Dear Fourth Grade Families,

Here are updates from our current units of study.

Writing:

Where does poetry live (or hide)?  We have been exploring this question through
reading and writing poems, and appreciating the power of poetry to bring us together
and express ourselves.  

Here are some of their thoughts:

Poetry hides….

...right under your nose

...in pictures

...in watching your pet

...in your heart

...in memories

...in nature

...in a pencil

...in the people you love

Currently we are working with the structure of collecting ideas for a poem that draws
on our senses….image, light, sound, feeling...and looking for questions or powerful
words and phrases that are worth using repetitively. Ask your children to share the  
powerful memories they are drawing upon to construct this poem. Also, please look
for ways in which your child uses this structure next week as part of writing homework.

Reading:

We have done a lot of poetry reading, but  in addition to reading poetry, students have
formed temporary groups based on their book choices. Each reading group selects their
own book and each group member is given a role or a job to complete. They read a
chapter or two and then get together with their groups with their written notes to guide
both their reading and discussion. This gives students the opportunity to discuss and
reflect on what they read in the story or chapter with their group, and engage in critical
thinking.  

Math:

We are just wrapping up Unit 5 (Geometry) and looking ahead to our next unit of study.
Please ask your child to show you her or his assessment, sign it and have it returned to
me.  Our next unit will focus on pulling together much of the multiplication, division,
fractions and data work from the earlier in the year.  We will explore multiple models to
solve problems, share and explain strategies and apply our skills and concepts in a
variety of contexts.  Those of you looking to support our learning at home can find
more details on these models in the Bridges unit overview.

Peace Games:

Ask your child about what is going on in our nation building efforts.  What is the name
of the nation? What type of government? What role are you playing in the government?
What makes you feel qualified for this role?

Dates

May 9 - Mt. Hood Climb Service Learning Day; stay tuned for a possible 4th grade field
trip

May 25 -  learning celebration at 1:30pm

Dear Parents,

Welcome back! I hope you had a wonderful spring break; It is certainly good to have the
children back!

The week leading up to spring break was a very busy week but we enjoyed Upper School
student Lexi Reekie’s talents and assistance in the room. She volunteered her time in our
classroom as part of her Winterim experience and the students enjoyed working with her.

The Peace Game Alert!

Students were divided into three country groups and we will begin the much anticipated Peace
Game next week. Some of the issues presented at the fair overlap with problems that students
will have to solve in the Peace Game.

What is the Peace Game?

The idea for The Peace Game comes from a teacher, John Hunter, who teaches 4th graders in
Virginia. He did a version of this game in 1978, and if you watch the short video from the link
below, you can see how we were inspired to present it to our students. Although ours is
modeled after Mr. Hunter’s game, we developed the problems, rules, game pieces, and
individual ideas ourselves. This is our fifth year with the game and we are eager to begin.
The advantage kids have is that they have studied many of the problems presented, and will
therefore, have a much better handle on how to solve them.

Over the course of the next eight weeks, students will be introduced to 30 global problems
that need to be solved. They will be in three different groups, representing three countries.
They will be given some information, distributed randomly, and then the groups will create
their own nations, with geographic, political, and cultural information they will need to build
the countries on the game board. All three classrooms will have boards set up in their rooms,
and students in each classroom will solve the problems in their own way.

Next week, students will be introduced to different forms of government. They will need to
choose the form of government they want for their countries, and then decide on which jobs
they will all have. It is a cooperative game, of course, and all decisions must be made and
approved by the group.  Students will find ways to learn more about how to deal with
challenges facing us all. We will start to explore the big ideas behind our exciting Peace
Game project. We'll consider how countries are formed and governments are created to
serve the people. We'll explore different types of government, refer to real world examples,
and begin to consider how we might work together to achieve the lofty goals of the game.
Some of the enduring understandings that we hope students will take away are:

• That right or wrong is not an absolute.
• Problems in the world are complex and don’t have easy solutions.
• That multiple perspectives can and should co-exist.
• How to solve complex problems in a collaborative situation to the benefit of more than one party.
• The importance of empathy and compassion by looking beyond our own needs.
• The need to be open to multiple perspectives and withhold judgment.

It is difficult to explain everything we do, and the rules, incidents, and interactions are quite complex after they begin. Ask your children about it on Friday, and they should be able to tell you about the exciting events.

The object of the game is to solve all of the world’s problems for 100% of humanity, in
the shortest possible time, through negotiation and peaceful means, without
environmental or ecological harm or the disadvantage of anyone. This sentence was
taken almost completely from Buckminster Fuller, creator of the geodesic dome, who came
up with the idea of a world game in the 1960’s, to solve world problems. Here is a link to that
page: http://bfi.org/about-fuller/big-ideas/world-game.

Stay tuned for more news about the progress of the Peace Game, and please take a look at
this 20-minute presentation by John Hunter.

https://www.ted.com/talks/john_hunter_on_the_world_peace_game

Writing

April is National Poetry Month, the largest literary celebration in the world since 1996, with
tens of millions of readers, students, K-12 teachers, librarians, booksellers, literary event
curators, publishers, bloggers, and, of course, poets, marking poetry’s important place in our
culture and our lives.  We have begun writing and reading poems in our room this month;
students will compose a collection of poems through which they express their unique thoughts
and perspectives. We plan to explore poetry writing techniques in class during our writing time
as well as free-write.

• Apply a variety of craft strategies and structures to bring out meaning and emotions.
• Collaborate with an Upper School writing class on poetry writing.
• If you have a favorite poem, please send it along with your child  to share with the class.
• Fourth Graders will be planning to share their poems and other work during our Learning
• Celebration on May 25 at 1:30 p.m.  Please mark your calendars

Honoring Our Rivers:

Here’s another opportunity for children to share/celebrate their writing. Students are invited to
participate in Honoring the Rivers which is a project of The Willamette Partnership that works
to connect young people in the Pacific Northwest with their rivers and watersheds through art
and writing. Each year, they publish an anthology of student writing and artwork related to
rivers and invite student submissions from kindergarten through college. Winning authors
are invited to read their poems to a real audience at Powells Bookstore. Students will be
preparing their submissions during class time. You can view the 2014-15 anthology
here. http://www.honoringourriver.org/2015_edition.pdf  

If you would like to find out about this year’s Earth Day celebrations organized by
Honoring the Rivers, please visit:

Earth Day Art & Poetry Celebration Saturday, April 21, 2018 10:00 AM  12:00 PM Location: 510 Museum and ARTspace, 510 1st St, Lake Oswego, OR 97034)	Join us in celebrating Earth Day (and Poetry Month) with free poetry writing and recycled art-making activities for all ages at the 510 Museum & ARTspace in Lake Oswego.
http://honoringourrivers.org/blog/2018/3/12/student-art-po etry-exhibition-in-lake-oswego	Please pre-register for this event here.