Spotlight: Learning with the 3-4 Classes this Year
Third and fourth-grade teachers, Kathryn Amato and Heather Peters, joined FSP this school year. They have both settled right in with long-time Assistant Teacher Pete Curtis. Heather described, “FSP has felt like a homecoming for me. As someone who has worked in Quaker Schools before, I have enjoyed how I can feel that this is a Friends School – a school that balances Quaker values with expectations. I appreciate so fully the integrity with which people act.”
This fall, both classes delved into the book “Handful of Stars” by Cynthia Lord, and then, after many students wondered, “What do blueberry enchiladas taste like?” Kathryn created small cooking groups between the 3-4 classes so that each student had the chance to learn to make the delicious recipe.
New this year, the 3-4 classes are divided by grade level for math: third-grade students work with Heather, and fourth-grade students with Kathryn. In third-grade math, Heather introduced “Pocket Day.” Every Wednesday, third-grade students count up all the pockets their classmates are wearing. Then they get to work building their estimation and graphing skills.
Heather shared: “Our current hypothesis is that clothes usually have an even number of pockets. We have noticed that clothing that comes from the girls' section often has no pockets in the shorts or pants. We continue to talk about why this might be true. We have shown our total pockets in a few different ways: a bar graph, a picture graph, and on a number line. We will continue with this data as the year goes on and might even see what data we get with a school-wide Pocket Day!”
Thinking ahead to what’s next:
“We are wrapping up our unit on Casco Bay Critters with a curriculum share soon. And I’m excited that we are getting ready to begin our Simple Machines unit. As part of the Casco Bay Critters unit, our classes went on the Casco Bay Lines mail boat run. There were so many good questions about pulleys, propellers, and docks. I’m really excited to weave together and launch into these questions next!” shared Kathryn.