This week in 4th grade, lessons in songwriting centered on rhythm and rhyme. Students listened to variations in song lyrics when beats or syllables were added or taken away. They learned about rhyme schemes and began identifying them in choruses and verses of country songs. We also talked about artists who take stories from their lives and turn them into songs, such as “Orphan Girl” by Gillian Welch and “Coat of Many Colors” by Dolly Parton.
We were also treated to a special visit by Hyatt’s uncle, Grayson Stephens, who works for Big Machine Music. His presentation centered on the songwriting process at his company and their partnerships with artists. He brought along lyrics and play some music for the students as well.
On Monday, Senorita Tobaldo shared with us about Dia de los Muertes. 4th graders learned about ofrendas, sugar skulls, and even enjoyed a sweet treat at the end.
In class, we read two chapters in our novel and learned several new vocabulary words. The students are enjoying the book very much, but they hate when each chapter ends with a cliffhanger!
We also spent a lot of time differentiating between sentences and fragments. It’s hard to shake the idea that a few words means it’s a fragment or that something long is automatically a sentence.
We also enjoyed listening to two poems by Charles R. Smith, Jr. One was a compilation of his memories playing basketball. The other centered on baseball. The students were asked to select one of their hobbies to write about, and some students went through the entire process of drafting, revising, typing and illustrating! The rest will finish next week.
We also continued our morphology lessons three times a week.
In social studies this week, we spent the first few days reviewing for our Midwest quiz. Then we dove into our book on the Southwest today. The students love to review by competing in a Kahoot!
In Morning Meeting this week, students loved a new game – Beat the Clock. They also had fun with Mind Reader and Boom, Clap, Snatch. During indoor recess, we enjoyed all kind of board games.
Today, we hosted three prospective students in each class. Thank you to Lincoln, bBebe and Rosemary in 4E and Ramsay, Tristan, and Siddharth in 4M for being so welcoming to our guests.
We also attended 3V’s production of “Humble Pie” this morning. What a week!
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