Daily reflections

September 26-30

This week we learned what a number talk is. A number talk is basically when we see a picture for two seconds.The picture is made of dots. We have to say how many dots we saw in all and how we saw it.

This number talk is about the dot pattern on the bottom right side of the board. Students' thinking is drawn and explained with numerical reasoning. We recognise that our original thinking is subject to change once we see/hear other perspectives. 

We also learned about levels of experience 1,2,3,4 in writing. A level 1 experience is something that happens to everyone. A level 2 experience is a thing that happens to everyone differently. A level 3 experience is that you would only tell to your best friends and it doesn't happen to everyone. Level 4 is something that is your secret.

Levels of experience remind us that it's our unique beliefs and experiences that inspire writing others want to read.

In unit we built a spaghetti tower using: spaghetti, one marshmallow and one piece of sticky tape.The team with the tallest tower would win.




In drama we put on a play in which we were in a restaurant and we met with other people from other countries and we had to explain why we were there. But also we had to act as another person, not ourselves. 

                by Shourya and Aleksandras

It was another wonderful week of learning in grade 4L! We spent the week trying out a new model where we stopped at the end of each day to reflect where the BIG learning happened for each of us. We then posted our ideas on the board and collected them to use in our Friday letters. 

In Unit this week we began to focus on our second line of inquiry: "I have an impact on my community". In order to change our focus from the team to who I am as part of the team, we rated ourselves and our own participation in relation to teamwork. We evaluated ourselves during a spaghetti tower building challenge and in a game called "Traffic Jam." We determined that it was very difficult to decide how we rated without a clear outline of what a 1, 2, 3 or 4 was on our rubric. On Friday, we set to defining these ratings in groups so we could better figure out how to be a more active participant in teamwork, but also in our class community. 

After the spaghetti challenge, we reflected that our big learning was: we worked together better as a team to plan because our supplies were limited. We thought more deeply during this challenge than others. Since we rotated one team member toward the end, we also reflected on how we felt about the switch as it altered our teamwork and even our emotions!

Here Rojus, Veronika, Gerda, Shourya and their new teammate Sofia reflect on their teamwork.

Referring to their team plan, Migle, Aleksandras, Yigit and Benas reflect on their work together as a team.

Our feelings and what makes us say that regarding the swap of one of our teammates during the Spaghetti Tower challenge

Our big learning after playing "Traffic Jam" was that we gave up too soon. We realised that we were very close to the solution a couple of times but didn't recognise it because we gave up too early. We learned about the saying "Impossible is nothing," and spoke about the importance of being resilient. 

"Traffic Jam" is a game where 8 players are cars. They can only move forward, move one space at a time, and can only jump one person at a time. There IS a solution, contrary to popular belief by the "cars". Here Elena is trying her hand at being a director of traffic.

 Here Krista is the director of traffic. 

We were in charge of planning for the park this Wednesday and voting on whose idea we'd use. We wrote our ideas out on a small whiteboard and then everyone got an equal vote by using 3 small tokens. Each person could only put 1 token in their own cup and had to share the other 2 tokens any way they liked. The unanimous vote went to full free time at the park! 

Small groups from 4A and 4L finalise their plans for Wednesday at the park.

Students roam from team to team to decide where they'd like to put their token votes.

We mostly broke into two large groups. One played "American football" while the other ran an outdoor "beauty salon". What we valued most of all about this day was the inclusion and that everyone felt like they were invited to participate in any activities that were created. Our big learning was that WE alone make choices about how/if we participate, which led us to reflect deeply on how our participation affects us and our friends -both positively and negatively- depending on the choices we make. *We also particularly enjoyed being allowed to eat our snacks whenever we liked! 

Nora, Elena and Mante enjoy some time to chat in our favorite climbing tree.

Migle, Ina and Eva enjoy a game they made up last week with hula hoops.

Aleksandras, Lukas, Shourya, Antanas, Basel, Rafael and Dovydas play a rough and tumble game of "American Football". I've told them that I'd like to show them a video to prove that there are rules to this game and that players typically enjoy the perks of proper padding!

Sofia shows off her manicure done by Krista at the "Nature Salon".

Sofija, Shourya and Rafael practice skipping stones in the pond.

Veronika, Steven, Ina, Yelyzaveta, and Yigit discover cattails down by the water!

In mathematics, we continued our study of geometry. This week we practiced using a compass. For some of us it came naturally, for others of us...it was a long process. We then studied how to inscribe a square in a circle, construct concentric and congruent circles, and figured out what the radius of a circle is. We continued to work on naming polygons by completing some riddles and using properties to sort different polygons. 

Antanas, Rojus, Nora, Yigit and Basel create fine messes while teaching themselves to construct circles with a compass.

In reading this week, we re-organised our classroom library. This time, we organised by fiction picture, fiction chapter, non-fiction picture and non-fiction chapter. This turned out to be a bit of a challenge for us as we're still learning about the different types of fiction and non-fiction. We also shared ideas about what good readers when what they're reading doesn't make sense. Naturally, we did a lot of reading during reading time and are beginning our reading assessments. 

In writing, we composed a couple more free verse poems inspired by topics from our writing territories. Some of us were risk-takers and shared writing that we felt was a level 2 or 3 experience. Mid-week, we tried our hand at personal narratives. We continue to use our topics from our writing territories to see which topics inspire different genres of writing. 

Yelyzaveta, Sofija, Eva and Nora work on writing compositions.

Basel and Yigit working on their compositions.

Finally, we got to enjoy celebrating our friend Rojus' 10th birthday! As we become a closer classroom community, we become more comfortable reflecting deeply about who we are. We look forward to another week learning and growing together! 

Happy Birthday, Rojus!