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Dear Parents and Students,
Thank you for all your hard work and support this year. Every year begins with a new set of young fourth graders and, by the end of the year, we have shared many memories, bonded through tough times, played outside a lot and connected deeply with each other. As I said goodbye to them on the last day, there were lots of tears. Clearly, your kids care for one another and, hopefully, they enjoyed fourth grade. I worked hard every day to make their time at Grovecenter both enjoyable and productive. Summer is a great opportunity to have fun but also work on deficits in reading, math or writing. Thirty minutes of review/reteaching four times a week can work wonders. By the way, I can already see the 2025 state test results, so you will probably receive them in the mail or your parent portal later in summer. As always, please contact me if you need anything. Thank you again for your support and prayers. Blessings, Mr. Riggs Lots going on in November. PlayDoh for learning shapes in math. Great Artist's program using chalk pastels (Messy but fun!). Learning about forces using Kleenex cars and ping pong balls.
So my plan was to build with salt dough. My recipe included too much water. We had fun anyways. Sometimes the best part of writing is writing about something unique and different. I handed my students some old photographs and they wrote some stories. They are so creative! Our scholars learned how to balance forces using string, cups and rubber bands. They worked together and had a blast.
Our new science program encourages discussion and teamwork. The first lesson was moving cups using string and one rubber band. Groups worked well together. Time to build the highest structure you can with marshmallows and toothpicks. We learned valuable lessons - fresh mallows aren't as good and old/dry ones. We also had to sample several marshmallows. Yum! Every so often I'll bring in giant containers of Legos and let my students build. It's loud, messy but fun. I keep my students updated on various improvements in spaceflight including Starship and Falcon 9 launches from SpaceX. I show them the joyful expressions on the SpaceX workers' faces when a launch happens. It's applied math, it's hard but so amazing.  History can be dry and somewhat dull but it holds valuable wisdom that we can use to appreciate where we are as well as help us avoid mistakes of the past. So, as we learn the history of California, students will work in small groups to discuss and share what they have learned. Socializing and learning do go hand in hand. The first lesson on bones and ligaments involved building one finger. The challenge level was building a whole hand which we finally did. It was great! I believe that each student was created to build and problem solve. Everyone receives a container of PlayDoh at the beginning of the year and they love working with it. They get a break from reading, writing and math plus they can use their hands and play. Every classroom should have PlayDoh! Writing is challenging for most students but getting thoughts down on paper and making a plan really help reluctant writers. The focus in fourth grade is five or more paragraphs with complete sentences and lots of details. The first essay is called All About Me. It gives students a chance to tell me and the class who they are and what they are interested in. It's messy but art is a wonderful break from traditional subjects. The Great Artist program walks us through all the steps and students are able to explore a different side of education - creative expression.  It's common to have distracted students and some days it seems like engaging them is getting harder. In my experience, fun needs to be a part of learning or kids will tune out. So, on the first day of school, we did a hands-on science activity using Mystery Science. We built a finger. I think it was a hit. |
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Mr. Riggs has taught for over 25 years. Learning should be exciting and memorable! Categories
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