You're It

#celebratealllearners

Juicy Nibble

Check out this cool video that goes along great with our adaptations unit!  Let me know if you try it!

A Big Bite

It was a busy, full week in Room 23.  We had fun with the Haffenreffer Museum as we learned about Native Americans of the Plains.  There was so much to see and do, we loved it!

Buffalo horns or the Minotaur?  This was his idea!

Love the Superheros!!! So awesome. :)

The students love our daily morning meeting and have decided to take a more active role in the planning and execution of the meetings.  Students who have expressed an interest in running a meeting will be working with a partner to plan and lead a morning meeting over the next few months.   Our first facilitators had great ideas and clearly put forth good effort into make the meeting fun for everyone!  We can't wait to see what next week's facilitators have in store for us! 

We were treated to another free author visit this week!  Lisa Yee visited Kennedy school and we learned so much!  She was funny and entertaining as we learned about her journey as a writer.  She took so many pictures with us, it was great!  Check out her website, I bet she puts up some pictures of us!  I know that she did Tweet us out to the world, so exciting!

We performed short one act plays for each other this week, make sure you check them out on Twitter!

We started a new interactive read aloud, The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate and it is an instant hit!  Here is a link to the book trailer.  The Lightning Thief book club is making great progress and readers are loving the book. Thanks to all parents who are helping with this challenging book, we hope that you enjoy it as much as we do!

Check out the 4th grade blog for some fun live animal cameras.  We are using these cameras to observe animals as part of our new interactive read aloud AND as part of our science unit on adaptations.  We love it when the curriculum all comes together. :)

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Williams

You're It

Here is this week's, "It!" #celebratealllearners

You're It

Here is this week's, "It."  #celebratealllearners!

A Big Bite

Everyone had a touch of the Irish on Friday, look at all that green!

Our speeches were fantastic and though there were several happy leprechauns, there were several cranky leprechauns who did NOT want their gold taken!  The class decided that it was a #angryleprechaun day but we sure did laugh a lot!  This is a photo they wanted to take showing their best #angryleprechaun faces!

 

We were able to celebrate Pi Day on Wednesday after the snow day.  There were many round snacks, even some pies, and we were able to graph these as an entire grade on a line plot. As a grade we ran 80 laps (3.14 miles) of the gym, relay style, in 19:20.  Thanks to Mrs. Murray and Mr. Banks for all of their help in making Pi day a success!

We finished our study of fractions and grades have been posted to the student's  Pearson account.  We will begin a unit on measurement this week.  Great job on the challenge math homework this week!  Several students completed the Pi challenge and EVERYONE completed the Tangram Shamrock challenge.  Students are embracing the goal of perseverance in math!!!!

The Lightning Thief book club has gotten underway and interest is high!  I love to see students so motivated to read, it warms my heart!  Parents are enjoying the story as well, from all reports.  Stay tuned for more updates!  We will start a new interactive read aloud this week.  We also will be performing some short plays for each other with Greek Gods and Goddesses. Everyone is excited for this to happen!

The rap  poems are almost complete and Mrs. Merten and I are working on a way to share them with you...stay tuned!

The Haffenreffer Museum returns this week for a visit.  There is never a dull moment in 4th grade!

Mrs. Williams

Mythic Warriors

Juicy Nibble

Here are some pictures from Snow Treasure day! Our Twitter account has some fun videos, check them out!

A Big Bite

Our new inquiry based science unit on Adaptations is a huge hit!! We are learning all about adaptations in animals and plants and we have a student created bulletin board that changes with each new lesson.  Ask your child all about it!  We love the hands on science experiments!

Our fraction unit will come to an end this week when we take the chapter 13 test. As a final project, students created fraction posters using a "favorite fraction," to showcase all of the skills they have learned about fractions over the past few weeks.  We took a gallery walk to see everyone's work, it was fun!

Can you find your child's feet/socks?  At JFK we have been working on the core value of Respect and this past Friday we participated in a school wide community meeting to celebrate all of this work!  We even got to wear crazy socks.  Make sure you check out the JFKLadybugs Twitter account for some cool pictures.

In reader's workshop we have been focusing on Mythology and making connections to the many books and stories that we have read this year or already know.  We read about Theseus and the Minotaur and watched the Mythic Warrior cartoon of this story.  We are comparing the cartoon version, to the story that we read, and making connections to real life heroes.  The students love this unit and we will continue to read some more myths next week.  YouTube videos of the Mythic Warrior cartoons are posted below.  Students will have the opportunity to participate in a parent/child book club with the popular book, The Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan.  Older brothers and sisters can read with a 4th grader, but a parent or guardian is preferred.  More information will be coming home next week.  This is a voluntary book club and will become the nightly reading. I am looking forward to sharing in this fun reading adventure with you! 

Our word study focus has been on Greek and Latin Roots.  After we were finished reading the myth of Arachne and Athena, students were able to make the connection to the word Arachnid, which led to a very interesting discussion of Arachnophobia.  Ah, to buy an "arachnid on the wall!"

In writer's workshop we have been hard at work on finishing our Rap poems and they are AWESOME!!! We even had a few peer teachers help out in the other 4th grade classes.  I can't wait for you to hear your child, "bust a rhyme!"

So much learning, so much fun, 

I can't believe we are two thirds of the way done!

How's that for a little rap?

Have a great weekend. ✌

Mrs. Williams