The Cooper School Daily

4th Grade News

Social Studies

We just started our new social studies unit on European Explorers. Students were introduced to some of the most famous explorers on Tuesday including Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci, and Juan Ponce de Leon. We also began our exploration simulation in which the students were sorted into three groups and chose which country to travel on behalf of and the name of the ship they are taking the voyage on. They also chose their role on the ship with surgeon, helmsman, and steward being a few possibilities.

Reading/Writing

In reading and writing we have begun our unit on poetry. Students started the unit by doing a poetry on demand during writing. They were also each given a copy of “Heartbeat” by Sharon Creech, which is a narrative poem that the class will be reading during the duration of our poetry unit. We will also study poem structures and features including line breaks, personification, similes, and metaphors during this unit.

Self-Assessment

We had a wonderful time doing self-assessments with our students on Monday and Tuesday and are happy to report that everything went exceedingly well. The students wrote their favorite of the three stations on the board on Wednesday morning as part of our Morning Meeting and showing parents their portfolio won the overwhelming majority. We hope parents enjoyed seeing their children’s work. It was so nice to see everyone!

Important Dates:

-March 28th to April 1st- Spring Break