PRESENTING THE PREAMBLE

WOW! 4K was outstanding as they presented the Preamble of the Constitution to the student of the Proctor School. The video came out in two parts for some reason. So be sure to click on both to see it all.

FANTASTIC FIELD TRIP

FANTASTIC FIELD TRIP

4K was able to go to The Tsongas Industrial History Center to learn about the history of immigration to the United States, and in particular, to Lowell. The program in very engaging with scavenger hunts to find artifacts, a tour of the working mill to witness fabric being made, role playing a town meeting in 1890s to debate opening a school for Irish immigrant children and a chance to be historians studying authentic artifacts of items immigrants brought with them from their homeland.

HOLIDAYS ACROSS AMERICA

4K was lucky enough to connect with classrooms across America by sharing holiday cards. The theme was to share our holiday traditions. We worked together to create, decorate, write, and address our holiday card for 29 other classrooms. Some of the states we sent cards to are Wisconsin, New Jersey, California, Texas and Iowa and many others. Here is a link to the full project explanation.  We will be doing a mystery skype with one of these classrooms soon.

HONORING VETERANS IN 4K

They made streamers with red and blue stars on them. They made patriotic paper chains. They created posters and flags. They cleaned and straightened up the room. Why? The students of 4K wanted to let the veterans who were coming to visit our class that they respected their service. Everyone wanted to make the veterans feel how much of an honor we thought it was to have them come to our school, so they all worked as a team to create a patriotic place!

REMARKABLE RECITING OF PREAMBLE

After Mrs. O'Leary, our principal, heard 4K recite the Preamble she asked us to say it to the whole school! The students in 4K prepared a mini-lesson as an introduction to our performance. We wanted to teach everyone a few facts about The Constitution and what some of the words in the Preamble mean and then amaze them by reciting the Preamble!

Click to view

SALUTING VETERANS

Today, 4K took time to think about what the saying "Freedom Isn't Free" means. 

The students discussed how freedom takes great effort by our veterans. They sacrifice so much for our country and that is the price that freedom really costs. Our Thankful Thursday sign-in was about what we'd say to veteran if we could.....

DARING TO DREAM BIG!!

4K wanted to do something special to showcase our understanding of the school's theme of Dream Big. We wrote a skit that showed how many important people in history dared to dream big and improved the world! The class also worked together on creating props for their skit at CLIC. This project allowed us to collaborate, be creative, problem solve and, of course, DREAM BIG!

Thanks to a parent who recorded this event we have some videos to remember this special 4K memory. The sound is a bit low so turn up the volume.

INVESTIGATING IMMIGRATION

Thanks to TESPTO, the fourth grade visited the Tsongas Industrial History Center (Lowell Mills) to investigate immigration. (click on the links to learn more about the Lowell Mills or the specific immigration field trip we attended.)

The industrial revolution depended on people power to run the machines. Initially it was the farm girls and boys who were seeking money, but soon immigrants from other parts of the world came looking for job opportunities too.

We got to see first-hand what work in the mills was like!

This mill is still producing textiles today. And boy is it loud!

As part of our field trip we role-played. The first step was experiencing what it is like for immigrants who have traveled a long distance to get to the US only to have to wait some more.

Another part of the immigrant experience is having passports approved, or not by immigration officials.

Our class learned so much as we role-played being immigrants from Ireland, Greece, Cambodia, etc. We also got the opportunity to handle cultural artifacts some immigrants brought with them. This showed us how many similarities various cultures actually share.

Each group of students unpacked the luggage of an immigrant. We saw that the items they brought had  a great deal of meaning to them and many immigrants brought similar things. For example, they often brought religious items, musical instruments, clothing unique to their homeland, family photos, etc.

The class got a chance to hold a mock Town Meeting (based on the real on in the 1800s). The issue discussed was whether or not to fund a school for the Irish children.And of course,