream SPIDER AAAHHH! And went running to the kitchen. Miss muffet's mom saw the spider with her own eyes. The spider had 10 legs and was huge. Miss muffet's mom and dad are searching every were in Miami for her.

Humpty Dumpty DIED!

By: Youri and Zachary

It was reported yesterday at 1:00 A.M. that Humpty was seen on top of a huge wall dancing in Eggyland. Later he lost balance and fell off the wall. Everybody heard the crash and came running to see what happened. The soldiers were woken up by the fussing. Immediately the came riding on their horses and found out that Humpty cracked. They tried to put back together, but they couldn’t. Other people came to help the soldiers, but it didn’t help. At the end Humpty died.

Scared Little Muffet.

by Peter and Jason

On Halloween night a giant spider almost attacked Miss Muffet at the spooky house. A person saw it and cal the police up. The police came to the spooky house they didn’t find the spider but they find little Muffet and a giant web in the garden. The police is blocked the house. Scared little Muffets family is so scared that their not coming out of the house.

Old Lady Dies From Eating Living Animals

by Lexi

It was reported yesterday morning that an old lady was found swallowing animals at the ISD fields. A family saw her doing it. They said that a fly flew into her mouth then she ate a spider, bird, cat, dog, cow and horse. The family called the ambulance because they thought she was going to fall ill when they saw how fat she had be was found swallowing animals at the isd fields.

Old Lady Swallowing A Lot of Animals!

by:Julia

Yesterday morning and old lady was found dead in her house. The police man took her body to the hospital to see what happened. The hospital found a fly, bird, spider, cat, dog, goat, and a horse in her tummy! Reporters asked the old ladies sister if she had something against flies and she said that her sister swallowed a lot of flies when she was small because they annoyed her but that she never ate all the other animals because she actually liked all animals. Reporters also asked if she knew why her sister ate all those animals and she said “my sister always thought that in her tummy animals could eat other animals. I think that she ate the spider to catch the fly, ate the bird to catch the spider, ate the cat to catch the bird, ate the dog to catch the cat, ate the goat to catch the dog, ate the horse to catch the goat. My sister was always crazy." The hospital took out all the animals from the old ladies tummy and they found out that the fly was the old ladies couldn’t just turned into a fly with the wrong medicine and that the fly had 15,000 eyes. The old lady was very fat after eating all those animals.

Old Lady Died Because of Swallowing Animals

By Theresa

Yesterday morning an old lady was found dead in her house by two police men. The police men carried her to the hospital to see why she was dead. A doctor found out that she had swallowed a fly, spider, bird, cat, dog, cow and a horse. Then the two police men asked the old ladies sister if she knew why the lady had swallowed the animals. The sister thought she had swallowed the fly because it was annoying her. Then she swallowed a spider to catch the fly, she swallowed a bird to catch the spider, she swallowed a cat to catch the bird, she swallowed a dog to catch the cat, she swallowed a cow to catch the dog then she swallowed a horse to catch the cow. The two police men went back to the doctor and told him what the sister had reported to them. The lady will be buried tomorrow.

Wolf Eats Grandmother!

By Mia & Ju Eun

It was reported by a reliable source at midnight that the big bad Wolf has eaten a Grandmother. He went last night to Grandmother’s house in the woods because he was starving and hadn’t eaten for two weeks. People that live in the neighborhood say that this Wolf is the biggest Wolf they ever saw. The Police have caught the Wolf just after his nap and opened his tummy and released the grandmother. So the Wolf died.

A Word from Mr. Lorenzini

Please note that there is an error in the ISD calendar. May 27^th is a normal school day. This is not a conference day. We have already had our second conference day.

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Teamwork Agreements

We have been discussing collaboration and teamwork a lot this unit. We understand that the way we work together will influence how well our groups function. As a class, we decided on some teamwork agreements that we can refer to when we are working together in teams. We agreed that in order to have a team that collaborates and cooperates well, we should be doing these things.

