4th Grade Spanish Immersion with Maestra Damsteegt

  What We Learned this Week Bible:  We talked about Samson- the strongest man found in Scripture. Even though he was very strong, he still fell victim to temptations. We can be stronger than Samson by reading up about what the Bible warns us about temptation. How can we avoid temptation? We just started our lessons on Ruth. I hope the students are able to recognize Ruth's selflessness and are encouraged to be more like her. Math:  This week, we worked on solving two-step word problems.  Reading:  We talked about how good readers take the time to imagine the story they are reading in their heads. This is a really good practice in order to better understand the story. Writing:  The class and I have been talking about my example for a realistic fiction story idea. We added more details about the main character, and they helped me to think about a scene that I could include in my draft. The students were then able to work on their own idea of a scene involving ...

 What We Learned This Week Bible:  This week, we started talking about Israel's judges. We learned about Ehud, the left-handed judge, in addition to some very important women such as Deborah and Jael. We will be studying Samson in the upcoming lessons.  Math:  We have been using estimates in order to check the reasonableness of a math problem's answer. We also have been learning how to check our work by performing addition and subtraction problems. It pays to do that extra step to double-check our math problems!  Reading:  This week, we have been talking about how we can become better readers such as reading with good fluency and feeling. We also talked about how good readers can envision themselves amongst the characters in addition to envisioning the story as if it were a movie playing in their minds. Encourage the students to create strong reading habits at home as they complete their reading log homework this week.  Writing:  We are starting t...

 What We Learned This Week Bible:  This week, we talked about how we know that the Bible truly is God's Word. We as Christians need to believe by our faith that the Bible is the infallible Word of God. Look up Hebrews 11:6.  Math:  The students were introduced to Nearpod this week. Nearpod is a wonderful technology tool that we can use during the class on the Ipads. It is like a virtual whiteboard that allows me to watch in real time as the students write and perform tasks on their whiteboards. The students compared and added numbers up to 6 digits long. They also showed me how to correctly align numbers with different numbers of digits and successfully added them. We ended the week talking about how we can use estimations to check the reasonableness of addition problems.    Reading:  To kick off our reading unit, we talked about good reading habits and what it looks like / feels like to have chosen an appropriate book and to be immersed in it. Perhaps...

 What We Learned This Week This week, we started our Bible lessons. We are studying the epistle of Philippians and talking about Paul's relationship to the Philippians and the Church in Philippi. Paul certainly loved the people there despite the hardships and trials he faced. What kinds of lessons can we learn from Paul? I encourage you to sit down with the students and maybe focus on the book of Philippians as part of your daily devotions. There is so much to uncover there. In science, we investigated the internal structures of plants by conducting the celery and food coloring experiment. I received word that the students did a good job with their posters and showed wonderful excitement towards this experiment. In math, the students showed me that they are wonderful at comparing and reading large numbers!  Thank You Thank you, parents and students, for your patience and understanding during these past couple of days. I hope to be back to school on Monday. I heard good reports...

What We Learned This Week We focused on SER (Self-Control, Engaged, Respectful) this week and how it fits into the wonderful verse found in Micah 6:8. Ask your child to recite it! We have looked at it so many times this week. They probably have it memorized by now... This verse is a beautiful reminder of how we as Christians are called to interact with others in the world around us, and it is a strong basis for rules and expectations especially in a Christian school. The students learned that we are to act and behave in certain ways in certain areas through-out the school (and outside of school too!) We also talked about the structure of writing class and what that will look like once we start up with Writer's Workshop. We reviewed place value in math class, and we got started on our science unit. We talked about how science is the process of understanding how the world God created works, and we discussed how good scientists can develop deep questions that seek to better understand...