Happy Advent Wonderful 4th Grade Families!
Last night was our annual St. Nick Night Christmas concert and all the SMS students that participated did AWESOME! I am so proud of all the students and it was a great way to get into the Christmas spirit. Thank you all so much for your support and participation.
This week, students have been hard at work learning new skills and practicing old ones. In Math, we shifted focus into data collection and organization. At the beginning of the week, each students created and conducted their own survey for the class, then displayed their data on tally and frequency charts. This organization allowed students to analyze the data quickly and pull information from it. For example, we learned that the 4th Grade’s favorite prayer is the Hail Mary and their favorite color is blue? Next, each student found the mean and mode of their data set. In Science, students learned that geologists test rocks in many ways to determine it’s properties. We conducted one of these tests in our own classroom–the Calicite Test–using vinegar. We watched as some of the rocks we tested reacted to the acid. A reaction told us that the rock contains the mineral calcite!
As we begin a new month, we also add a “focus” characteristic to our classroom discussions. In the past few months, we have been building citizenship, respect, self control, and now…patience! This week, we talked about the relationship between patience and self control, and discussed its importance. We also watched a great video on the “Marshmellow Test.” You can watch it here. It’s a great way to discuss delayed gratification and the benefits of patience and self control.
I hope you all enjoy the weekend and continue to wait patiently for Jesus’ coming at Christmastime. Happy 1st week of Advent.
Blessings,
[bs_icon name=”glyphicon glyphicon-heart”] Ms. DiGirolamo
