Enrichment

Each year Ms. Wood (the Librarian) and I (Ms. Roll, the Enrichment teacher) team up for a weekly collaborative block with our 4th grade classes. We utilize this time to facilitate Project Citizen, a social studies take on a class passion project of sorts. Through this year-long endeavor we investigate what it means to be an engaged citizen. Students learned the different levels of government, how decisions are made, and how to use their voices to ask for change.  Through a cyclical process of brainstorming, research and negotiation, each class is tasked with coming to a consensus on a problem all class members feel is important to tackle together. Everything from bathroom stalls being locked to ocean pollution is brought to the table. It is hard work to come to a consensus. Not everyone gets their first choice but everyone learns what tools and avenues are available to them to solve any problem in the future.  Once a community problem is selected, the class researches: reading articles