4th Grade Spanish Immersion with Maestra Damsteegt

What We Learned this Week: Bible : We were introduced to King Solomon. We read about how God blessed him with wisdom and wealth. We studied Proverbs 2, and the students selected parts that spoke to them and created a poster to creatively express what they understood from the verses.  Math : The students have started to study the metric system. We kicked off the unit of study by taking a look at the metric systems of length, volume, and weight. The students were pleasantly surprised at the simplicity of the system.  Reading : We have been studying deeper meanings found in repetitive objects in books and their symbolism, titles of the books themselves, names of characters, the significance of events in books, and even specific colors authors use in books. The students deeply impressed me. They really used their creativity to stretch and push their thinking as they thought of the deeper meanings.  Writing : The students are doing a great job of working hard on their per...

What We Learned this Week: Bible:  This week, the students took the David test. We look forward to starting the next unit on King Solomon.  Math:  This week, the students prepared for and started the Unit 4 test. They will be finishing it up on Monday. Writing:  The students are continuing to work on their personal expertise books. SOO Many Events this Week: This was SUCH a busy week. We went to the State Capital building in Lansing and toured the building. Afterwards, we went to the Impressions 5 Museum and spent a few hours engaging with science in a fun, hands-on way.  Our spring concert was a success on Thursday night. It was amazing to gather together worshipping God in both English and Spanish.  Check out the photos! There are LOTS of them from this week. Click here to view the photos.  A Special Invitation from Ms. Hossink's Class: Ms. Hossink has invited our class to join her class for a Glow in the Dark Dance Party on Wednesday for the last f...

 What We Learned This Week: Bible:  This week, we talked about the end of David's reign as king. We learned that his son Solomon was next in line to the throne. Our next unit of study will be about Solomon. The David Test is scheduled for Tuesday, March 21. I sent the students home with a hard copy of the study guide. I have also emailed the parents an electronic copy of the study guide in addition to Blooket links that the kids can use to review and prepare for the upcoming test.  Math:  This week, we studied number patterns and completed sequence of numbers given a certain rule. The students also used their detective skills to write rules given a sequence of numbers.  Reading:  This week, the students thought about characters from different books and compared and contrasted them. This is a good practice that strong readers engage in. Writing:  The students are working on their personal narrative expertise essays. They are adding elements of non-ficti...

 What We Learned this Week: Bible:  This week, we studied the sin that David committed with Bathsheba. We talked about how David must have felt after he committed the sin, and we connected that to how we feel after we ourselves have committed sin. We also talked about how God is a God of love and forgiveness.  Math:  This week, we learned that it is important to stay on top of memorizing the multiplication and division tables. We used our knowledge of multiplication and division to identify factor pairs of numbers and determine if a number is a prime or composite number. Grammar:  We reviewed the Spanish present perfect this week, and the students used this knowledge in order to play "Two Truths and a Lie" during class. It was a lot of fun! We also studied the "ch", "rr," and "ll" Spanish sounds and played a big game of Pictionary. I think the students really enjoyed playing these games this week. Writing:  This week, the students created their t...

What We Learned this Week: Bible:  This week, we talked about David's covenant with his best friend Jonathan. We then talked about how David fulfilled that covenant by finding and taking care of Jonathan's son. We spent some time talking about how this story is similar to God's love for us as His adoptive children. This story and message might be a good topic of discussion this weekend as a family. Math:  We are applying our knowledge of writing equations to solve for an unknown part of a word problem and are applying it to solve for two-step problems. It is a lot of work, but the students are doing a good job. Keep it up, 4th graders! Writing:  We have started to draft our personal expertise papers. We will spend a good amount of time in the drafting process. Reading:  This week, we practiced identifying major themes of books we have already read this week. We took that knowledge and applied it during a compare and contrast exercise. We compared and contrasted the t...