Dear Students,
The Fourth Grade P.L.U.S. program introduces you to the life of Albert Einstein through a biography and photographs. You will learn to recognize that everyone, including Albert Einstein, has strengths and weaknesses. You will also discover the historical connections between Einstein’s work with atomic energy, the attack on Pearl Harbor and the eventual atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.

You will then read a book together called Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. You will learn about a real little girl who was two at the time the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima but who later contracted the “atom bomb disease.” We will teach you origami or the Japanese art of paper folding as part of this unit. You learn to fold paper cranes and read about the statue built in memory of the little girl, Sadako, in the Peace Park in Hiroshima.

Each fourth grade P.L.U.S. student will write about something in nature in the form of Haiku, a kind of Japanese poetry.You will illustrate the Haiku poems and produce a class book of Haiku poetry.

Each year, the fourth grade P.L.U.S. students are asked to write an autobiography. The project encompasses creative writing and family history research, rewriting for improvement and placing the final script on cue cards. The students then practice oral speaking skills working on eye contact, speaking loudly and clearly and other techniques to keep the audience interested in their presentation. The students are videotaped presenting the autobiographies. The students are also introduced to the basics of film, lighting, and sound as they prepare for their upcoming TV PLUS shows in fifth and sixth grade.

During this school year you will be challenged with many new thinking skills, brainteasers,and word puzzles. Some of these activities require cooperative problem solving while other require the students to work as individuals.