4.2 Teamwork Agreements
We will let everyone have a chance to share their ideas and we will be open-minded listeners.
We will make sure that every member is doing a fair share of the work.
We will listen respectfully to our teammates.
We will cooperate by listening to each other and solving problems together.
We should give each other the chance to explain our ideas while other people try to understand the point of view.
We will try out the different ideas of different people.
If we have problems in our group, we will look back to our agreements to help us solve them.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

How We Organize Ourselves

We've started our new unit: How We Organize Ourselves. Our central idea this unit is: Collaboration influences how well organizations function. We've been talking about what good teamwork looks like, feels like and sounds like. We want to make sure that during this unit we work well together as a team! So far, we have rewritten the central idea in kid friendly language and our mother tongue. We've also begun to look at how the news is made and what makes something newsworthy. This week we have begun to write news reports.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Portfolio Day

Our Grade Four Portfolio Session will be on 17th May 2011 at 8:45 - 9:35 am. During this day, 4.2 students will show and discuss their portfolios with their parents. They will also take their parents around the classroom to show them their work.

During our Portfolio Session, please ask your child questions such as:

Why did you choose this piece of work?
What did you learn from this project?
How did you get your ideas?
What changes would you make next time?
How has your writing changed?
What was your role in this group task?

A Word from Mr. Owen

IMPORTANT NEWS FROM THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL LIBRARY

Dear Parents,

The Elementary School Library is using the month of May to prepare for its move upstairs.

There is going to be a lot of work to do and all of the Library's books and shelving must be packed into boxes by Wednesday the 7^th of June, just two days before the end of this school year.

Because of this there is going to be a change to this year's Summer Check-Out programme. Summer Check-Out is the term used to describe the borrowing of books for the summer holidays.

This timetable shows the plan we have put in to place:

20 May 2011	All things borrowed by parents and by children must be returned to the Elementary School Library by this date.

23 to 25 May 2011	The Elementary School Library will be closed. In this time we will prepare the library for Summer Check-Out

26 and 27 May 2011	Summer Check-Out will take place over these two days

This is how Summer Check-out will work:

Summer Check-Out only applies to families who are returning to ISD in August and only if all of your family's library books have been returned.

Each family may borrow up to 15 items

Check out will take place from 8.15 to 9.30 and from 3.00 to 4.00 on both days and all books will be due back on 16 August 2011.

Books chosen in the morning will be available in the afternoon. If you choose your books on the afternoon of 26 May, they will be ready on the afternoon of 27 May.

If you have any questions, please feel free to come and talk with either Mrs Dawber or myself.

Yours Sincerely,

Kirk Owen

Elementary School Library

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Radio Theater

We spent some time before the Spring Break working on our summative assessment task for our Who We Are unit. The task was to write a radio theater play that shows an understanding of our central idea: Prejudging can lead to misconceptions. As a class, we co-constructed criteria that we used as a guideline for our writing and for our self and peer assessment.

After our plays were written, we worked in small groups to record their radio theater plays as Voicethreads. We hope you enjoy listening to our plays. As you listen, think about how prejudging can lead to misconceptions, the assumptions that are made about people with disabilities and the ways prejudging affects people’s lives. Enjoy!

Monday, May 2, 2011

Descriptors for German Native Reports

Für alle Eltern, deren Kinder in einer German Native Klasse sind.

Nachstehend finden Sie die Beurteilungsstufen, die in den deutschen Zeugnissen verwendet werden:
Der Schüler zeigt stets gründliche Kenntnisse und ein gründliches Verständnis der Inhalte sowie eine hohe Kompetenz der Inhalte sowie eine hohe Kompetenz in den Lernprozessen und Fertigkeiten. Darüber hinaus ist der Schüler in der Lage, diese Kenntnisse und Fertigkeiten in authentischen Situationen anzuwenden.

Der Schüler zeigt fundierte Kenntnisse und ein fundiertes Verständnis der wichtigsten Lerninhalte und erreichte eine angemessene Kompetenz in den Lernprozessen und Fertigkeiten der Bereiche Sprechen, Lesen und Schreiben.

Der Schüler zeigt grundlegende Kenntnisse und ein grundlegendes Verständnis der Lerninhalte und verfügt über eine begrenzte Kompetenz in den Lernprozessen und Fertigkeiten der Bereiche Sprechen, Lesen und Schreiben.

Der Schüler zeigt begrenzte Kenntnisse und ein begrenztes Verständnis in einigen Lerninhalten und verfügt über eine sehr begrenzte Kompetenz in einzelnen Lernprozessen und Fertigkeiten.

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