Last week our class went on a field trip to Morse Hill in Shutesbury.  We completed a day of team-building outdoor activities in conjunction with the Adventure Program, which is part of our social curriculum at school.

The weather was beautiful and we had a great time!  The photo gallery above shows some of the highlights: playing a blindfold game with partners and pompoms; challenges on the low ropes course; the “Flying Squirrel,” a high rope activity; and the final challenge of hoisting every fourth grader over an elevated log.

Fourth graders showed excellent collaboration and teamwork throughout the day!

By the first full week of school, fourth graders had worked together to create their own set of four class rules.  They began with the expectations for students from the Home-School Contract, and brainstormed what those expectations should look in our classroom.

Their initial brainstorming session generated A LOT of ideas for possible rules:

As a class, we noticed that most of the rules fell into four categories:

– rules about how we treat one another

– rules about how we do our work

– rules about how we treat our school

– safety rules

Students grouped each rule from their brainstorming into these four categories, then re-wrote sets of four rules in small groups.

Finally, the class held a meeting (like a Constitutional Convention) to revise the final rules and vote on them.  Here they are, signed and in place in our classroom!