| Fourth Grade has worked in the William and Mary Literary Reflections Unit
on some very powerful short stories and poetry. We are preparing for a
challenging activity where students will write poems about types of poems.
They will actually create their own rubrics to score their work. Teachers
developed lessons around regions of Virginia to help students familiarize
themselves with creative problem-solving generating and focusing tools.
Legos were used to explain the generating tool of SCAMPER, an acronym for
(substitute,combine,adapt,put to other uses,eliminate and rearrange). One
class even extended the activity and had students design a chair for the
classroom, writing persuasive paragraphs to the school board to purchase the
chair for all of the Virginia Beach Schools.
Students practiced podcasting while studying Mark Twain. First, research
was conducted on a PBS website, and then students had to take the role of
someone who knew Mark Twain and speak about him in first person. Students
were videotaped so that the entire class could see the fruits of their
labor.
Teachers have been actively using scientific investigations in all of
their units of study where scientific inquiry and self-discovery are
evident. We completed a lab to test if the mass of gum is affected by
chewing. Using an existing AIMS Activity, the teachers revamped the lab so
that students would have to recreate the steps using terminology
like:independent and dependent variables, constants, data, conclusions and
problem statements. Many activities are already in the works for the last
unit on ecosystems.
Math continues with weekly visits designed to work on Hands On Equations
and Groundworks activities with students who pre-assess out of daily
lessons.
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