The Cooper School Daily

Science All Around

Visiting Planetarium

The day started off with a morning spent inside a Portable Planetarium! Mr. Andy Cohen, from Dome Education lead the students through an explanation of the reason for the seasons, the moon’s relationship to high and low tide, constellations and the phases of the moon. Students were thrilled to see concepts they had read, talked about, and acted out in such clear ways. We also learned about the upcoming solar eclipse in August and how to safely view this once-in-a-lifetime event. Ask your student all about blood moon!

Human Body

This week students were excited to begin our study of the human body. This study focuses on having healthy bodies as well as the systems that help us move. The first investigation is all about BONES. Students began by observing their bodies at work while jumping rope and thinking about what parts of the body are used. They then predicted how many bones are in a typical human body. Their guesses were way too high! We then tried to break down the parts of the body and count our bones. Then they guessed how many bones. Those guesses were way too low! Finally, they used multiple resources to such as books and x-rays to count the bones again and were then able to come up with a closer guess. Ask your student how many bones are in a typical human body.

Literary Essays

Fourth Graders began their final unit in writing this week, combining their reading and writing skills to write literary essays. This unit requires students to do close reading of shorter books to really notice the details. Students will learn to notice the details in their books, and think about why an author made the decision for the setting, characters, metaphors, and word choice. Readers are taught to ask, “Why did the author make this decision?” We will begin by writing essays to defend basic ideas about the text with a focus on the structure of an effective literary essay. Students will learn to write opinion pieces that focus on specific text, not just on a topic. This will include learning the difference between paraphrasing and quoting and how to correctly cite text.

Important Dates:

  • Tuesday, May 2                                 Parent Coffee, 8-9 am
  • Thursday, May 4                               Kayaking/SUPing 11:00 – 2:30
  • Friday, May 5                                     Grandparents Day, 11:30 Dismissal
  • Friday, May 5                                     Pass It On, 5:00 – 6:00 pm
  • Sunday, May 7                                   End of Year Picnic, 3:30 – 5:00 pm
  • Thursday, May 11                             Kayaking/SUPing 11:00 – 2:30
  • Thursday, May 18                             Kayaking/SUPing 11:00 – 2:30
  • Thursday, May 25                             Kayaking/SUPing 11:00 – 2:30