3rd & 4th Grades

Curriculum

The best way to learn about our program is to get a snapshot of a typical day in the 3rd/4th grade class (although it is difficult to describe a “typical” day due to the nature of taking frequent field trips, having guests in the class, and other community engagement activities).

Students arrive at school between 7:45 and 8:45 AM. They can play in our gym, read, draw, build, and socialize with friends before class begins.

At 9:00 AM, we gather in our classroom and make a circle for our morning meeting. We start with five minutes of silent journaling, then go over the day’s schedule. Depending on the day we might read about and discuss a current event, sing a song, or pose a question for discussion. We warm up our brains for math class with a math routine, such as skip counting around our circle, doing an activity with a number line, or playing a game called “guess my rule”. We often do a number talk as well, where we pose a math equation for students to solve mentally, then discuss the strategies they used to solve it.

After our morning meeting, we switch to our mixed age and ability level math and language arts classes. These are smaller groups (usually 8-12 students) led by one teacher, with a break in the middle where students can eat a snack and have a short period of recess.

Our math curriculum focuses on mathematical thinking and reasoning, and provides multiple access points to students at different levels. Our language arts curriculum provides a literacy rich classroom, where students experience reading and writing in a variety of media and structures. From independent free-choice to structured writing workshops and reading groups, our goal is to help all students stretch themselves and grow as readers and writers.

From 12:00-1:00 PM, we have lunch and recess. Students are free to eat, move, and play throughout the campus. A great deal of awesome, creative, multi-age play and learning happens during this hour.

After lunch, our class either participates in the school-wide Exploration classes, which are mini-electives run by teachers throughout the school, or engages in our science or social studies themes.

Two or three days a week we have Body Works, our version of gym class, either outside or in the gym. Body Works is a blend of active group games, Physical Education skills, and fun ways to move our bodies! Some examples of things our class has done in body works range from volleyball, Frisbee, and basketball to contra dancing, hiking, stretching, and breathing exercises.

We close each day with clean-up time, where each student completes their assigned clean-up job in our classroom or a designated outside area.

Family Meetings

Family meeting is an important part of empowering 3rd & 4th grade students to participate in creating our classroom community and the democratic process. These meetings are student-led, with several different jobs that help students to practice skills necessary to engage with different groups. Students choose topics to discuss and we work on active listening and nonviolent communication strategies. These meetings really help to bring students together and encourage understanding and empathy.

Field Trips and Community Engagement

We believe strongly in engaging with the larger Southern Indiana community, both by getting our students out in the world on field trips and by bringing community experts into our classroom. Some examples are:

• IU Greenhouse
• Indiana Dunes Learning Center
• Indiana State museum
• Sycamore Land Trust properties
• The Monroe County Public Library
• IU Wiley House Museum
• McCormick’s Creek State Park
• IU Swahili Program
• Lessons from Visiting Experts from Sycamore Land Trust
• Neighborhood walks
• WonderLab Science Museum
• Freeze Fest Ice sculptures
• Mavourneen Farm
• Camp Palawopec
• IU art museum
• IU Geology Lab
• Hoosier National Forest
• Constellation Stage and Screen Productions
• IU Lilly Library