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

A Big Bite

Our week started and ended with two great science presentations.  On Monday, Danielle Niles, meteorologist from Channel 4 in Boston spoke to all of the 4th graders about weather and her job as a scientist on television.  It was fun and we were recorded for the Thursday morning wake up message on WBZ.  Did you see us? We were great!  On Friday, Mrs. Weber, a scientist and teacher at FHS, spoke to all of the 4th graders about Astronomy and its connection to astrology.  She made great connections for us with our recent unit of study in reader's workshop on Greek Mythology.  She showed us the programs and apps that she uses with the high school students and shared some hands on astronomy wheels for us to look at this week. These are some of the free apps that she talked about: Sky Map, SkyKey or Night Sky Lite.  This is a link to the Youtube video that she shared with us about star size.  Finally, this is a link to the Stellarium program that Mrs. Weber uses with her students.  It was a wonderful program and the students LOVED it.  We have such a talented parent community at JFK and it is so special when parents share their talents, experience and passions with us.  Thanks, Mrs. Weber!!!

We are loving our new interactive read aloud, The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate. We can't wait to read this book each and every day. Ask your child about the story and the themes that they are tracking.  Everyone is discovering different themes in this book; it is wonderful!

 We will continue the PARCC testing this week and everyone is doing a great job, giving it their best and staying positive.  We have discussed that as a trial, some of the questions will seem simple and some will seem difficult.  It will be important for the test developers to learn what is appropriate for 4th graders and what may not be appropriate. We decided that this is like a science experiment and it is fun to be a part of the process.  

It is time to start a new science unit, which means that we will be changing cooperative groups. Students should click here to take this week's survey.  This will give me some idea about who the students would like to work with for the next month or so.

Have a great week!

Mrs. Williams

Spotlight on....

Thanks to James' mom for submitting this Spotlight Post.  Great Job, James!

James' favorite sport is hockey.  His favorite team is the Boston Bruins and his favorite player is defenseman Torey Krug.

James plays defense for the Woonsocket North Stars Squirt Minor Selects team. His team finished third in the EMHL playoffs last weekend.

James just found out today he was selected for the North Stars Squirt Major Select team for next year.  Congrats James!

James will play hockey this summer for the Norfolk County Hawks, out of Franklin. James is a hardworking defenseman and a real team player.  He has made many great friendships on the ice.

In his spare time, James is learning his favorite Boston Garden organ songs on his keyboard, such as "Here We Go Bruins".

A Juicy Nibble

...the Maple Sugaring Festival at Moose Hill Audubon. Here is one of our classmates watching as they are cooking the sap down to evaporate the water to make the syrup the same way it has been done for centuries. What a fabulous way to extend our learning outside of the classroom!

A Big Bite

Having fun with speeches!

Wearing purple and gold to support the UAlbany Great Danes!!

Here is a list of the evils that we would put BACK inside Pandora's box if we could.  The paragraphs that we wrote were very convincing.

Our Skype visit with 4th and 5th graders in Iceland! So much fun!

It was a very exciting week in room 23.  The photos only tell part of the story.  We worked on fractions and decimals in math and even looked at some of the PARCC practice test questions.  We learned about clouds in science and made a cloud poster to help prepare for the test next Friday.  We are learning about the southeast in social studies and we discovered that many of us have been to this warm region.  We are looking forward to one, possibly two, guest speakers next week. In writer's workshop we made great progress on our expert pieces and should begin drafting next week.  We are experts on many different and unique topics.  In reader's wrokshop we finished our unit of study on myths and began a new interactive read aloud, The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate.  Our skills for this book are theme and tracking how characters change over time.  We have been observing various animal cams from different zoos in the US.  I have added links to the different zoo cams in the science gadget to the right.  The leprechaun speeches were wonderful; we even had a few people present their speech with props.  Now that the third term has begun, the amount of homework will increase in order to prepare for the demands of 5th grade.  Everyone did a great job keeping up this week. :)

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Williams

A Big Bite

Our class was small this week as many of us are fighting off illnesses and colds.  There were only 16 students present on several days.  We have been working on fractions and decimals in math and as part of National Chocolate Chip Cookie Week, we managed to work  fractions, decimals, bar graphs and line plots into a fun lesson involving cookie tasting.  Overall, most students preferred either Chips Ahoy! or Shaw's bakery cookies.  The students really enjoyed this math lesson.  In reader's workshop we extended our study of mythology to include the genre of plays.  The students were broken into two acting troupes and performed Orpheus and Eurydice and Echo and Narcissus for each other.  Everyone had a great time and performed very well. We also created our own Pandora boxes and trapped an evil inside the box, along with despair.  We wrote an opinion paragraph on why it would be important to put this particular evil back in the box.  There were some very interesting answers.  We have started a new unit in writer's workshop on non fiction writing and are planning to write an expert piece in the upcoming weeks.  We have finished studying wind and will learn about clouds next week.  Our trip to D.C., is over and we will travel to the southeast on Monday.  Don't forget that the four door research book on Washington D.C. is due on Friday.  We do so much work in school every day but we also have a lot of fun.  Ask your child what they liked about school this past week.

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Williams

Juicy Nibble

This is the fun video we watched on place value!