Students have been working hard on end the year reflections. Below is a sneak preview (of portions) of their reflections sprinkled with photographs documenting our wonderful year together. The full reflection will be included in the year-end progress report in late June. We are very proud of these outgoing Fourth Graders! What a year!!

Alejandro: At the end of this school year I am most proud of my poetry. I feel like I have grown as a poet and I’ve grown better senses of what’s around me and how to describe it. Now I think of poems I could write in my head sometimes, because I observe my surroundings closely.

Arlo: I noticed I improved in math because we are learning more challenging math, like division and fractions (I like to use the U.S algorithm to reason through problems).  Also, I think I have improved my writing because of google drive. I have improved by writing faster and better.

Bayo: Some of my favorite projects that I’ve made through the year are my letter to Avery, my Collaborative Flag that I made in art to show everyone in the world is welcome here, my Powerpoint for gun control, my Statue of Liberty article, Immigrant Persona, Wonder homework, Ai Weiwei Gilded Cage article and probably most of all, my Rubik’s cube solving robot even though the programing didn’t work. The reason I’m proud of it even though it didn’t work is because I still built it and it still looks pretty cool.

Bo: I can use what I learned in school for things outside of school for:

Math, I can use with just about anything.

Social Studied/facts, I can impress people with my facts.

P.E. I can use skills when having fun.

Play, I can use talking skills for things later in life for say, a job interview.

Cece: At the end of my Fourth Grade year I am most proud of: how my poetic language expanded, my news article, reading and the piece of writing that we wrote in the persona of a tenement inspector. One of my favorite poems that I wrote was the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory poem. Two of my favorite pieces of writing are the Gilded Cage article and the Tenement Inspector paragraphs that I wrote in the persona of a tenement inspector. Those where my favorite because I thought they had the most meaning.

Cy: This year has been a wonderful year and I have learned so much. I have accomplished a great deal of things and I am sad to leave the lower school. Goodbye to all of the great teachers and hello to a new way of learning. I am proud of so many of the things that I’ve done but here are a few. I am proud of my current interpretation of the Statue of Liberty that I made with my friends Theo, Bo and Alejandro. It is an eagle escaping a cage and that represents freedom. I also think that I have gotten way better at my poetry. I include lots of metaphors and beautiful language. I found out a lot about my research topic which was the 1963 Birmingham, Alabama children’s marches. I enjoyed presenting my knowledge to the class after all of the resources I had used. It was a fun way of using my loud voice.

Hanako: I think I learned a lot in science, too because we study some of the same things each year and each year I get something different out of it. I also got better at note taking because the teachers made us practice with articles and told us to THINK THINK THINK!!!!! I also got better at eating more types of food at lunch. 🙂

…My favorite part of fourth grade is that you can use creativity in so many different subjects.

Harley: I like current events because I like learning about problems in the world, and what people are doing to fix them. I don’t think this counts as curriculum, but i also like planning for the play, because it feels like it is led by the students, and if the students aren’t ready, then the whole play will seem not rehearsed.

…Through Social Studies, I have learned that everyone is human, and someone’s appearance does not affect their personality.  

Henry: I am most proud of the 2 books I read, Project 1065 and Code of Honor and my reading check-ins for them because I really like the author. I am also proud of my farm poem and my Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Poem because they are different and unique.  

Giselle: In DS4 I have learned that if you work together you can accomplish anything. That you can find fun in everything. You can think beyond your dreams. You can get help and be corrected, (this is for you Charissa.)…This has been the best year of my Lower School experience. It has been smooth stream down the bumpy rocks. Sometimes the rocks are too big, but we always push through.

Libi: I have learned that to learn best I need to be detailed, have a full stomach and experience the thing we are learning about. Like when we learned about the Statue of Liberty, we went to see it. Once I saw it, it had a very strong effect.

Macy: This year I am most proud of the math story problems about Ellis Island that we made in math lab. I am most proud of this because it was my first activity that included three subjects, that are, Math Lab, Tech and Social Studies (the Ellis Island part). This was fun because I got to step in to some of the math problems immigrants had when they went through Ellis Island.

…Here is a thing that I learned outside of school and that help me in school. That thing is, “Every mistake you make helps you learn.”

Palma: My favorite part of the curriculum was social studies. To be more specific it was many things that related to social studies such as learning about the past/ learning how people before you lived, learning about immigration the process of coming to this country/how people came here. from what I already know I think the upcoming play is part of this too.

Saffron: I have noticed that I’ve improved in math, because the other kids in my class are very helpful add supporting when you need help. I have also noticed that I’ve improved in Spanish, because we started learning easy things and slowly it’s getting harder, and I think that helps.

Sarah: My strategies for when I have trouble with subjects or people are try my hardest and read. Trying my hardest helps me because if you don’t try, what’s the point? Reading helps me because it lets me put myself in another person’s life and problems and forget my own.

Sebastian:  I have noticed that I’ve improved in writing descriptively because in third grade if we had to write a poem I would only want to do an acrostic poem because if I did any other type of poem I thought it would be bad before even doing it. And an acrostic poem in my opinion is the easiest poem to write. But now in fourth grade I can do almost any kind of poem.

Sonia: Something else that I am proud of is my page in reading group called Lower School Beautiful Language. This page is really important to me because it tells me and others that I have learned how to form beautiful language and all you really have to do is put your mind to it and play around. In a way, it’s kind of like playing a game with your head.

Theo: This school is like a home to me, and it will never stop being one, it’s  a huge part of my life. I came in kindergarten, and look at me now! I am part of a huge community, and I will be going into a bigger one next year, MIDDLE SCHOOL!