Last Days of Our Fourthie Year

80s Hair, Anyone?

Our beloved art teacher, Kay Livick, left for Hawaii, but our new art teacher, Ms. Jaimie Merrell, helped the girls finish painting the ceramics made in honor of their mothers' hair styles in the 80s!  With a little bit of luck, we will have them before the year ends.  They really are darling!

 Putting together...what did you say...the teacher's spelling book?  Yep!

 Fun in the upper school art room!

We are winding down, happily and a little reluctantly (on my part...I hate losing this class).  Everyone is pitching in and helping to clean, straighten....and put my spelling book back together!  Hello??  Elizabeth, Taylor and Bailey deserve a round of applause.  Hard, hard work, but it proves that they KNOW how to troubleshoot, organize and perform!  The publisher of that book could take lessons from these girls...  Also, my regular visitors from the seventh grade, Helen  and Anne Madison, arrived and immediately started helping.  The school motto in action!  Great girls!

Immigrant Day

Our immigrants boarding the ship for America

 Some comments from today's experience.

"I learned that they checked the immigrants' eyes with a buttonhook, and they marked you with chalk."  Virginia
"I liked learning about the inspections."
Phoebe
"I learned that immigrants were clumped into a small space on the boat." Alejandra
"Some of the immigrants in the hospital called the nurses ladies in white." Parker
"I never knew they were so crammed together on the boat."  Sheppard
"They came to America to get a job
and make money." Anna
"Most people would live in a part of the city where
people spoke their native language."  Sarah
"I did not know that girls had to have hair
to get into America!"  Archer
"It's really amazing to know that so many people came from so many other places." Taylor
"I learned that people could only bring a few things.  They brought stuff to remind them of their families, and some people died on the boat because they got sick."
"I did not know that they looked at passports; they waited in long lines to get on the ship."  Cappy
"I learned about the clothes that immigrants from different countries wore." Parrish

"What did their teacher learn...that she has fabulous students, whom, even in May, still rise to the occasion, and love the process of learning new things.  Incredible day!  What else does she know...that she doesn't know how to embed videos! There is another video at the end of this, and actually, there is still another, so stay tuned."   Pam Roberts

Middle School, Graduation and Other Things

Dear Parents,

Excitement was high yesterday both before and after the visit to the Middle School.  The girls had a wonderful time and loved the teachers that they met.  They could hardly wait to tell me all about their experience....getting to know their fifth grade buddies and seeing the MS for the first time.  Now, they understand why I have had such a firm homework system...all those individual classes!

We are starting our Immigration unit, which is a great way to end the year.  This class loves to learn, and their enthusiasm is not waning, even though it is May.  What fabulous girls they are!

The graduation is going to be held in McVey after all.  Tradition prevails!

I hope all of you Mothers have a wonderful day on Sunday.  You deserve a special time because you have been an amazing support to both your daughters and their teacher.  Put up your feet and relax, and know that you are appreciated!

Sincerely,
Pam

P.S.  Keep the pressure on with the learning of the States and Capitals.  Now, we are starting the Midwestern states.  The new website I added is really great.  I showed the girls how to utilize it, so that it was most effective.  They are half way through!

New States and Capitals Sites

Hi Girls,

Don't forget to study for your States and Capitals test tomorrow.  It should be easier because you know at least one of them, right!  (Hint:  You live there!)  I have added a couple of new sites to help you prepare.  Good luck and have fun!

See you tomorrow!

Mrs. Roberts

Decades and Filmmaking

The Roberts' girls have been hard at work in the last few weeks!  Last week's Decade Chapel was the culmination of a lot of hard work by our class.  By  reading and researching about the culture, people and important events of the decades of the twentieth century, the class was able to plan a program for Chapel, and they did so with great energy!   Not only did they plan the skits, but they also wrote many of them.  This chapel was really just an outgrowth of what the girls have been learning and was not meant to be a polished performance, although it was close to it!  In fact, they pulled it together in about six days.  I was hugely impressed with what they were able to accomplish.  I wish that I had pictures for you, but I was too busy running the music to take pictures. Bummer!  Some things you just have to experience, I guess. 

The girls, in partners, are also working on making an I-Movie about the building and sinking of the Titanic.  They are in the role of newscasters, and each partnership decides on the perspective they will take.  I was lucky enough to run into a former student of mine, Molly Bennett Moran, who now lives in  California.  She and her husband produce independent films.  Of course, you know where I am going with this...Molly was kind enough to talk to the Roberts and Trice girls about what goes into making a film.  Having attended St. Catherine's, Molly had a keen understanding of a fourth grade experience here, so her approach was just perfect.  It was terrific for these girls to see that there is yet another career available to women these days. I think we might have some aspiring filmmakers in our class!

We shall overcome.....Sixties Day in Rockin' Roberts

Sixties Day is in full swing!  I thought that you might enjoy a little up-to-date information and pictures. We had hippies and "ladies who lunch" and Jacqueline Kennedy and Twiggie and girls with big flowered dresses and go-go boots...all the intriguing diversity of the Sixties... and the beats goes on in our Fourthie classroom.  We have sung and danced and drawn and researched and marched and staged a sit-in with our demands.  Mrs. Kapetanis was a little easier than college presidents of the Sixties,(we will be having that Jeans Day!) but she told the girls a wonderful story about her father meeting Robert F. Kennedy on a campaign train in 1968.   We have had quite a day of learning, and there's more to come!