Grade 4 Language Arts & Social Studies

The students were excited to see one another back at school on Tuesday. We kicked off the new year by completing a scavenger hunt through the state posters. Each class had to examine the 18 posters from their class to answer the questions. Once they completed that, they enjoyed scanning QR codes on the posters that linked to a variety of websites, songs, and videos about the states.

In language arts this week, students learned two new morphemes and two new vocabulary words from their class novel.

In addition, we learned rules for subject-verb agreement. Students engaged in a cut-and-paste activity on the topic and completed task cards on which they decided whether or not the subjects and verbs agree. We completed a brief assessment today, and we will dive deeper into this topic in the coming weeks.

4th graders learned another type of topic sentence today, and that helped them craft a paragraph about some of the adventures they enjoyed over winter break. In the ‘Winter Break Times,’ they wrote about how they spent their time away from school, and they included tidbits about favorite gifts they gave and received, as well as the best thing they ate!

In addition, we read two more chapters in Three Times Lucky.

In social studies, we are embarking on a unit about colonial America. Students shared what they thought they knew about this time in history, and we read an article together about the Columbian Exchange of goods between the Old and New World. We look forward to learning more next week!

We were excited to have three seniors visit our classroom today. Cate, Harper and Maggie shared about their experiences, the classes they enjoy, and their plans for next year. 4th graders had the opportunity to ask them questions, and we all played Imposter together.

In Morning Meetings this week, the classes shared about their winter vacations and about injuries they’ve had over the years. They enjoyed games of Giants, Wizards, and Elves, and 4M tried playing Arm Hockey!

At today’s Spirit Assembly, several 4th grade boys were selected to compete in for some Black/Orange points. Way to go, Jack, Christian, Jackson and Holden!

We also enjoyed meeting the winter sports teams and cheering alongside our basketball cheerleaders.

My class spent time practicing our lines for the play coming up very soon. I hope they read through their scripts again this weekend!

This week, students were wrapping up their state posters, which included labeling maps, writing paragraphs, and drawing state flags or birds.

The end result is a colorful and educational displauy in our hallway. In the new year, students will have a chance to explore one another’s work.

In addition students researched products from their state. They created a symbol for each crop grown, animal raised, or item manufactured, mined or fished to create an ‘economy quilt’ for their state.

So many state snacks came in this week! There was such a great variety of things for them to try. Charlotte shared homemade Benne wafers from SC with hummus and pimiento cheese, while Anika brought Hershey’s Kiss cookies for her state of Pennsylvania. Aurora shared popcorn for Illinois, and Nelson brought crab dip and crackers for Alaska. Oliver brought in King’s Hawai’ian rolls for, you guessed it, Hawai’i, and Mason baked New Orleans-style bread pudding for Louisiana.

Later in the week, we tasted crab cake balls for Maryland that Christian and his dad made, and Isla brought Key lime pie for Florida. Cooper brought in heart-shaped berry tarts for Oregon. Ellie’s family made Nebraska coffee cake, and Charlie brought in prickly pear-flavored popcorn for Arizona. Finally, Roger made a yummy Texas sheet cake, and Will brought in biscuits with chocolate gravy for his state of Arkansas. Phew! Thank you to all our parents who made this possible by shopping, ordering, baking, slicing and more.

The highlight of the week was the trip to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Students were split into four groups for docent-led tours of the collection, including the special exhibit about Dolly Parton. They had a chance to see costumes, lyrics, instruments, cars and so much more belonging to pioneers of country music, as well as today’s stars.

The trip concluded with the songwriting session. Our volunteer songwriters were a husband-wife team originally from Florida, Giselle and Erik. They read through 36 sets of lyrics we submitted, and chose six to set to music. It was so exciting for the students to hear one another’s work and for those six students to share about their inspiration for their songs. Congrats to Cooper, Penny, and Amelia in 4E and Charlie, Mara, and Silas in 4M.

In language arts, we reviewed our spelling-vocabulary words, took at test, and read another chapter in Three Times Lucky.

We also celebrated Elliot’s 10th birthday this week.

