A Big Bite

WOW! What an exciting two weeks we have had here in room 23. We finished our interactive read aloud, The Family Under the Bridge, and did several activities to wrap up this book. As you know, our donations to the food pantry totaled 460 pounds of food and supplies for the Franklin Food Pantry. In writer's workshop we continued to write drafts of a strong emotion or a time when we experienced something memorable. The holiday speeched were excellent. Check out some of the videos below. We have finished chapter 5 in math and have taken the unit test. In Science, we made barometers and learned about different weather tools. We continue to learn about Canada and have the study guide for the test on January 6th! The chorus concert was wonderful and it was great to see so many families there! We finished the week with a movie and "Party in a Bag."

Thank you so much for all of the gifts and especially for the donation to Answer the Call. It really does mean so much to me.

Have a great holiday and a relaxing week of vacation. See you in 2012!

Mrs. Williams

Juicy Nibble

Open publication - Free publishing - More thanks

Thanks to everyone who participated in the food drive for the Franklin FoodPantry. As a grade we collected 480 pounds of food and supplies, and a check for $20.00 which will provide 100 meals! Great job 4th graders.

Juicy Nibble

After reading The Family Under the Bridge and having a great talk worth discussion about the major themes in the book, we decided that the family motto of the Calcets would be “Stick together!” Here is a list of the Family Mottos each student created for their own family. They are very interesting and creative; you should feel a great deal of pride in your children.


Juszczyszyn- “Never stop improving.”
Flaherty-“Keep trying”
O’Connor-“Don’t stop what you are doing.”
Hurley-“Never quit.”
Whitmore-“Traveling Forever.”
Power-“Always do your best.”
Williams-“Be yourself.”
Lussier-“You can do anything if you put your mind to it.”
Dwyer-“Family comes first.”
Chiapponi-“Be strong.”
Sridhar-“Respect what you get.”
Shaik-“Think of other people other than yourself.”
Barry-“Keep on trying.”
Yelle-“Practice makes perfect.”
Dickson-“Try your best and it will come out the best.”
Drake-“Don’t stop working.”
McCluskey-“Think of others and they’ll think of you.”
O’Brien-“Treat others the way you want to be treated.”
Walmsley-“If you do your best, you will succeed.”
Drohan-“Try new things.”
Garilli-“Do what you love.”
Chin-“Keep on rolling.”
Kerns-“Never give up.”
Fields-“It’s o.k. to be different
Jones-“Help others.”
Mrs. Greene-“New Adventures.”
Mrs. Williams-“Keep on moving.”

A Big Bite

It was a short week for students in room 23 given the two half days, but we kept right on working! We finished chapter 4 in math and Mrs. Y came in to work on open response questions with us. 12 students achieved a score of 4 or higher and we are hoping that this will be enough to keep the "4" on our door. We learned about the atmosphere in science and started our study of Canada. In reader's workshop, we have continued with The Family Under the Bridge, by Natalie Savage Carlson, and we are reaching some important turning points in the story. We are using all of the skills we are learning in reading to improve our skills in writer's workshop. The children have been writing personal narratives that are tied to strong emotions. Everyone howled at my story, ask your children to tell you about it!
Thanks for all of the wonderful donations that have been pouring in for the food pantry, your generosity is overwhelming!
The Walmsley family surprised us with an early Christmas present! They shared new Expo markers, pencils, erasers and glue sticks with everyone. It was a great treat and we all appreciate it very much. Thanks Walmsley Family!
Our chorus concert will be this Friday. It should be a great show!
It was nice to see all of you this week at conferences. Working together as a team is the best way to help children be the most successful and I appreciate all of your efforts in helping make the school experience at JFK so successful.
Have a great weekend and see you on Friday!
Mrs. W

A Big Bite

The week back from Thanksgiving was a busy one in room 23. We had several presentations(see posts below) and continued to make progress with our school work. We have started reading The Family Under the Bridge, by Natalie Savage Carlson, and have begun a food drive for the Franklin Food Pantry. Mrs. Green shared pictures from her trip to Paris and we got a close up view of the Seine River! In writer's workshop, we wrote about personal moments in our lives that we could relate to a strong feeling and we continued to write more poetry. In math, we worked on decimals and measurement. The chapter 4 test will be this Tuesday. We finished our study of Mexico and will begin learning about Canada next week. Now that the heredity unit of study is complete, we will begin to learn all about weather. Don't forget that there will be two half days next week for report card conferences, see you then!

Mrs. W

Big Bite

Mr. Whitmore came into our classroom today to tell us about his trip to Antarctica and to teach us about penguins. It was a great presentation and everyone LOVED it. Here are some of the pictures that he shared with us. Very cool!

Food Pantry Visit

Today "Mrs. B." from the Franklin Food Pantry came to talk to our fourth graders about the food pantry. The students watched the video below, and then Mrs. B. spent about 30 minutes answering some thoughtful questions by our fourth graders.

