Mr Nathan Grade 4 (April, 2022)

Describing and Creating a Monster

To begin the activity, the students read the story, “The Blind Men and the Elephant.” In which some blind men describe an elephant and its parts. We looked up the new vocabulary and talked about the story. The students learned how to make a “simile” describing something as something else.

Next we did a worksheet with a detailed description of a nature scene, in which a boy is looking out over a lake and describing what he sees. We circled the descriptions and tried to draw a picture of them as we recognized them.

Then we talked about the monsters that we already knew; dragons, unicorns, and mermaids. We then tried to think of new monsters and talked about what we remembered about them. The students talked about some Chinese creatures that they knew.

Finally, each student made their own monster or found a monster to talk about. They drew a picture of the monster and wrote a story or described it in detail. They talked about if it was good or bad, where it lived, what it ate, and what did it like to do.

Afterwards, each student introduced their monster in front of the class and told everyone about them. If there was time afterwards we had a debate about what monster would win in a fight if it was fighting someone else’s monster. This was a very fun assignment.

Ms Becky  Grade 4  (May, 2022)

Creative Speaking with Animals

To speak without preparation is no easy task. Therefore, it important to start by building up vocabulary, then to practice, by oneself, in groups and in front of the whole class.

We work hard in Grade Four to develop the students’ speaking confidence and abilities by varying activities designed to keep children ‘creatively speaking’, giving them chances to use new and different vocabulary they have been learning all year. In 4.3, we have designed a fun activity to help students think and speak at the same time, all with a smile.

Every week, students take home a different strange, morphed animal to consider. They make a story about it. Then we speak about the animal to the class on Mondays. The latest Creative Speaking Activity uses these experiences and gives students a chance to demonstrate both accumulated and new vocabulary to think about new strange animals. Students choose an animal and speak for one minute about it. There are some questions on the back of each picture to stimulate deeper thinking and creativity.

Small groups were also given previously unseen pictures. Each group chose their favorite picture, which also encourages them to speak more; as they love to talk about what they are interested in. Students took it in turns to make a creative speech about the picture, closely monitored and encouraged by their teachers. They laughed as they considered each question and this helped them be less shy when speaking to a group. They all have something interesting to say and the students really enjoyed it! After this, students wrote their stories so they had a record of their creative ideas about their funny animals.

Fun and laughter is a great way to build confidence in their own speaking abilities. 

Mr Frank  Grade 4   (May, 2022)

The Body - The Five Senses

In our themed unit on The Body, we discussed and studied The Five Senses. The students learned about the sense of touch, taste, sight, sound, and smell.  Our discussion led us to talk about the ways we can use our senses and how they help us to live.

The students seemed very excited to contribute to the conversation. Some of the class periods were dedicated to making a poster as a group project, as it allows for communication and creativity from the students.  We talked about different types of posters and what kind of information they need on them. Next, the project was broken down into three phases for the students.  Then, we generated the language that the students would need to use to communicate tasks and responsibilities within the groups at each of the three phases of the project. 

During the planning phase, the students assigned tasks to each member of the group.  They also discussed the features of their poster, and the placement of the information on their poster.

During the creation phase, the students worked diligently to write, draw, cut, and glue their features to the poster as they communicated what needed to be made and where information would be placed.

During the presentation phase, the students put the finishing touches on their work. They also decide who would talk each feature of their poster and what they would say before they presented their finished work to their classmates.

I am sure the student learnt a lot doing this project, especially about team work, cooperation and communicating effectively with each other. 

Ms Trudy  Grade 4  (May, 2022) 

Art Integrated Learning (AIL)

You must be wondering, what this is? Is it a game or a subject? It’s actually neither. Art integrated learning is a teaching-learning model, where the students learn a topic or subject in the form of art. This type of model is student-centered meaning the students are given the opportunity to decide two things: what material they learn and how they learn it, in contrast to teacher-centered approaches where the students are focused completely on the teacher. This is a fun way of getting all the students involved in the lesson. The students of 4.5 had a blast creating poster models of ‘The Human Organs” within the body. It fostered a lot of teamwork and creativity.

THE APPROACH:  

1. First, the students had to brainstorm how they wanted to construct and represent the human organs. This encouraged the students to think creatively and share their ideas, no matter how far “out there” they may seem.

2. The students had to assign task among each other in a group setting which is a good way to learn responsibility, teamwork and practice speaking confidently among their peers.  

3.They then selected the materials needed to create the organs, designed them and assembled them on the poster.

4. Finally, the students had to speak about their posters and the function of each organ in the body.

Incorporating art into the theme unit imprinted the picture, names and shape of the organs in the students’ memory while fostering good working habits. 

Mr Little  Grade 4  (May, 2022)

The Importance of Descriptions

In all my time reading the journals of students, I have noticed that many of them can be a little boring. But that begs the question, why are they so boring? They lack details! This year, the 4.1 class decided to analyze the descriptions in one of the books we read as a class: “Matilda,” by Roald Dahl. We found that out of about 20 sentences on a page, 18 would have descriptive language. Within those 18 sentences, there were over 40 descriptive words used! Those words were not limited to adjectives, but included adverbs, nouns, and even verbs!

As part of our reading, as well as writing, lessons we located and wrote down many various descriptive language styles, and we have practiced writing them both in class and as our homework. One way to do this was to start with a very basic sentence that is very common for our students. Something like: “I took my dog for a walk.” And then expand that sentence into an entire half-page story of the dog walk.

After modeling it repeatedly in class, and writing down pages of higher-level descriptive words and what they mean, students were set loose to try it on their own. Suddenly, the simple act of taking their dog for a walk,  or going to eat dinner at their aunt’s house has become an exciting and colorful story worth sharing and reading. A very enjoyable thing to read indeed!

Adding descriptions can make a very boring and simple story into a writing masterpiece that helps the reader to imagine and live the story through words!