As is our tradition, the Lower and Middle School students gathered on our last day together for a Holiday Sing-along. Filled with dancing, singing, and games, the morning was a festive way to conclude our semester together.

Once we returned to the classroom, we enjoyed games of Pictionary with holiday song titles, holiday MadLibs, and delicious treats provided by our parents.

Here’s hoping everyone has a fun-filled holiday season. See you in 2026!

4th graders are designing posters about their states. This week, many typed and printed facts, pictures, and maps to attach to the posters. The students are building computer skills as they learn to change colors, fonts, cut and paste images, and even create QR codes!

Much of the time is spent researching in books we brought up from the library. They also perused the internet to find engaging videos and websites they’d like to feature in their QR codes. The posters will be completed next week.

In addition, students continue to learn types of topic sentences and practice organizing and writing paragraphs. This week, they worked on a paragraph about an interesting place to visit in their state. These will be featured on their posters as well.

State snacks are coming in daily. This week John shared Swedish Fish for the Swedes who settled Minnesota, and Rosalie brought Mississippi Mud Cake. Jack taught us that Jell-o is a popular treat in his state of Utah, and Liza brought homemade apple crumble with ice cream for Washington. Caleb shared a yummy cucumber dip from Kansas, and Sally brought in New York bagels.

Mara shared popcorn from her state of Indiana, Kate made a peach cake for Georgia, and Nora made Mackinac fudge from Michigan. We also enjoyed Jackson’s sweet potato biscuits from Alabama and Amelia’s homemade Jolly Ranchers from Colorado.

To review for our quiz on The West, we played games of Around the World and competed in a Kahoot.

The classes enjoyed another chapter in Three Times Lucky, and we worked to sort their spelling-vocabulary words by part of speech.

This book has a lot of characters to keep up with, so this week we also discussed character traits again – personality and physical. The students worked together to identify traits of the main characters. Then they wrote them on color-coded Post-its, and put them on posters for each character.

Today we enjoyed the first of the 4th grade plays performed by Mr. Champion’s class. It was so entertaining! Our class is up next in January, so we will begin working on it next week.

Today we also hosted more prospective students. Thank you to John and Campbell for including their guests and helping them have a great morning.

In Morning Meeting, students shared about what they’d like to have zero of, little -known facts about themselves, and more. They played games of Hidden Clip, Elevens, and Poisonous Dart Frog.

This has been a very productive week in Grade 4! We have learned three new morphemes and reviewed all our current vocabulary words. The students love generating words with each morpheme and creating pictures to help them recall the meanings.

This week, they also finished writing and typing their original song lyrics. The lyrics have been sent off to a professional songwriter whom we will meet on Dec. 16 at the Country Music Hall of Fame. That day, we will be surprised to see which songs have been selected and set to music!

The focus in language arts this week has been on paragraphs. We learned about topic and conclusion sentences, as well as ‘star ideas’ and detail sentences. We worked together to identify and color-code them in sample paragraphs.

We also practiced generating star ideas for paragraphs. Students were given board topics and they had to come up with three parallel ideas about which they could write.

Today, we put it all together after a lesson on character traits. I read Olivia, a popular picture book and the students had to come up with three words to describe Olivia. Then they learned two types of topic sentences they could use to begin their paragraph about her.

In addition, we read a chapter in Three Times Lucky, and students completed comprehension questions.

On Tuesday, we traveled to Nashville Children’s Theatre to see their production of “Charlotte’s Web.” Students were very entertained by the familiar story and enjoyed sharing their observations of creative decisions made about the costumes, casting and set design. We also enjoyed a pizza/fruit lunch back in our classroom afterward.

In social studies, we finished learning about the West region, enjoyed numerous state snacks, and made great progress on our state poster projects.

We enjoyed Campbell’s chocolate-covered huckleberries and huckleberry jam from Idaho and Leela’s biscochitos from New Mexico. Sophia brought homemade chocolate cookies for Massachusetts which were invented at the Toll House Inn. Another big hit was Colette’s blueberry soda from Maine.