We learned some important things today:

• There are about 35,000 people who live in Franklin, and about 3,500 people use the food pantry here every month.
• Families can pick up the food once every 30 days.
• If we like to eat it, it is a good choice to donate to the food pantry.
• Some BIG needs are toilet paper, shampoo, soap and laundry detergent ~ these are items that cannot be purchased with food stamps.

Our food drive runs from today through 12/14. Volunteers from the food pantry will come on the 14th at 8:45 to pick up the food donations. Our students will help to load the van.

Thank you to everyone donating food. We know it will be delivered to those who are in need.

Juicy Nibble

Here is the Thanksgiving "Giving Tree," that Jordan brought in, and we all contributed to. We each took two leaves and wrote two sentences about what we are thankful for.Thanks to Jordan and her mom for sending this in! We made turkey centerpieces for your holiday table, we hope you like them. So many people wanted to have their speeches taped and posted to YouTube, that I randomly picked 5 students to be taped. Everyone will get a turn by the end of the year. Have a wonderful holiday!

Bookworm Buzz

Dear Reader,

Bookworm buzz will be undergoing some exciting new changes! I have recently joined goodreads.com and will be posting my reviews there. I will link my posts to this blog and in the next few weeks will have a goodreads feed as a widget in the margins of the blog. Let me know what you think!

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever by Jeff Kinney
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Another hilarious installment in the Wimpy Kid series. I was really able to connect to this book personally, especially when the power went out during the snowstorm and everyone was shivering in bed! When Greg says, "When you're used to having electricity and then all of a sudden it's taken away, you're basically one step away from being a wild animal." I know how that feels! There are many school references as well that many students will connect with on a personal level. This book is just right for fourth graders.
View all my reviews

At the Core

Click here to sign up for the Scholastic Warehouse Sale in December. I usually go to the Clinton Warehouse, but there are several locations in MA. I always find a few treasures. :)

A Big Bite

We had a great week in room 23. We finished Mr. Popper's Penguins and celebrated with Black and White Day on Friday. Check out the pictures and videos below, and ask your child to tell you all about our day. In Math we have continued to work on decimals in chapter 4 and are finishing the tessellation project. In Social Studies we learned about the early people of Mexico and the early history of Mexico. We have finished the heredity unit and will begin a unit of study on weather after Thanksgiving. Next week will be a short week but busy! I have many activities planned for Monday and Tuesday. Thanks to everyone who sent in extra hangers for our writing project, you won't be disappointed.

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. W

Juicy Nibble

Here we are creating Arctic Art and eating black and white snacks! Enjoy the pictures and videos.
Some win lose or draw with Mrs. Merten's class.

Poetry, Please!

Another FANTASTIC list poem-this one is by Kate:
Things to be if You are a Color


Be the flowers on an African Violet
Be the cool grass on an early spring morning
Be the sun setting over the water in the summertime
Be a big, round apple in a tree, waiting to be picked
Be the sun shining on a warm summer day
Be a hardy mum swaying in the wind on a cool fall day
Be the sky of a starry night
Be a star shining in the night sky
Be the sand on the beach being made into a castle
Be the clouds on a rainy day
Be a striped cat gazing at a bird in the sky
Be a spotted dog laying in the shade of a tree
Be a child living in the world
Be colorful!

At the Core

Hi Friends! There is a lively, free and informative phone conference coming up if you are interested in talking with Shakta to learn more about yoga for children and the upcoming Radiant Child Yoga Trainings,. There will be a training in Millis in December.

Please join us THIS Wednesday, Nov 16th at 8:30 pm
To access this call (270) 400-2000 and enter the code: 851808. We hope to have you join us!

A Big Bite

WOW!! What a crazy two weeks it has been! Snow days, power outages, rescheduled Halloween; 2011 will certainly be a year to remember. In writer's workshop we are busy finishing several writing samples. In reader's workshop we will be finishing Mr. Popper's Penguins and should celebrate "Black and White Day," at the end of next week; more information will follow. We have finished chapter three in math and are almost done with the Tessellation projects. Learning about Mexico has been exciting, look at the pictures below to see the "Day of the Dead," masks we created. The Heredity unit will wrap up next week with a test on Friday. The study guide was sent home this past week. It was great to see so many families and old friends at Open House, make sure you scroll down to see the pictures. Thanks for all of your support in making JFK a great place to learn and grow! Happy Veteran's Day to all of the veterans and to the veterans in your family. Remember what Mrs. Y said during announcements on Thursday, "If you see a veteran, or know a veteran, thank them for their service to our country." Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Williams

Juicy Nibble

Open House was a great success! It was so nice to see so many families and to reconnect with former students and old friends! Thanks to everyone for making it such a wonderful evening.

Christina, Jackie and Kim love 5th grade!

Rachita is Vice President of the Sophmore class at FHS!

Nick loves 6th grade at Horace Mann

These good looking guys are all athletes at FHS! Chris plays football and baseball, Justin plays football and he wrestles, and Matt is THE quarterback for the Panthers. And yes, Justin is 6' 5"!

Joe is a senior at FHS and is applying to RPI, WPI, UMass Amherst and Catholic University. Wherever he goes, he will do great!

Amanda is getting her license!