Update May 1

Important Dates:
5/9     Mount Hood Chapel
5/11   Mount Hood Climb Service Day: 4th grade will be pulling ivy and planting bulbs on campus
5/12   Parent Meeting about Camp Grey 8-9
5/16   Moving up to 5th Grade Parent Meeting
June 1-3 Camp Grey--4th grade Overnight trip


This week:
Reading: Students continue to read their own books for pleasure while also analyzing possible themes. Investigating the character's actions, feelings and motivations can help us understand the theme and the author's message for their readers.
We are reading the book Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai which is about Laos refugees moving to Alabama, USA. While reading the book, we are looking deeper at the themes, how the character develops and changes, the author's message, taking notes about the culture of Vietnam and how the government affects its people in times of conflict.

Writing: We are working on poetry writing. Right now our focus is on line breaks, figurative language, and interesting adjectives. Writing poetry is a challenge. We hope to produce a small collection and poems to share with our larger community. I am hoping to arrange for a local poet to come in a talk to us about her experience writing poetry and maybe give us some writing tips!

Math: We will finish Unit 7 Tuesday. Unit 8 will be a quick unit since we have already worked on area and perimeter with Tracy Arensberg this winter. Students are also asked to work on a math project creating a dream house in their new country.

Peace Games: Peace Games start Wednesday. Our countries are built, flags made, maps created, histories being written, and culture being explored! On Wednesday, we will learn more about the game rules and learn of our country's problems. Country teams need to work together to solve their country's problems such as droughts and floods, on time and on budget! It takes teamwork, delegation, problem solving, and persistence.