Thank you to Will, Elliot, Anika and Amelia for serving as wonderful and welcoming hosts to our prospective students today.

In Morning Meeting this week, students enjoyed games of Hidden Clip, Poisonous Dart Frog, Mind Reader and more. We also had fun with the selfie greeting.

On Monday, students were putting the finishing touches on their special poems for their grandparents and special guests. Each one was a compilation of memories they’ve shared over the years. Students also spent time working on their song lyrics which will be submitted to our professional songwriting partner next week.

Also on Monday, Penny shared a delicious homemade treat for her state of Connecticut – a cinnamon apple cookie.

After the show in Brown Gym, grandparents made their way to the classrooms where they were greeted, given tours of the classrooms, and introduced to teachers and friends. We loved having them!

This week the students began another unit of morphology, learning -al/-ial, -ty/-ity, and the Latin base fer. They came up with lots of great words and illustrations to help them remember the meanings.

In addition, we wrapped up our first spelling-vocabulary list from Three Times Lucky. Because it’s a mystery, some of the words are related to the judicial system.

We read two more chapters of the novel this week, and we are taking notice of similes and connections while we practice making inferences.

Much of our time this week was spent writing. Students are busy crafting songs, as well as pieces for their grandparents.

In social studies this week, we kicked off our final region – the West! Students labeled maps with states and capitals, and we read the chapter in our book about the region’s unique geography. In addition, two students shared state snacks. Samuel brought in California rolls which were in invented in L.A., and Maya brought New Jersey’s favorite treat – saltwater taffy.

We celebrated John’s 10th birthday on Monday with crumbl cookies for his class.

We also attended two fantastic assemblies this week. The first was the Native American Heritage Assembly hosted by Ensworth parent, Charles Robinson. He and some of his children shared about their culture with the students, and involved them in some of their dances.

Today, after the whirlwind that was the Pancake Breakfast, we were treated to a morning of music from Ensworth high school students. Encore, the Jazz Band, and the Rock Band all performed and helped everyone burn off some of that sugar!

In Morning Meeting this week, the kids enjoyed sharing about their grandparents, playing games of “Good Morning, Mr. President” and No Talk Toss, the ‘no teeth’ greeting, and more.

Indoor recess this week was filled with creativity. Students enjoyed playing games and building chain reactions like in science class.

This week in grammar, we continued to work on end marks. We examined a passage from a popular children’s book from which all punctuation had been removed. The students were quick to find places they needed to pause and add periods. The next step is applying this skill to their own writing!

This week, I read aloud two poems by author Charles R. Smith, Jr. – one about basketball and the other about baseball. The students picked one of their hobbies – such as knitting, dance, football, lacrosse – and wrote their own “I Remember” poem about learning, trying, failing, and succeeding in this area. Later in the week, they typed and illustrated the poems for display.

You might notice some older students in these photos. On Tuesday, a psychology class from the high school visited Red Gables, and we were lucky to have Andrew, Terrence, and Benton visit with us. All are seniors who aspire to be college athletes. The kids were thrilled to be with them.

In reading, we completed two more chapters in Three Times Lucky and a set of comprehension questions. Students are encouraged to mark in their books when they find similes, vocabulary words, and connections to their lives, other books, or the world.

We also continued learning about songs and songwriting. We identified rhyme schemes, talked about turning true stories into songs, and tried drafting some!

We also reviewed ten morphemes this week for an assessment on Thursday, and played several review games to prepare for today’s Southwest quiz. Kahoot is always the favorite!

In Morning Meeting, we had fun with the Paper Hat game, Reverse Charades, Rock/Paper/Scissors – Entourage style and more. 4M tried a new and challenging game – one partner saw a picture and described it to the other partner who had to try and draw it – a great way to practice communication and teammwork!

We had our first two state snacks this week. Elliot share Krispy Kreme which originated in his state of North Carolina, and Silas brought in homemade gooey butter cake which was invented in his state, Missouri. Both were big hits!

We hosted LOTS of prospective students this week in Grade 4. Each class had an additional three students on Tuesday and on Friday. Thanks to all our great hosts in 4E : Liza, Holden, Campbell, Cooper, Sophia and Samuel.

