Chinese Poetry: The Three Perfections

In Ancient China, scholars believed in the Three Perfections: painting, poetry, and calligraphy. Steven’s lesson today introduced the children to calligraphy as an art. Steven has visited China where he has met calligraphers dedicated to keeping old traditions alive, and hung a beautiful scroll made by Hu Fengquan.
After gathering everyone around a large table, Steven [...]

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Chinese Poetry: Your Life is Full of Treasures

On Steven Ratiner’s third classroom visit, he started the lesson by talking with the children about the art of revision. He shared his personal poetry notebook and showed how he revises again and again, always in search of the perfect words to capture images.   Through revision, a poet works until he/she owns all of [...]

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Take a Journey Into Your Imagination

When Steven Ratiner, our poet in residence,  visited our classroom on Friday, he started the session with a lesson about the art of revision. He talked about how it is important to choose images for yourpoem carefully so the reader can see the story in their mind.  The title is important too and opens the door [...]

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Chinese Poetry: Finding Your Own Area of Retreat

This past Wednesday, Steven Ratiner, our Chinese poet in residence, visited our classroom for the first time. After giving the children an overview of Ancient China, he explained how we will be borrowing poetic techniques from Ancient China, and will practice writing poems which will paint vivid images in the reader’s mind.
After hearing about events [...]

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Artifacts of the Future

“What would people in the year 2525 learn about us if they went on and archaeological dig and discovered 19 tiny decorated clay pots from our class buried in the schoolyard?” That was the question posed to our class this week as an introduction to what archaeologists and historians can learn about the [...]

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Welcome to Fourth Grade!

Welcome to fourth grade!  It looks like we are going to have a great class.  One of our big projects this year will be keeping our class blog.  A homework link will be included.  
Be sure to check weekly for updates about our classroom activities.

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Owl Pellets

There was great excitement in our room today during our science class. Wearing gloves and using small tweezers just like scientists, the students began dissecting owl pellets. At first everyone was a little skeptical, but soon there were cries of, “There’s teeth and a skull in here!” and the real scientific work and [...]

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National Park Trading Cards & Powerpoints

Today our class is preparing for some special visitors. On Friday, a third grade class from down the hall will join us for our National Park/Landmark presentations. After carefully researching a National Park or landmark of their choice, each child put together a Powerpoint presentation complete with photographs and information about the historical significance [...]

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Magazine Writing Project Unveiled

Reading children’s magazines filled with amazing facts, engaging stories, and colorful photos is always enjoyable at school, but writing your own can be even more fun. After brainstorming a wide variety of topics ranging from lions to Athens, Greece, each child chose their own topic and has enthusiastically started research to write their own magazine.
Our [...]

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Drumlin Farm Animal Educators

Soft rustling sounds could be heard coming from several covered crates in our classroom this afternoon as the students entered the room from recess. Noticing a huge tarp on the floor covered with dried leaves and surrounded by a huge plastic pen, everyone knew we were in for a real treat: a visit [...]

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