Summary of Grade Four

Summary of Lila’s Fourth Grade Year
2008-2009

Some of the books Lila read this year:

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

The Borning Room

The Search for Delicious

The Trumpet of the Swan

James Herriot’s Treasury for Children

Thor’s Wedding Day

Heidi

Addie Across the Prairie

The Boxcar Children series

Harry Potter (second book in series)

MATH
Lila worked this year on carrying and borrowing and fractions. She completed the Oak Meadow 4 book as well as the Key to…Fractions, book one. She played a lot of math games in her class on Monday’s, Rainbow’s Edge, and created string art of the multiplication tables 1-10.

 LANGUAGE ARTS
Lila continues to love to read; she enjoys reading series books and mysteries, and reads 5 – 10 books a week! This year, Lila made a beautiful main lesson book of Ohio geography and history, and another on Zoology, focusing on the comparison of human beings and animals. In these books, Lila summarizes a story she has read or heard and paints or draws a picture to go with it. Lila memorized many poems and verses this year as well. Lila studied grammar, took a creative writing class, and wrote her first book reports. We also had the opportunity to attend a play at the Cleveland Playhouse, “Mahalia,” which was a gospel musical about the life of Mahalia Jackson. Lila has continued her involvement with drama, performing in the play, “The Swan Geese,” in her Monday class; the group of seven children memorized their lines and painted the backdrop for the play.  Lila auditioned again for the Dobama Children’s Playwriting Festival and performed in two plays this year; she played a beaver in “The Beaver Family” and the narrator in “The Tiny Seed.”

SOCIAL STUDIES
Lila’s study of history has focused on exploring local geography and history this year. She is participating in the Metroparks program “History Hounds” and has taken field trips to the Maritime Museum in Sandusky, Lake Farmpark for the program “Springtime on the Farm”, Burke Lakefront Airport, and the Canalway Center to learn about the canal era in Ohio. She participated in a traditional, authentic sweat lodge, learning about the Native American rituals in this area. Lila saw the movie “The Mysteries of the Great Lakes” at the Great Lakes Science Center. Lila also went on a walking tour of the Old Arcades in downtown Cleveland as well as the Plain Dealer newspaper’s production plant. We visited Roscoe Village for homeschool days, a living history village where we visited a blacksmith, village doctor and schoolhouse from the 1800s and took a ride on a canal boat pulled by horses. Lila learned about presidential elections in the fall and watched the inauguration of President Obama. And finally, Lila learned about housebuilding and the role different skilled laborers play in building a house. She viewed blueprints, made models to scale, performed a skit “The Builders” and visited a housebuilding site, making lunch for a Habitat for Humanity crew in the city of Cleveland.

SCIENCE
Lila’s study of science focused on local geography as well as the study of Zoology. In addition to creating main lesson books on each of these subjects, Lila participate in many field trips to natural areas and in classes at the North Chagrin Nature Center, including “Animals of Ohio,”  “Owls” and “Trees.” She also participated in a program on “Renewable Energy from the Sun” at Lake Farmpark as part of their Homeschool Wednesday’s series. In her study of animals, Lila took a dog training class to help train our puppy, Nick, and is learning small pet care caring for her two rats.

ART
Lila loves art and crafting, from making paper boxes to painting and drawing. Lila creates lovely paintings and drawings in her main lesson books. She also completed two knitting projects this year, and learned to use the sewing machine. She sewed a pillow and took a clothing embellishment workshop. Lila took a weekly pottery class in the fall and two sessions of art class, Art Experiences for Homeschoolers and Art Meets Science, in the spring. Lila completed many craft projects including: dipped & rolled candles, lanterns, knitting needles, folded paper stars, cut snowflakes, Chinese red envelopes, cinnamon applesauce ornaments, knot tying and a hand painted birdhouse. At Homegrown Learners Co-op Day, Lila participated in a class “Crafts Around the World” where she made a coil basket, clay gargoyle, paper quilling, yarn art, paper mosaics and she made a mosaic garden stepping stone.

MUSIC
Lila participated this year in Rainbow’s Edge, a group of homeschoolers who met once a week at our house. Together the group of 7 children learned many circle games, songs, and poems. They also played recorder as a group and sang songs in a round. Lila began taking piano lessons in February, and in May participated in the Piano Guild auditions, where she received outstanding comments and much encouragement to continue her piano playing. We also had the privilege of attending three Cleveland Orchestra concerts this year, “Sheherazade” a Vivaldi performance and drama, as well as the concert “Oceans of Music.”

PHYSICAL EDUCATION
Lila participated this year in Kent State’s “Swim and Gym” program. She had the opportunity to partake in swimming lessons as well as free swim, soccer, rock climbing, basketball, Latin dance, archery, boot camp, kayaking, racquet ball, and geocaching. This summer, Lila is playing softball on the Blue Jays team and is on the Sea Serpents swim team both through the Cleveland Heights recreation department.
June 2009