Grades 4-5 - Blue Cluster

Welcome to Blue Cluster from Lillian Peralta Alba and Stacy Barnhisel

 

In Blue Cluster, students learn the importance of being part of a community and responsibility to each other. Using the theme: “Patterns of Change”, we describe, analyze and find patterns in what we see happening in the world around us. We look for these patterns in the literature as we read and the historical concepts that we study. We examine our environment and our state’s and country’s history through simulations. We learn to understand the patterns we find so that we can make sense and connections from the past in order to predict future patterns.

 

Blue Cluster stresses independence, work quality and time management skills as students as we move through the curriculum. Our curriculum encourages children to make appropriate choices, both academically and socially. Students participate in whole group, small group, interest groups and cooperative group settings. They learn to lead each other in a variety of settings and for a variety of purposes. They show leadership by taking ownership in a shared responsibility classroom. Through real world simulations students develop problem solving skills and conflict resolution.

 

Students learn to analyze, infer and make judgments as they write from a character’s perspective. Students learn to look at the world like a poet rather than a scientist in our Writing Workshop where we teach our students to show and not tell in their writing. Our scholars learn to write from the heart rather then writing a grocery list of ideas.

Through investigations, students learn the many ways to problem solve in scientific situations and mathematical ones. While exploring scientific topics in life, physical, and earth science, students use scientific process skills of asking questions, making observations, gathering information, and representing data, and drawing scientific conclusions based on their observations.

 

Using technology, the students are encouraged to reach beyond the walls of the classroom to gain insight and knowledge from the sources the media makes available to them. The students explore and create visual presentations on applications Google Slides, WIX, IMovie to publish their creative projects. Students also use Stop Motion Animation as a vehicle for visually representing a story.

Students in Blue Cluster participate in an additional music program in which they work weekly on learning how to use percussion instruments and compose original pieces that are performed as part of a final production. Students learn self-management, teamwork, and how to express their creativity in their small and large group ensemble.