Park Specialists' Newsletter
Fourth Grade Edition - Third Trimester
Third Trimester Recap
From Park's Art Instructor - Mrs. Ovadje
Half of the 4th grade at Park Elementary switched from ART to STEM specialist in January, and vise-versa. In art, we explore many materials and students work hands-on with a variety of materials including markers, crayons, watercolor paint, tempera paint, collage, chalk pastels, oil pastels, printmaking, paint sticks and clay. While making art, we also explore line, shape, color, texture, value, form, and space.
Projects we have completed:
Modern Mona Lisa, a spoof of the famous painting by Da Vinci
Clay Leaves
One-Point Perspective City Drawings
Jackson Pollock Action Paintings
Pop Art Food Prints using styrofoam printing plates and block printing ink
Sunflower Still-Lifes using only tints and shades of yellow
Students took their portfolios home the last week of school.
We had a fabulous year in Art.
Until next fall,
Mrs. Ovadje
From Park's Librarian - Ms. Shadis
From Park's Technology Integration Instructor - Mr. Durheim
During the third trimester, fourth graders focused on computational thinking and coding. Students explored four different stations to learn about different types of coding.
Bitsbox guided students through coding apps for a virtual tablet. They learned about how important syntax (exact use of numbers, letters, and symbols) is to code. This website also allowed students to experiment with variables.
Dash and Blockly gave students an opportunity to review coding with the Blockly app to control Dash robots.
Block-a-Pix are puzzles which require students to use problem solving thinking, similar to that used in coding. These puzzles stretch students to see that there may be multiple options for completing a task.
Ozobots provided students another opportunity to create and run code using these small robots. Some students also experimented with creating code online and transferring it to the robot through light sensors. .
Fourth graders spent a significant number of TechTime and Library classes learning how to code using Scratch, a block coding language created by students at MIT. Students completed guided coding activities and independent challenges. Students were able to progress at their own pace through the coding activities. We will continue learning about Scratch in fifth grade. Students may also continue to access their school Scratch account from home, but they are encouraged to create a personal account (with adult guidance) as the school account will be deactivated after fifth grade.
Online Safety continued as a focus through the third trimester. As students get older and spend more time online, it’s important that they receive guidance from both school and home for making good choices about privacy and good netiquette.
Please visit the TechTime website to learn more about specific activities, website links, and learning goals.
Keyboarding
Park’s keyboarding program provides students the opportunity to learn keyboarding skills as part of the specialist rotation schedule. This time is a combination of self-paced work through Typing Quest and other guided practice and instruction. Students, especially those for whom this is a second year of keyboarding instruction, are making good progress.
Continued practice through the summer will help to maintain skills learned and help students to become more efficient. The Park Elementary “For Students” webpage has a link to keyboarding practice websites. You will find it at www.isd423.org/park-elementary/for-students/
From Park's Phy Ed Educators - Mrs. Hahn & Ms. Mueller
Even though the weather was not always cooperative, we took advantage of every
opportunity to be outdoors. Encourage your child to continue keeping active this summer.
Units covered in the third trimester:
● Juggling
● Hockey
● Lawn Games
● Capture the Flag
● Fitness Tests (Students stopped each test when healthy fitness zone was reached)
● Tennis Stations
● Track and Field (see video clips below)
Here are a few ideas for kids to keep active this summer using technology. Here are some
fun apps that will get kids to exercise.
● Sworkit Kids
● 7 Min Workout for Kids
● Go Noodle Kids
From Park's Music Teachers - Ms. Hauth & Mrs. Hoeft
In fourth grade students have continued to solidify their recorder skills by practicing and improvising on BAG. One of their favorite songs to play, sing and dance is Rockin’ Robin, a popular song from the 1950’s. This dance includes moves such as the twist, mashed potato, and the hand jive. Another fun recorder song and dance is Bow Belinda. This song is danced in lines with corner partners and includes such moves as right-hand-round, the Do-Si-Do, and promenade. At the end of the year, students reviewed the recorder notes C and D learned earlier in the year, and practiced a few new notes as well. They will be ready to play recorder again in fifth grade!
One of the rhythms focused on in fourth grade is sixteenth notes. Students read, say, play and improvise using this new rhythm throughout the year. We’ve played sixteenth notes on the drums, with body percussion, using recorders, on xylophones, and more. At the end of the year, they compose a piece using sixteenth notes, write it down, give it a title, and perform it for the class on a percussion instrument. They did a very nice job on their compositions and performing in front of their peers!
Weavily Wheat was another great song with lots of parts: we got to sing and recite a few multiplication facts with a partner hand-clapping pattern to match, play recorder, and do a dance. Other fun pieces learned this trimester were Austrian Yodeler, Whether the Weather, and Kookaburra.
From Park's STEM Specialist - Mrs. McDowell
Throughout all of the STEM projects students are continually following the Engineering Design Process to ask questions, plan, create, make observations and improve their designs along the way. Check out what your child/student has been up to these last couple of months in STEM!
Flood Barriers! Moving into February and March students began their 2 nd STEM project. They were asked to build a barrier around a paper doghouse that would stop or slow down the flow of water. This project brought on a whole new “real-life” challenge…they had to stick to a budget of $10.00 when selecting what items they wanted to purchase to build this barrier. Before building, they were allowed to test some of the supplies by seeing how absorbent they were. They first recorded, then entered their absorbency data into a spreadsheet. As a class they analyzed the data to figure out which items were the most absorbent, thus providing them with a better idea of what they wanted to purchase. We had
some pretty good looking barriers and had both successes and fails. Regardless, all students were great sports about the challenge and had amazing discussions of what worked, why it worked and what didn’t. They were also able to relate this entire activity to how communities respond to real-life flooding situations.
Playdough! 4 th grade students most recently finished their “world’s best play dough…” or should I say “Park Elementary’s best play dough” challenge. At the beginning of May, they started the process of discussing and learning about the following terms: chemistry, chemical engineer, matter, solid, liquid, gas, properties, mixture, solution, solvent and solute. After several discussions and hands-on activities that involved them making different solutions using water, flour, cornstarch, salt and baking soda, they recorded observations of what they noticed and used this information to help them come up with the perfect play dough recipe. All students will get the opportunity to score/judge each groups play dough based on a scale system that takes consistency, texture and moldability into account. We are all looking forward to seeing everyone’s recipes!
Park Elementary School
Email: dan.olberg@isd423.org
Website: isd423.org/park-elementary/
Location: 100 Glen Street Southwest, Hutchinson, MN, United States
Phone: (320) 587-2837
Twitter: @parkelem