A Big Bite

Working in poetry teams

Our Shirts!

 

Mystery Skype

  

It was another fun week for the students in room 23!  We started our week by dying our shirts and they look FANTASTIC!!!  Thanks to Mrs. Pipe, Mrs. Lewis, Mrs. Mackintosh and Mrs. Katz for helping. :)  We will continue line designs and reviewing math concepts this week.  We have just a few pages to go in Charlotte's Web and everyone has loved this book.  We will finish the year setting goals for summer reading.  We have spent a great deal of time using the lap tops and in the computer lab this week working on non fiction writing and poetry.  The students have been accessing their Google Drive accounts from home with much success.  Our travels across the United States will continue next week as we head to the Southwest region.  In addition we will have our last visit from the Haffenreffer Museum on Tuesday as we learn about native Americans of the South west.  On Friday, we participated in a "Mystery Skype," social studies/technology lesson with Mrs. Merten's class.  We answered questions about our region and students in another classroom  prepared answers to the same questions.  We were able to Skype with them, ask them questions, and then figure out where they were located in the United States.   It was exciting to figure out that they were in Bellingham, WASHINGTON!!!! It was so much fun and we are hoping that we can do this again before the school year ends.  In science, we used magnets to complete a few experiments this week and will move on to current electricity next week.  Also, we will be getting ready for the poetry coffeehouse.  The chorus concert is on Thursday, see you then!

Mrs. Williams

Juicy Nibble

Here is a video of Abhiram demonstrating how a volcano erupts!  He researched the Ring of Fire and used this model that he made to demonstrate lava flowing from a volcano.  This was an independent project that he chose to complete as part of our study of the West. Great Job!

A Big Bite

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!  After a week of project based learning that is standards based, everyone is as excited as ever to work hard and participate fully in classroom activities.  These pictures show us learning how to tie shirts for Tie Dye Tuesday.  We used math, science, ELA and art standards as part of this project.  We can't wait to start dying the shirts on Tuesday morning.  In science we are learning about magnetism and had fun with magnets this past week.  We are learning more about the west and will have a test next Friday on the region.  Charlotte's Web continues to thrill the class and we are making some great connections between theme and author's message.  We have used computers every day this week in writer's workshop, either in the lab or on the laptop carts to complete several writing projects.  We are making great progress with learning all that Google Drive has to offer.  Project based learning continues next week and we are looking forward to it! Make sure you click here to complete this week's survey by 6:00 p.m. on Monday night.

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Williams

It has been three weeks since vacation and we have been having a ton of fun in room 23.  We enjoyed a great visit with Ms. Liz and wrote free verse poems for Mother's Day.  We read poetry by Douglas Florian and painted pictures in the same style as Florian.  Then we wrote free verse poems and will be typing them in the tech lab.  In addition to all of the poetry that we have been writing, we are completing the final copies of the expert pieces in the tech lab.  Mrs. Merten is showing everyone how to incorporate pictures, tables, photos and other text features into our writing.  

We really worked hard reviewing for the math MCAS and took the test this past week.  We will be completing several math projects to end the year.  One of our projects, line design, will include tie dying t- shirts.  This is one of the highlights of 4th grade and a tradition that many 4th graders look forward to each year.

In reader's workshop we have started Charlotte's Web as an interactive read aloud.  Our skills involve recognizing character behavior and motivation as a way to identify the theme in a story and ultimately the author's message.  We are reading non fiction books about spiders, farm animals and life on a farm.  We will be setting goals for summer reading in a few weeks.  We are almost at our goal of reading 1200 books as a class.  :)

We have two more regions to visit in social studies and will be traveling to the west and southwest during the next few weeks.  It has been an exciting journey so far.

We read a folktale about a boy named Magnus to kick off the Electricity and Magnetism unit.  Experiments will start next week.

Everyone ran the mile in PE and finished in great time.  We are a Black Belt Class in recorder karate and have been doing a lot of painting and sculpting in art class.  I am so glad to see so many students using the many yoga strategies they have learned to relax and focus.  It makes for a very relaxed and safe environment for learning.  Ask your child to show you the 4 Us for U!  

The end of the year is approaching quickly and the time is going to fly.  We have so many group projects and fun activities planned to end the year that I am looking forward to completing with the students.  This year has gone by too quickly!

Students, please click here to complete this week's survey by Sunday night at 6:00. Thanks!

Mrs. Williams