The Cooper School Daily

Bee Study Begins!

harry1Bee Study

One of the most exciting projects of the fourth grade year began this week, and that is the Bee Study. With our observation hive on site and a classroom full of scientists, this is sure to be a fantastic project for everyone! This unit was launched with a narrative writing assignment where students were asked to write a personal story about an encounter they have had with a bee (or bees). Also this week, students observed bees in the backyard and designed a plan for the diorama they will make representing their narrative story.

Reading

Fourth Grade has been learning and practicing habits of good readers during Reading Workshop. All week students have been attempting to reach timed goals for Silent Sustained Reading. We are now up to 25 minutes of uninterrupted reading! During this independent reading time, students are reading books that they have chosen as being “just right” for them. By the end of the school year, we hope to reach 45 minutes of Silent Sustained Reading.

kuffin_and_sydneyVocabulary

The Cooper School began a new vocabulary curriculum this year called Vocabulary Workshop. This curriculum is similar in many ways to the vocabulary we have used in the past. The one main difference is instead of studying a list of words for one week, students will study twelve words over two weeks. Students will be assessed on these twelve words at the end of the second week. We began Unit 1 this week. The Unit 1 assessment will be given on Friday, September 4th.