The Fourth Grade Times

We have started around the world!  Our topic this year is Oceans Around the World.  In Fourth Grade we will be focusing on Ocean Mythology.  We began looking at Greek Mythology.  We talked about the sirens.  Sirens are mytholigical creatures that were half bird and half human.  They would use their beautiful voices to bring the sailors to their rocky island where they live. The sailors’ ship would crash into the rocks and the sirens would eat them!  After that we read the myth of Dolphin Boy. The myth explains that the stars were created to guide sailors. That myth is almost the opposite of the sirens.  It was interesting to to talk about the differences in both of the myths.  After our discussion, we wrote and illustrated our own ocean myths.

In Social Studies before the break, we finished up learning about the 13 Colonies. One of our final activities was Skittles for the King. We each got a certain amount of Skittles and they stood for our income. Then, the tax collectors came around and took a certain fraction of our money, and gave it to the King. Eventually, we had no money left and it showed us how the colonists felt when they got their money taken away in taxes.

Our teachers told us that over break we should think about a freedom fighter we would like to study. When we got back from break, we were told to narrow down our list to three freedom fighters that we were excited about studying. Then we got together with a teacher and chose which freedom fighter was right for us.  

As many of you know already, we finally went on our big trip to Plimoth Plantation! We were really excited to see the plantation and all of the things we had been learning about so far. We took a bus and it took 4.5 hours. We visited an english settlement with actors. Then we went to the Wampanoag settlement with real Native American people. They had a lot of animal skins and we got to sit with them and learn more about their culture. Then we took a bus to the Plimoth Sands Motel. We had some down time in our room that we really enjoyed and we then we had a pizza party. After, we went to bed. The next day we had breakfast at the hotel and then went to see the Mayflower II and Plimoth Rock. We also went to a grist mill and met the miller there. He showed us how to mill corn and he was really cool! Since we got back from the trip we have been making a mural in the class that shows all the differences between the Settlers and the Native Americans. We loved social studies this month!

In social studies, we have been learning about Jamestown. It is an old forgotten colony. What we have done so far is “A Captain’s Decision,” where we decided on where we would settle on a map, based on what we knew about the land and who would be in the settlement. We watched a movie called “Secrets of the Dead.” It was a movie that told us about the archaelogical digs going on there and the artifacts they are finding at Jamestown in Virginia. We did a virtual voyage from England to Jamestown in Computer.

Now we are learning about Plimoth. We have done a reading where we had to answer questions about the Pilgrims and the Powhatan Indians. We highlighted and underlined the answers we found. We also watched the “Voyage on the Mayflower” and learned about the inside of the ship. We also did skits on groups of Pilgrims and Powhatans meeting each other for the first time and thought about the customs they would share, and the misunderstandings that would happen. We are getting ready for our trip to Plimoth, which is November 15-16.