Hello parents!

Fourth graders will begin to use Seesaw, an app that allows them to upload some of their projects to a private page so that they can share them with you at home. Your child will be bringing home a letter with instructions for accessing their page. You can even give feedback by leaving a comment!

Students are finishing up a Civil War project where they used the app Shadow Puppet Edu to create a video presentation about 5 people, places, or events of their choice. Please take a few minutes to check out their hard work!

Seesaw, along with Google Classroom, which many fourth graders have begun to use in writing, is a great tool for giving feedback and praise to your child!

Our Seesaw Tips:
1. Be constructive! Learning a new skill is hard and we need your help.
2. Specific comments are best. Think about how you can add to the learning conversation.
3. In a group or ‘everyone’ post, please remember your comment is shared with everyone tagged – students and their parents. This is a great opportunity to lift up the whole class!

Please do not hesitate to email me with any questions regarding Seesaw, Google Classroom, or any of the other educational technologies we are using in Room 25.

Have a great day!

Ms. Becker

Hello fourth grade friends and family!

We have been discussing Jamestown all week long in social studies. Students have learned that Jamestown was founded in 1607 and was the first successful English colony in North America. We have studied the roles of Christopher Newport, John Smith, King James, Pocahantas and the Powhatans. Students worked on two online explorations to understand the decisions and hardships the early settlers faced. You can explore at home too!

• Make decisions and see feedback on the results of those decisions in this informative exploration here!
• Follow Captain John Smith through capture, hard times, and interactions with natives by watching animated videos and playing mini-games here!

Be on the lookout for study guides and course assignments next week that will prepare students for our upcoming Jamestown test next Friday.

Students also finished writing, publishing, and binding their personal narratives this week. We will be completing a personal narrative transfer task and beginning to look at persuasive writing next week.

We ended our week with SCA speeches and elections this afternoon. Our fourth grade candidates for secretary were INCREDIBLE! We can’t wait to hear who was elected on Monday morning.

Enjoy the fall weather this weekend!

Ms. Becker

Hi fourth grade families!

I hope everyone is gearing up for a rainy weekend. Fourth graders have had a busy week! My writers have just finished their last full week of drafting their personal narrative. Next week, we will begin the long road to publishing! We learned about “writer’s craft” and making our writing better using dialogue, sensory details, figurative language, and positive/negative emotions words. We also discussed the revising and editing processes that get us closer to our final draft.

In social studies, we took our quiz on the geography of Virginia just in time to start learning about early life in our state. Students created “flipbooks” to demonstrate what they discovered about the three major native language groups in Virginia: Algonquian, Siouan and Iroquoian. Some of their hard work can now be seen on the bulletin boards outside of my classroom! Next week we will finish our unit on native Virginians before beginning to talk about Jamestown, the first permanent European settlement in Virginia.

Next week will be exciting, as we have our science enrichment teacher coming and a visit from the Alexandria Fire Department on Wednesday, and Individual Picture Day on Friday! Don’t forget to turn in picture order forms as soon as possible.

Have a wonderful weekend and stay dry!

Ms. Becker

Hello fourth grade friends and family!

What a great week it has been! My writing class has begun to draft their personal narrative stories, which we hope to eventually “publish” and bind into books. Students used multiple pre-writing tools to generate ideas and add detail to their writing.

In social studies, students are becoming experts on the geography of our state. Students have now learned about the relative location and border states of Virginia, the five geographic regions (ask them to show you the regions dance!), and the important water features in our area. This knowledge will prepare them to learn about early life and the native peoples of Virginia next week. The students will also have their first quiz on Tuesday, so they will receive a study guide to help them prepare!

Thank you to everyone who made it out to Back to School night on Monday. I loved meeting new faces and getting the chance to share why fourth grade will be such a special year for your student!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Ms. Becker