T-shirts of the week!

Here are two examples of some of the cool shirts that were worn by 4th graders this week.

A Big Bite

Celebrating The One and Only Ivan, by Katherine Applegate, was a great way to end our week!  We started our day with Dance Party Friday and then did a yoga set as an entire fourth grade!

Trees in the jungle!

Hissing like snakes in cobra pose.

Breathing like lions in easy pose!

You might see a camel at the zoo!

Resting like a sloth.

 The kindergarten P.E. class joined us as we were all in the gym.  This is the largest group I have ever taught, there were over 100 children involved in the set! WOW!!!We did many fun poses based on animals that you would see in the jungle or the zoo and even incorporated some nature poses into the set as well.

Then we participated in art centers and created four different pictures that were inspired by the story.  We used pencils, markers, finger paints and we melted crayons.  Thanks to all of the families who sent in art supplies!

Nick's jungle snack. Very cool!

 We joined with Mrs. Merten's class to make a line plot of our snacks, it was fun!  There were so many varied and fun snacks.To practice vocabulary and to review the characters in the story, we played Pictionary with Mrs. Merten's class.  After Art class we took the vocabulary quiz and completed some math word problems based on the characters in the book.  Finally, as a grade level, we all watched Tarzan and compared this story to Ivan.  It was very interesting to see the differences in the plot based on the point of view of the characters.  We all agreed that the themes were the same; survival, family, and friendship to name a few.  Everyone in our class LOVED this book and agreed that this is the best book that we have read as a class this year.  It was a great day!

A class crayon art project, how many animals do you see?

Click here to see a video from the Atlanta Zoo all about the Real Ivan.  Click here to read all about the Real Ivan and to see a timeline of his life.

Writing, math, science and social studies continue to roll along.  We are using the Chrome books to write the final copies of the expert pieces, we are discussing the jet stream in science, we have traveled to the Midwest in Social Studies and we are learning about measurement in math.  It is so much fun in 4th grade!
Have a wonderful vacation!
Mrs. Williams

A Big Bite

The last two weeks have been busy and fun.  We finished our unit on fractions and decimals in math and everyone did a great job on the test.  We have started a new unit on measurement.  We are continuing to make progress in the weather unit by studying ocean currents, waves and tides.  We will be learning all about the jet stream and the many different types of wild weather events that occur in the atmosphere.  We are finishing our journey around the southeast and will be traveling to the Midwest next. Mrs. Silvia, of the Haffenreffer Museum,  came and told us all about the Native Americans of the Midwest.  It was so much fun!  We were able to try on clothes, hold artifacts and learn about the tribes through stories and pictures. In reader's workshop, we continued to track themes in The One and Only Ivan.  Everyone is LOVING this story.  We should finish next week and should be able to celebrate this book on Friday with an ALL Ivan ALL day celebration.  We will be ready to begin final copies of our expert pieces next week.  We successfully completed the first part of the Math and ELA PARCC tests.  we are all done with these trial tests until late May.  We have had the opportunity to Skype with several classrooms in the last two weeks; ask your child to tell you all about this fun experience.  It has been great to get outside for recess, spring is finally here!

Mrs. Williams