Welcome to Grade 4 at G.D.C.S. Students enjoy working together and learning together. We begin each day with devotions, prayer and singing. We share each other’s joy and sorrows. Then we begin our academic day with math. Students are learning to think math, not just do math using our program Math Everywhere. Writing Block is a combination of grammar, creative writing, penmanship, journal writing, and prescription writing assignments. Sharing a novel together aloud completes our time before morning recess. Between recess and lunch, the students have guided reading, either using our anthology or a novel study. Our anthology is provided by Christian Schools International and has a well-balanced variety of fiction and non-fiction material. Our novel studies for the year are From Anna by Jean Little and The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White. Before lunch we also have social sciences, which can be either a unit in social studies, science or health. Students study Nigeria, Quebec, Ontario and Explorers in social studies. In health, we focus on building a healthy lifestyle and studying the skeletal and muscular systems. In science, we study birds, sound and weather.
After lunch we have a variety of additional activities. Monday we have art. Wednesdays and Thursdays, students enjoy physical education. Tuesdays and Fridays and spelling classes with Mr Cook, our grade six teacher. Four days a week, we study French. Three times a week, we have music classes, both vocal and recorder. We end our work day with Bible. We are focusing on the stories of David, Saul and Solomon, and the Divided Kingdom in the grade 4 curriculum. If there is any time left at the end of the day, students have their creative work with each other, share a learning activity or game in groups of four, or read silently. We make note of any homework assignments in our agenda notebooks and then close the day with prayer. This gives you some idea of our weekly schedule. But you really must visit G.D.C.S. personally to experience the positive, encouraging atmosphere in our classroom. I am very proud of my students and their daily achievements as we strive to build each other up and be imitators of God.