We were treated to two theatrical performances this week – a 3rd grade class play directed by Mrs. Rodgers and a teaser for the MS musical, Annie Jr. Both were fantastic!

Finally, we started a new read-aloud during homeroom, The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke. It’s set in Venice, and, like most children’s books, it centers on orphans. We are two chapters in and the class is hooked.

This week, 4th graders in 4E and 4M tackled the Southwest. They read all about oil, cattle, and rodeos! We learned about the Mexican, Spanish, and Native American influences on the culture. I shared pictures of my trip to Santa Fe where I sampled local cuisine and visited the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. In addition, they worked on their map skills by completing pages in their workbooks about the region.

In language arts this week, we enjoyed two long chapters in Three Times Lucky. We also learned a few more vocabulary words from the novel by racing in Dictionary Digs. They can get very competitive!

We also learned four more morphemes this week.

The most fun lessons were in our songwriting unit. This week, the students learned about how rhythm works with the number of syllables in lyrics. They also learned about a variety of rhyme schemes. We had fun reading lyrics and listening to songs.

Today we celebrated Veterans Day. Our assembly featured 5th graders sharing about the various branches of the military. MS students introduced some of their parents who are veterans, and we got to hear from them about their service.

In Morning Meeting this week, we enjoyed the Middle Name Greeting, 1, 2, 3 Look, and more. We also played games of Coconut and Don’t Guess the Word.

Thank you to Colette for hosting a prospective student from MA this week.

The week began with a bang! Not only did we host prospective students on Monday, we also attended a Patchwork assembly with performance artist, Doug Berky. The kids were AMAZED by his talents: juggling, mime, unicycle riding, and more.

Thank you to Sally, Leela, Jackson, Mason, and Kate for being such great hosts to our visitors. (I didn’t realize my picture of Sally & Marjorie was blurry!)

In class this week, we have been very busy! Students reviewed each day for the Midwest quiz. They practiced with the map, played games of Sparkle, 5 Questions/3 Clues, Around the World, and their favorite – Kahoot!

In language arts, we continued in morphology with inter-, trans-, and pend. The students came up with some great words using the morphemes. In grammar, we examined verb tenses, and they had fun constructing sentences with multiple verbs in the past tense.

We also read two chapters in Three Times Lucky and learned more vocabulary from the novel. One skill we are focusing on is making connections. We want our readers to notice when something in the book reminds them of another text, something in their own life, or something in the world.

The most fun lessons were about the new unit we are starting on songwriting and the history of country music. A longstanding tradition in 4th grade, this unit will teach the students about the industry right here in Music City, about the pioneers of country music, and all about writing songs.

This week, we learned about the Carter Family and listened to some of their hits. We also learned about how the Grand Ole Opry came to be. In their journals, students were asked to record what they know about songs and to try a write a song before learning any of the lessons. Throughout the week, we learned about verses, the chorus, a bridge, and more…

We also wrapped up many of the diary projects, and the students had fun binding their books.

Also this week, each student was matched up with one of the 50 states. We began browsing some books Mrs. Gaines shared with us from the library. More to come!

Because of the dreary weather, our recess was moved inside a few times this week. This game us time to play games together such as Yahtzee, Shut the Box, Battleship, Tenzi and more. Building with dominoes is another popular activity.

On Wednesday, we attended Mrs. Royse’s 3rd grade play, ‘Miss Nelson Has a Field Day!’ We were throughly entertained, and each student wrote a member of the cast some ‘fan mail.’

In Morning Meeting this week, we played review games about the Midwest, enjoyed the T-rex handshake, and much more. Students shared about favorite Halloween costumes from the past, and we played Halloween-themed Reverse Charades and Pictionary. My class also enjoyed the Price is Right greeting.

Seeing all the costumes and celebrating with games and treats make Halloween a fun day at school.

Thank you to our room parents for their efforts to make our party so tasty and festive!

Last week, two of the dance videos didn’t make it onto the blog, so here they are! My apologies…