Juicy Nibble

Here are the musicians of room 23 playing "Thriller," by Michael Jackson on Halloween.  Make sure you listen for the Zombies at the end of the performance. Thanks Mrs. Mac!

Juicy Nibble

Hey gang!  I told you that I couldn't run at JFK this morning because I was running in Worcseter this afternoon.  Here are some pictures I thought you might like.  The other Justice League heroines in the pictures were happy to pose with me! I made sure to thank each of them :)  There were other runners dressed as Wonder Woman, but I had the best cape thanks to Mrs. Merten!

Representing Paradise Island and District 12

I met Batgirl!

...and Supergirl!

After the race with Katniss Everdeen and Mr. W!

Creative Arts Chronicles

Creative Arts Fridays continue to be very popular in Room 23!  Poetry Workshop and Tech Block are rolling right along and everyone is making great progress.  Mrs. MacMurray is working her magic with the chorus and the recorders sound fantastic!  

Mrs. Hess is the guest author this month for the blog.  She has written a great post about all of the art work and art history that has taken place in 4th grade this month!  Also, the concept of "zooming in," is used in writer's workshop as well as Art!  We love when all of our teaching strategies and concepts cross curriculum areas.  It makes the learning more meaningful and authentic for students. Thanks Mrs. Hess!

"Abstraction of a Leaf" 

Students used a view finder to 'Zoom in' and look closely at the veins of a leaf and draw a close up view.

They used  unrealistic colors to turn the drawing into an abstract design.

We looked at paintings by Georgia O'Keeffe since she painted with a close up focus on nature.

We also looked at portraits by Pablo Picasso as an example of abstract artwork.

Students learned that abstract art does not look realistic but can be based on real life things.

"Autumn Still-Life Drawing"

Students looked closely at an arrangement of pumpkins leaves and sunflowers and created a still-life drawing based on what they saw. They looked closely and tried to create a realistic image of the autumn still-life. Students learned that it is easier to create a realistic drawing when you have real objects to look at and draw from, rather then drawing from memory.

Poetry,please!

The poem of the week is a group effort by the students in room 23.  These are haiku poems with a Halloween theme!

Devils in the night

Costumes, costumes everywhere

Werewolves full of blood!

Blood sucking vampires

Chainsaw maniacs

Watch the skeletons!

A Big Bite

It was a weird week because Mrs. W was at conferences for two days!  She is glad to be back with us. :)  We are LOVING Mr. Popper's penguins.  There are many interesting and exciting plot points.  Our narratives are almost done and we have started haiku in poetry workshop.  We finished the unit on basic facts in math and took a test.  We will start multi digit multiplication next week.  We played Ring that Bell in Science and everyone did a great job on the test.  We learned more about latitude and longitude in social studies and will take a test next Tuesday.  In Open Circle, we talked about things we all have in common.  As a special treat, we got an extra recess with Mrs. Merten's class on Mrs. W's birthday.  Many of us are going to the Ladybug 5k on Saturday and will do Mrs. W's yoga stretch for kids before the Fun Run at 9:30 and the 5k at 10:00. Next week is Halloween on Wednesday and Hurricane Sandy at the beginning of the week.  Watch out!!!
By,
Anna, Ava, Emily and Mrs. Williams

A Big Bite

Everyone keeps plugging right along in room 23.  We have started multiplication in math and have learned some fun games.  Ask your child to play multiplication baseball with you.  We will have a test on Friday and everyone should be practicing their math facts every day.  In reader's workshop we have started our first interactive read aloud, Mr. Popper's Penguins.  We will be working on making predictions, character traits, thick and thin questions and open response questions.  Everyone is doing a better job with choosing just right books and independent reading will continue during our read aloud.  In writer's workshop, we have started drafts of a personal narrative and are finishing up list poems.  Scroll down to read Vagmi's poem about her toy box.  We have finished the unit on the water cycle and the scientific method and will take a test on Tuesday.  In social studies we are learning how to locate places on a map using exact coordinate points without using a GPS!  This is a difficult skill but everyone is really putting forth great effort.  Chorus was fun on Friday as Matthew W stepped up to the microphone to solo in front of the entire 4th grade.  Look out American Idol! :)

Poetry, Please

We have been writing list poems and here is Vagmi's.  It made Mrs. Merten cry :)

Inside my Toy Box

by Vagmi

Inside my toy box there is a Barbie Doll

a stuffed bunny

my old nursery books

an entire doll house a purple bouncy ball

an entire kit of 48 colorful crayons

Some blue beads and clear string

a rainbow bag full of chalk

and some old sugar cookie crumbs.

Some Harry Potter movies 

and some yellow sticky notes.

Some flexible blue rubber bunnies

and colorful pencils

a bunch of white paper

some picture books 

and a lot of memories!

Juicy Nibble

It was great seeing everyone tonight, old friends and new!

Yup, tall girl is even TALLER, and finally taller than me!

Juicy Nibble

Sign ups for Rise and Shine Yoga are now open!  Click here to complete the online registration!

A Big Bite

As a follow up to Walt Whitman, we have started to write list poems using the strategy that Whitman often used, called "the catalogue," and created poetry toolboxes thanks to Mr. Richards!  Here is our class list poem, it was a group effort!  This week will be very busy as we have a test in math on Chapter 2 (see the study guide in the Important Documents gadget), will be finishing the launching unit in Reader's workshop, building terrariums and preparing for Open House on Thursday night to name just a few!  We can't wait to show you how much we have been working on so far this year!

Juicy Nibble

We raced our Puff mobiles on Thursday with all of the other 4th grade classes and it was a great time!  Our class won with the overall race with the design created by Ava, Grace, Dylan, Kyle and Nate.  All of the groups accomplished the goal of "cooperation and team work."  It was a very exciting morning!