Social Studies

All things Australian were the focus of Social Studies and Art this week.  During Art class students learned Aboriginal Dot Art, and the techniques used to create these vibrant paintings.  Traditionally Dot Art was made using a “dotting stick”, but Ms. Kerry had the clever idea to use a pencil eraser or the flat end of a golf pencil to create appropriate sized dots.  Students chose a favorite Australian animal for the focus of their paintings and then surrounded these illustrations with dots.  During Social Studies, students completed their brochure featuring their chosen animal and then went on to pick another aspect of Australia to create an iMovie around.  These iMovie’s range in topics from The Great Barrier Reef to different aspects of Australian culture.

 

Handwriting

One of the goals for all 4th Grade students at TCS is to be confident in and comfortable with cursive writing by the time they head to 5th Grade.  Over the past few weeks we have made the transition from cursive being optional to cursive being mandatory in their every day writing.  The mindset being that with constant practice this form of writing will develop the muscle memory in the hand.  Students have been commenting that their hand no longer feels tired and that cursive seems to be getting easier.  One of our main focuses during handwriting has been how to make proper “tow-truck” connections, which is one of the trickiest aspects of cursive handwriting.

 

Empathy

As we continue our study of what empathy means and how we can show empathy throughout our day, we recruited the help of some empathy experts at TCS – the first graders!  Over the past several weeks, first grade has done an amazing job of thinking of scenarios for empathy and acting them out.  We invited them in to model these skits for us.  After they modeled a well-planned skit, we split into groups and worked together to make our own empathy skits.  One of the beautiful things that first grade taught us was that we can show empathy not only when our friends are feeling negative emotions, but also when they are feeling positive emotions.  Either way, it always feels great to be validated!  How are you showing empathy to others today?

Important Dates:

• March 7th & 8th                                  Student Led Conferences  (Half Day)
• Friday, March 11th                              SPACE DAY: Portable Planetarium & Study Trip                                                                                   to the “Above and Beyond” Exhibit!
• Friday March 25th- April 1st             Spring Break