Fourth Grade: Specials Spotlight
Fourth Quarter 2016-2017
Exploratory Team
Music
During the 4th quarter, students in 4th grade continued working on playing recorders. One of the many important music skills learned through this unit is the ability to read music notation and perform on an individual instrument. I have heard many students talking about which band instrument they’d like to play after learning the basics with their recorder! I am hoping many of them join band with our Elementary Band Director, Mr. Harvey in 5th grade. He will send home detailed information about band. Please remember that students in 5th grade can be in band in addition to choir! That’s right – they can do both!! Choir information will go home with all 4th and 5th grade students in August. To finish the year, students watched “Annie” and discussed the Musical genre, including the difference between the movie version we watched and a stage version. I hope you have a wonderful summer and take some time to sing and dance along the way!
Art
The end of the 2016-2017 school year is here. With the end of the year comes many traditions and celebrations. It has been a tradition at Riverview Elementary to award one student from each grade the honor of being the artist of the year. This is kept secret from the students until the awards ceremony. A piece of art has been selected to represent each student. These works of art will be framed and they will hang in the Riverview office for the next school year. In addition, one work of art is chosen to be framed and hung at the DeSoto School District office until the student graduates. Congratulations to these students, as their artwork was outstanding! Thank you for all you do to encourage the artist within your child!
Portfolios have all gone home with students over the last few weeks. It is so exciting to look at how much our artists have grown in their talents over the course of the school year. I hope everyone has taken the time to share and discuss your child's art with them. They have made great progress this year with their art talents!
I want to thank all of the Riverview families I have been fortunate to meet and talk to. I have truly enjoyed working with your children this year at Riverview. Enjoy your summer!
PE
Fourth quarter was filled with many awesome activities! We were able to learn more about basketball, striking objects, take our last pacer test of the school year, and prepare for Field Day! We got to learn more about basketball at such a prime time; right in the middle of March Madness! It was the perfect time to play the sport and be able to talk about the different games that were taking place (and hear about the upsets and how ruined our brackets were :)). I was (always am) so proud of all the students for their continued improvements in their talents and skills. They amaze me every day! The striking unit is always a fun one. Students were able to strike objects such as balloons, fleece balls, dodge balls, beachballs, and volleyballs with their hands, pillow paddles, noodles, and rackets. We learned about the force we use when swinging to strike an object, and got to practice using different amounts of forces for the different types of hits we were aiming for. The students finished up their pacer tests for the year and I couldn't be more proud of them. They worked SO hard every quarter and did their very best. Field Day was such an amazing way to end the quarter! The students seemed to have a great time, and I saw amazing sportsmanship all day long! I am so looking forward to next year with this group of students at the top of the school. They are already amazing leaders! Have a great summer!!
Technology
We also got a chance to use the new Ozobots PTA purchased for us . The kids loved designing coded mazes on paper and using them with our ipads.
Students reviewed skills in online safety. We also had Detective Stirling from the Shawnee Police Department give fourth and fifth graders an hour long talk on internet and app safety. He had some great tips, echoed much of what we have learned throughout the years and taught us new things that we could implement in order to keep ourselves safe.
I hope you have a great summer! On those rainy days practice typing skills! See you next year!
Library
In our library classes this quarter we reviewed our procedures for our fire, tornado, and intruder drills. Students researched information about their chosen state for their classroom projects using atlases, encyclopedias, and nonfiction books. We discussed how books are shelved in the nonfiction section of the library. Students worked in pairs locating books on the nonfiction shelves using the call number. Participants in the William Allen White reading program voted for their favorite 3rd-5th and 6th-8th nominees. It was fun to see the variety of favorites this year! We are being held in suspense as the official winners have not been posted! We explored books from the reference section of our library. We talked about the use of encyclopedias and reviewed some basic rules to follow when searching for a topic. Students had fun exploring almanacs and sharing an interesting fact they read with others. We enjoyed stories read by members of the Screen Actors Guild online. Fourth graders can begin reading the William Allen White nominees for 2017-2018 this summer! Information about the program and a Reading Log to track your child’s reading will be posted to my website by June 5th. You can visit my website at: http://riverviewlibrary.weebly.com/ . Please keep reading and enjoying books from the public library over the summer!