Glaciers & A Guest Speaker!
Recently in the Fourth Grade Social Studies and Science Classes, students have been studying how glaciers, as well as the processes of erosion and deposition, impact the landforms we find in our everyday life. Students learned that snow gradually builds up into more and more levels until it begins to compress under its own weight, forming glaciers. As it just so happens, though, a parent in our class (Shad O’Neil) is a glaciologist that has studied glaciers around Alaska, and he was kind enough to come speak to our class about his experiences working for the state and federal governments to research glaciers.
Shad brought a great presentation that taught the Fourth Grade all about how glaciers form and how they can change the surface of the landscape around them. He also explained global warming to students, emphasizing how quickly things can change and how important it is to plan and think ahead to the future!
The Fourth Grade was very grateful that Shad took the time out of his busy schedule to share his knowledge of glaciers and nature with us! If there is something that you think would be worthwhile to share, please don’t hesitate to contact Mr. Yancik about it. The Fourth Grade class would love to hear what you have to say!
Math Fun!
In Fourth Grade’s Bridges Math Class this week, the Third and Fourth Graders built paper models to help them see the relationships between fractions. Each model had five layers — a whole, two halves, four quarters, eight eighths, and sixteen sixteenths. The kids built these models to better visualize the relationships between equivalent fractions, as well as how one fraction might relate to another.
Can you guess the relationship between each level of this paper model? Here’s a hint: think of fractions…
Students also worked together, in pairs, to help each other solve some particularly difficult math problems. Watch Jackson and Kenny, below, whittle away at one their own problems…
Storytelling, the Hero’s Journey, & Roleplaying Games!
Fourth Grade also presented a few of their storytelling adventures, running their own roleplaying game sessions with narratives based on Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey. In the videos below, watch as Kenny and Nevaeh run games for their fellow students. Kenny is running an adventure story set in the Appalachian Mountains (a location we’ve been studying in Science and Social Studies), while Nevaeh has chosen a haunted house somewhere in Anchorage. (Uh, we haven’t been studying haunted houses, except in relation to the Hero’s Journey…)
Now, the Fourth Grade has been working on their roleplaying stories for several weeks now, but the attention to detail that the Game Masters put into their Hero’s Journey narratives was shockingly good. At the outset of the games, the Game Master gave each Player Character a certain amount of equipment and options to begin. From there, GMs led the PCs through their adventures, using material that they’d already prepared and making things up on the fly when necessary, to weave all new and unpredictable adventures. Students learned how to balance their time between multiple players, as well as how to build tension and drama. The level of acting and energy, as you can see in the video from an excerpt of Nevaeh’s game, was on full display and extremely impressive.
And Now For Something
Completely Different…
And, for some reason, we were gargling theme songs this week. Can you guess what the theme songs were?
Hush Hush & On The QT…
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DRESS DOWN WEEK! As a reward for the amazing results of the green bean drive, all of next week will be a dress down week. Please be sure to send your children in their most casual clothing!
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REPORT CARD INFORMATION SESSIONS! PNA’s Report card format will be changing! Please be sure to attend one of our friendly information sessions, to bring you up to speed on all the improvements that we’ve made! Sessions will be on Monday, December 18 at 3:30 PM and Tuesday, December 19th at 5:00 PM.
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