Primary 4

May News

In May, we are learning about Dinosaurs and Africa. Our literature book is The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. We will be learning about the lifecycle of a butterfly, and we will be able to see this cycle with our own Painted Lady Butterflies which should be arriving very soon! Parent-Teacher Conferences will be held May 14^th and 15^th where I will be available to meet with any parents who wish to discuss the classroom, their child and set some goals for the rest of the school year and summer.

April Recap

It was an exciting and fun month for the children. April was all about Oceana and Our Planet Earth. Children enjoyed learning about the amazing animals and fun facts about Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. For geography, we study Australia and the surrounding islands. We made kangaroo Art, a mother kangaroo carrying her a joey, and made an Australia continent art. 



We colored and labeled a lifecycle of the plant art, where children learned about the five stages: seed, germination, growth, reproduction, pollination, and seed spreading stages. We also learned about rainbows, the different layers of the Earth, and the plant cycle. We also made art based on the literature of the month book. The literature of the month is Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. Fun events for children were finding eggs for our Easter Egg hunt. Another fun event was learning how to take care of our Earth by learning about the three "R" to save our environment; recycle, reusing, and reduce.

Enrichments were fun, with many art projects related to our literature book. We created some rock paintings and practiced the colors of the rainbows. We listened to music by Mozart and the traditional music of Australia, New Zealand, and the pacific islands. Cooking is always fun with hands-on measuring, mixing, and putting together different snacks to eat. The best part is getting a yummy treat at the end! The children continue to learn about ABCmouse.com on the computers. Finally, the children were introduced to the Spanish alphabet's letters p, q, r, s, and t. We talked about the weather and practiced the Spanish words for the different types of weather. 

March Recap

March was an incredible month where children worked on our grace and courtesy lesson. The Rain Forest and South America were our themes of the month as we learned about new plants and animals, delicious foods, and the culture of Latin America. We spoke about the different rainforest layers and how rainforests are Earth's oldest living ecosystem. Children learned about animals in South America and how each layer of the Amazon has a crucial purpose for all life in the forest. South America has opposite seasons as North America. We celebrated March with lots of birthdays, and we celebrated Dr. Seuss's birthday by making some fun 'Thing One" art projects and reading Dr. Seuss's books throughout the whole month! We spoke about Saint Patrick, learned about Irish Heritage and culture, and did some color mixing and blending to create different shades of green. 

For music, we discussed Antonio Vivaldi. Students have been doing a great job recognizing the forte in music and the piano. Friends also created their rain sticks, which led us to a fun little jam session. We practiced our drum circle where one student would guide a beat, and we would slowly add in a new beat or copy the friend who started the circle. Students made a sweet treat style of green eggs and ham and ants on a log in cooking. In computers, students worked on number mazes and learned how to care for different animals.  Students continued to work on the colors of the rainbow in Spanish and what goes in a garden.

February Recap

February was a fun month. Our February theme was Cultural Awareness and Friendship. The children were so excited to learn about the importance of friendship. They also learned about their friend’s culture and shared their own culture. We also learned about the exciting culture and famous landmarks in Asia. Children were excited to learn about Pandas, we learned that pandas have excellent camouflage for their habitat, and they spend most of their day.



Our enrichment program was fun for children to learn more in a focused setting. In Spanish, the children learned words associated with Valentine’s Day. In Music, they learned about Johannes Brahms. Also, in music children learned about Yoyoi Kusama and dot painting. The children loved cooking; their favorite activity was the ship made of apples, sun butter, and rice crispies cereal.

January Recap

What a great and smooth transition as we returned from winter break! All the children were so excited to see their friends and share all the fun they had over break. In January, we dove into winter animals and the three types of hibernation, true hibernation, brumation, and torpor. We talked about the different animals that fall into those categories and what happens inside the animal’s body during hibernation. Students were surprised to learn the animal’s heart and breathing rate drastically decreases to preserve energy during the winter months. We spoke about Martin Luther King Jr. and his positive impact on the United States. In Geography, we explored Antarctica and talked about the icy-rocky terrain and how ice sheets are formed. They learned special vehicles were required to travel, and the primary way to travel was by air. We went into zoology and named parts of the penguin and bear. We learned about plants that bloom during the winter and fruits and vegetables harvested during the winter season. In the classroom, we discussed classroom responsibilities and how to take care of class materials. The students demonstrated how germs are transferred by using soap and rubbing it together. Seeing how everything they touched had soap on it afterward allowed them to understand what happens if we don’t wash our hands often or after we cough or cough or cough sneeze. The Mitten by Jan Brett was the book we covered last month, and everyone really enjoyed it and even recognized some animals that go into hibernation!
 
Enrichment in January was fun as we traveled back to 1781 when Beethoven composed his first piece and learned that by age 12, he published his first composition. The children used Rhythm sticks to tap on the ground to match the beat. We introduced the tambourine and practiced following a steady beat. In art, we led with warm and cool colors, which led us into the introduction of Van Gogh. The children were able to see that he used cool colors in a lot of his artwork and was famous for his post-impressionistic scenic paintings. The children created their art pieces using colors Van Gogh used for Starry Night. Students also created paper mache snowflakes. In cooking, the kids made snack necklaces by threading yummy treats! They created a bear in a cave using sun butter to bind together gram crackers, chocolate chips, and raisins inside their den for the bear family. In Spanish letters, a,b,c,d, and e were focused on, and we also started practicing the Spanish alphabet song. Students learned new vocabulary words for different weather types, made clouds, and counted their raindrops in Spanish. In computer enrichment time, students learned how to care for animals and read fun facts about what the animals need to survive.

December was a great and fast month. We spent most of the month talking about the theme Seasons and Holidays. We discussed how every place around the world celebrates the holidays differently. The students shared with their friends on Fridays what holidays they celebrate, a favorite picture they drew, as well as their favorite games.

We explored the different holidays by talking about Hanukkah and doing art. We also as a classroom marked it on our calendar so that way we knew exactly when Hanukkah started and finished. We had turns playing with a dreidel and learning the rules on how to play the dreidel game. We also focused on Kwanzaa celebrations and traditions.

Our literature book for December was The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. It was about unconditional love because no matter what the boy asked the tree, the tree was still always so happy and loved to see the boy. It is also about being grateful because no matter what the tree gave the boy the boy always wanted more from the tree.



In Zoology we talked and learned about horses, what do we use them for, where do they live, and what are the body parts. We even cutout and put together the horse's body as an art project and we did the 3-part cards that label the horses body parts. We also talked about reindeer and the body parts of reindeer. In botany we discussed pinecones where they come from their textures and styles. We even did pinecone art by decorating it with paint and glitter. We also discussed Douglas fir, what kind of tree it is, where it grows, and we also decorated a Douglas fir in our classroom to develop our practical life skills. Thank you, parents, for joining us for our winter recital! The kids had so much fun learning and performing for everyone.