1/4 of 4th

The end of the first marking period is a week or so away, which means I am nearly 1/4 of the way through my 1st year in 4th grade. 

It started off quite similar to Grade 3... with A LOT of flowers! I am not sure the reason, I keep telling myself it's good, but I feel like many of the parents/students like to give Big flowers. Not flowers actually-- stalks. Lovely flowers that come on giant, heavy, long stalks. They are lovely, although it's quite challenging to hold 12+ bouquets and give hugs all at the same time. Once the flowers were safely settled, the real fun began!

Having half of my same students again this year, we didn't need to start with the name games. Some of us all too familiar! Once I reflected on the first day, I did feel a bit bad for the new kid.... he's doing fine now! :p 

Fourth grade has been incredible so far! Overwhelming also, but I have a great teaching partner who is really showing me the ropes and encouraging me along the way. She's heavily hinted at leaving after this year and is carefully passing loads of resources to me! 

I was talking to a parent at the beginning of the year and they mentioned that "a recorder" was no longer on the supply list, but usually the kids learned to play the recorder in grade 4. I was not informed of that and it would have probably weighed into my choice... oh, the recorder issues... Thankfully! We have an Amazing music teacher and she scraped the recorder unit in place of the ukulele!! The music room is a little overbooked this year, so one day the lesson was in the classroom. Even when the ukulele isn't played well, it's still awesome! 

Our first Grade 4 unit was about Human Migration. We talked about migrants and refugees, from the first migrations out of Africa at the beginning of time to today's hot topic issue. We invited several parents to come in and share about migrations they or their family had made. One mom brought in several local/traditional hats she's collected over the years. I can remember back to elementary school when we all created family trees and shared how 50 or more years ago some relative we weren't really sure of came to Michigan from somewhere. And there were one or two students in the class who had moved from another state... same idea, except in my classroom, the ones who haven't moved are the odd ones out. They got to present these 'family migration records' to peers and family and it was a fun celebration! 

They've also all published their first work in grade 4. We've been talking about how to write a realistic fiction story... Mine could be about a teacher who hates to teach writing to her students..... oh wait, I can save that autobiographies, our next unit. :p 

Fall break came at a wonderful time. It's a little more than half over now, I am feeling relaxed and catching a much needed breath. Few more days... and my desk will 'normal' again. 

"Normal"