Hunter: Bryson's 4th Grade Buddy

An update from Bryson's teacher:

 

We are continuing to learn different word families.  We practiced reading an -at word family poem last week.  The children clapped or silently cheered when we read an -at word.  We have also been exploring books in our classroom library.  

We have practiced skip counting by 2s using a large number line.  We counted how many children were in school and created an attendance stick (a long stick of linking cubes, with each cube representing a student who was in school that day).  We are going to continue working on sorting and learning about attributes.  

After reviewing the parts of an apple, the students cut out the names of each part and glued to an apple diagram.  The children also learned about some new building materials in our science area (magnetic tiles, Legos, and a playground design kit).  

 

Another update:

 

We read the big book, To Town, this week.  We also began to learn about the short a sound.  The -an word family was reviewed and we listed words that belong in the -at word family.  We have also moved on from Kevin Henkes and are now reading books by Leo Lionni.  Last week, we wrote our names on our Handwriting Without Tears book and practiced our pencil correctly. 

In mathematics, we continued to explore different ways to use pattern blocks.  We also learned about patterns.   Patterns repeat themselves.  During our discussion, we listed different ways we can make patterns, ABAB, ABBABB, ABCABC, and then created patterns with our pattern blocks.  The children also drew patterns that are now hanging in the classroom.  

We read more books about apples.  After reading some books, we discussed and listed the parts of an apple.  Next, we watched a short video (about 4 minutes) about Johnny Appleseed on BrainPopJr.  

 

At Hunter, they pair 4th graders with Kindergarteners to build community. They meet every other week and do activities like apple tasting. Here is Bryson with his buddy, Pieress.