Week 9

 Weekly Greetings!

What an incredible week the 4th grade had while attending school last week! Starting the week, we had a rather normal schedule in Reading and Math. In Science, the class continued to learn about Matter by looking at properties of solids and liquids. Working together in small groups, they sorted solid objects by color, shape, and texture.

 The next day they then explored properties of two liquids based on density recording similarities and differences.

Wednesday afternoon the class traveled to Tanacross to run in the last Cross Country meet of this year.

 One of our students was the first place girl in her age group.

 There was even a neck-to-neck finish as a tie with another student from our class.

 Everyone gave their all in the race and finished in good time.

There were awards after with the top 3 girl and boy finishers. The students even got cake to celebrate before we headed back to Tok.

 In Art the class has been fortunate to work on clay projects, and when we returned they were able to paint their creations in preparation for another firing in the kiln.

Also on Wednesday, the school wide culture week started. Our class displayed the drums they made earlier and I plan to send them home with the students this week.

Every morning there were stories and special activities for the students to learn from. The first day, they all made necklaces.

 The next day the students learned about the different traditional potlatches in preparation for that evening's feast.

That afternoon, the class made a cranberry dessert to share at the potlatch with the cranberries we picked a couple of weeks ago.

I forgot my camera at that evenings potlatch, but there was so much food and a great turnout from the community. After the food was cleaned up, there was Native dancing. The next morning, the students got to do more Native dancing and it looks like they really enjoyed participating.

This week we only have three days of school, as there will be teacher in-servicing taking place on Thursday and Friday. We will be completing a reading unit this week also, and the Spelling test will be Wednesday on the words covered these last two week.

With the snow on Sunday, it looks like winter is finally arriving!

Have a great week!

Kind Regards,

Julie Brown

Week 8

Weekly Greetings!

Before I recap some highlights from last week, I want to make sure I cover some details about this week. First, I am sending home a permission slip to take the class to the final Cross Country Track meet at Tanacross on Wednesday. It is the district championship, and some in  the class would like an opportunity to compete.

In addition, the school wide "Culture Week" will be starting on Wednesday with some special events. Not only will the students participate in activities daily through Friday, but there will be evening events I hope you all can attend. On Wednesday there will be an Athabascan Fiddling Presentation at 5:00pm. Then Thursday night at 5:00pm, there will be a community Potlatch and Native dancing. Finally on Friday afternoon at 1:00pm in the gym, there will be the closing with presentations from Michelle Anderson and Normal Carlo, with a video and song to follow. Please join us for these activities!

We had the final poster completion for our "All About Me" wall in our class. Even though the posters took far longer to complete than I ever expected, the students have really enjoyed hearing from the student presenting and I think it has helped us all know each other better. When I can get to it, the posters will go out in the hall for all to see.

MAP testing was a big part of last week, and I will be pleased to share the results with you at Parent/Teacher conferences in a few weeks. If you would like to see them before then, feel free to let me know and we can set up a time to discuss them.

After sitting in front of a computer for a large part of two days, the class really needed to learn by moving. In Math, we worked with multiplication facts by writing them on paper plates used like Frisbees. The group had a lot of fun chasing after the plates to music, and getting the facts written before the music stopped.

In Science, we started a new unit to study Matter. After reading about the "States of Matter", the students created a poster with the three forms. Using magazines, they sought out pictures representing the properties of liquids, solids, and gases that make up matter.

In closing, please look for your child's completed work and graded tests that go home with them every Friday. I have been finding packets that were handed out, and then left at school. Looking through the packet will help you see some of the concepts we covered that week, and how your child did on any written assessments that were given.

I hope to see many of you at the cultural events, and that you have an enjoyable week.

Kind Regards,

Julie Brown

Week 7

Weekly Greetings!

What an incredible week we had with Alan and Sally from Lime Village sharing cultural knowledge with us! The week started off with a video created for the Native Heritage Museum, that embraced the strength and survival skills of the Athabascan people. It was very well done. Then the class began making octagon drums. There was a good amount of Math integrated into the lesson, and every day the students had another step to complete their project. We will display them for the school wide cultural week during the second week of October.

The class also learned how to make birch baskets, and the different uses that people have for them both in the present and past.

In addition, the group learned how to make a survival lamp using common materials.

In-between some of the other activities, we even got to make a 16 sided drum for the class to keep.

One of the activities was to create a boat out of foil and see how many nails the boat could float. Each student established a hypothesis to see whether a high-sided boat or low-sided boat would float more nails. It turned out that a low-sided boat with a flat bottom could distribute more nail weight.

With the beautiful fall afternoons, we decided to go out and gather low bush cranberries. In just a short time, the class had gathered a gallon of berries to use in the up coming school potlatch during the October culture week.

When we got back, Alan demonstrated to way to separate leaves from the berries using a fan. He said people used to go up on a windy hill and let the leaves blow away to clean the berries.

On their last day with us, Sally worked with the girls to show them how to make a hat while Alan took the boys out for some water Science activities.

Using their thumbs to start the suction, the boys could see that once there was flow in the tube line it would flow even when holding the tube up high. Using the pipeline going over the mountains was the principle behind the lesson. Again, the students were making hypotheses and testing them.

On Thursday, we also connected with the AK Teach program that allowed us to be participants in the  Fossil of Laramidia dig in Utah. This was an on-line live event through the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. The class was connected with other classrooms throughout Alaska and California, while they listened to and asked questions of paleontologist Dr. Joe Sertich. The class asked some excellent questions, and we will be connecting with AK Teach again throughout the school year.  

This week, the 4th grade will be having MAP testing most of the morning on Tuesday and Wednesday. The information from the tests will help guide instruction and address any weak areas we need to work on through the next few months. Please make an effort to have your child at school and on time those days.

Have a wonderful week!

Kind Regards,

Julie Brown