After (Parent Lunch) Action Report!
News from the 4th Grade classroom
Some Fourth Graders line up with their Hero’s Journey ‘studies.’ (Drawings they’d done to help them get a ‘feel’ for the stories they are crafting.)
This week, the Fourth Grade class hosted their very first Parent Lunch of the year. In keeping with our Social Studies theme, geography and the United States, parents were asked to bring a dish from a state of their choice. Foods ran the gamut from the potatoes of Idaho to the noodles of Beijing! (Wait a minute… Beijing?! Chinatown, more likely…) At the last minute, the Fourth Graders decided to drill parents with an impromptu quiz game consisting of questions they’d cooked up earlier in the morning. While they were full of enthusiasm, the organization of the details was a little… rough around the edges, so to speak!
While a fun time was had by all, some of the Fourth Graders were unsatisfied with their spur-of-the-moment quiz show and sat down to talk about what had happened! After a lengthy discussion, the students decided that the rules of the game felt ‘wonky,’ some questions seemed ‘unclear,’ and the roles and jobs were ‘imbalanced.’ Additionally, they noticed that not everyone got a chance to in the spotlight! In the video below, you can watch an excerpt from the discussion as the Fourth Graders debate ideas on how to make their next Parent Lunch better! I think you will find it a great discussion!
After talking it all out (there was about ten minutes of discussion before what you see above, but we didn’t record it), we were really happy with the conclusion that we drew. The Fourth Graders came up with some great ideas, the most important of which were focused on the organization and planning of events, as well as the assignment of jobs. By actually experiencing the event firsthand, and then discussing it in depth later, the Fourth Graders now feel better equipped to tackle another event.
As a matter of fact…
Star Wars
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The Price Of Tea In China
Now, what does Star Wars have to do with the price of tea in China? Well, as many people know, George Lucas’s classic Star Wars Trilogy was written to precisely follow the Hero’s Journey (something we’ve been studying for the past few weeks). In class, we watched clips of Luke Skywalker’s increasingly dramatic and challenging confrontations with Darth Vader in each successive film. Students discussed how Luke’s Hero’s Journey, starting with death of his Mentor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, in Star Wars connected to Luke’s symbolic ‘death and rebirth’ in The Empire Strikes Back and Luke’s ultimate conquering of his Shadow, Darth Vader, in Return of the Jedi.
Due to time constraints, the Fourth Graders could only watch a five minute excerpt from each film — but the students were left wanting more! While we couldn’t justify watching the films in class, we decided to turn our newly-sharpened organization skills toward running a Star Wars Hero’s Journey movie night. The intention would be to educate others about the Hero’s Journey by using an ‘accessible’ film such as Star Wars. In the photo below, you see the schedule which the Fourth Grade class created, together, for the proposed ‘Star Wars Journey Movie Night‘ (as they are now calling it).
The schedule the Fourth Graders came up with following a lengthy discussion on what went wrong (and right) with their Parent Lunch Game Show.
The Fourth Grade is a time of transitions, and these Fourth Graders were ready to take the things that they’d learned from their Parent Lunch and turn them into something fun and educational for all! So, taking the bull by the horns, they decided that they would dig deeper into something they’d been learning by teaching others about it!
That afternoon, following the creation of a proposal for the ‘Star Wars Journey Movie Night‘, the Fourth Graders sent two representatives down to the Front Desk, where they set up an appointment to meet with Pacific Northern Academy’s Head of School, Mrs. Hoefer. Next week, the Fourth Graders hope to meet with our Head to persuade her to allow them to run their ‘Star Wars Journey Movie Night’ on Friday, November 3rd from 3:30 to 6:30 after school! (Parents permitting, of course.)
And finally, below, you see students putting together various ‘studies’ in the lead up to writing longer, fictional pieces based on the Hero’s Journey.
Hush Hush & On The QT
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Next week, PNA will have a three day week. School will be in session from Monday through Wednesday, with Wednesday being counted as a dressdown day!
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Thursday will be Parent Conferences! If you have not signed up already, please make sure to do so through Sycamore! If you have any trouble or questions about it, see Ms. Tabitha at the front desk!
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Want to earn your child a free (cheap) prize? Ask them who Torak’s mentor was in Wolf Brother, the book that our class finished as a group read a few weeks ago. There was some discussion and debate about who, exactly, Torak’s mentor was… so be sure to include your student’s reasons for their answer. Email their answer, along with a sentence or two describing their reasons, to myancik@pacificnorthern.org to earn them a prize!
