4th Grade Spanish Immersion with Maestra Damsteegt

What We Learned this Week: Math : We have been working hard on multiplying fractions by other fractions and by whole numbers.  Reading : This week, we considered the real world events that we see portrayed in our historical fiction books. It is important to distinguish real world events and the ones the author creatively invented. We also explored how the characters acted and thought in response to these real world events.  Writing : We read through examples of literary essays and talked about the major themes- including what the character(s) learned by the end of the story.  Fun Events: What a busy week full of fun! We worked on getting the plant sale ready, and the students created Mother's Day gifts for their moms. Be on the lookout for them. :) We feel incredibly blessed to have wonderful moms.  The Tulip Time parade was a lot of fun! It was a perfect day for it, and the students enjoyed themselves. Can't wait for next year! From the Spanish Immersion Department:...

What We Learned this Week: Bible:   This week, we studied the first king of the divided kingdom of Israel- King Jeroboam. We learned about God's promise of blessings if only he accepted God. We learned about King Jeroboam's sins against God and saw the divided kingdom come under leadership to another handful of kings who did wrong against God. Math:  This week, we learned how to convert mixed numbers into improper fractions and vice versa. Using that skill, the students learned how to add and subtract fractions.  Reading:  We talked about the importance of understanding the setting- time and place- of our historical fiction stories in order to better understand our stories. The students are really enjoying our historical fiction book "Number the Stars," and they have started to read their own historical fiction books with their own literacy groups.  Writing:  This week, we studied some literary essays and began to brainstorm ideas for our own class example ...

What We Learned this Week: Bible:  The students reviewed and took the test over King Solomon. Next week, we will start our study on the divided kingdom.  Math:  We are finished with chapter 5 and have moved on to our new fractions unit. We have been adding fractions with like denominators and have been working on adding fractions to equal to one whole. Reading:  This week, the students read short picture books set during the time of WWII, and they made connections to the research that they completed a few days ago. We are reading "Number the Stars" together as a class, and we are really invested in the story. We are excited to finish it within these next coming days.  Writing:  We are busy with our faith writing essays. We are thinking about who or what has made us grow more closer to Jesus. We will be finishing up these essays early next week.  Children's Day Spanish Immersion Activity: We had such a fun time celebrating and honoring our kids on Child...

What We Learned this Week: Bible : We studied the queen of Sheba's visit to Solomon's palace. We talked about why she noticed such happiness there. In short, she noticed the presence of God and the devotion of the people to Him. Are we making it clear that we have the presence of God in our own hearts? Math : This week, we studied the difference between perimeter and area. The students are doing a good job following the formulas to find each in a given square or rectangle. Reading : We have started off our new historical fiction unit. The books that we will be reading and studying come from the WWII era. We started off this unit by talking about what we already know about this time era and conducting some research to further our knowledge. We will start reading our historical fiction books set during the WWII era next week. Writing : The students have finished their personal expertise essays, and we will be celebrating with the other 4th grade sections next week. How exciting! ...

What We Learned this Week: Bible : This week, we talked about the construction of Solomon's temple. We held good conversation about why Solomon built it and why it took 7 years to build it.  Math : We are making excellent progress with our study of the metric system and the American system. The students are working on converting and finding patterns in the both the metric systems and American system.  Reading : This week, we spent some time talking about about the fantasy, myth, and legend genres. We talked about how the settings are symbolic and meaningful to the stories. We also talked about how literary techniques such as similes and metaphors help us to understand characters better.  Writing : The students are getting closer to finishing up their personal expertise essays. We will be spending one more week on them, and then we will be finished.  Science : We have switched from Social Studies to Science class! We started the "Surf's Up" unit and started off by obs...

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...