Fourth & Fifth Grade: December 1-5, 2025
Dear Fourth and Fifth Grade Families,
The class, along with the Sixth Grade students, began the beloved Ancient Greece block. The initial focus was on learning about the overall layout and structure of Greece’s physical geography and how it influenced how people lived, traveled, and cultivated plants to eat.
From here, the class learned how the country was divided at the time. For some students, this was their first time learning about the concept of a city-state, which is called poleis (POE-lace) in Greek. One student made the connection that the word sounds very similar to the English word “police.” This later turned into a discussion about the English words that have Greek influence. Another realization the class made is that Athens, Georgia, was named after the then city-state and now modern-day Greek capital, Athens. It was really nice to see the class make these connections on their own.
To round out the first week, we looked into Ancient Greece’s most popular city-states, Athens and Sparta. The students worked on comparing and contrasting the differences between the two, and found their own conclusion as to why people of the two city-states often fought each other. The students put their findings together on a Venn diagram to illustrate the similarities and differences.
In mathematics, the class began with an introduction to statistics, starting with the measure of central tendency: calculating the range, mode, median, and mean of a group of numbers. This gives the students an opportunity to continue fine tuning their skills with addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division while adding new mathematical vocabulary and concepts to their repertoire.
As we continue our study of Ancient Greece, the students will learn about the history of the early Olympic Games. This will help give them a better understanding of the same event they will recreate in April when they compete in the pentathlon. We are really looking forward to how training and Main Lesson work will all come together!
Announcements & Reminders:
Our Admissions Team will be holding tours designed to address community questions regarding the phases of child development and our Waldorf-inspired curriculum. A combined Kindergarten tour and a Grades tour will be offered on:
Wednesday, December 10th, at 9:30 am
Saturday, December 13th, at 10:00 am
Wednesday, January 7th, at 9:30 am
These tours are for our current families to learn more about the respective programs. Please RSVP by emailing Crystal: admissions@thegardenmarietta.org.
December 11: Fourth/Fifth Grade Winter Spiral at 10:45 am
December 19: Last Day of Fall Semester-Grades Assembly at 11:00 am, all families welcomed (Half Day)
December 22-January 2: Winter Break (No School)
January 5: Teacher-In-Service (No School)
January 6: First Day of Spring Semester
Warm Regards,
Ki Nicole
