Homecoming and Saving Fred

We had a great homecoming week in the elementary school! We celebrated with various dress up days, and concluded with a spirit day, homecoming show, and a fun team building activity called "Save Fred". Students worked with a partner to save Fred (the gummy worm) by rescuing him from his capsized boat (cup), and wrapping a life preserver around his waist (lifesaver gummy) using only 4 paper clips. All groups succeeded!

Here's the Scoop on Me!

Students finished their first writing piece in 4th grade--a 3 paragraph piece detailing important information, hobbies, and interesting events that happened this summer. Below, you can see some snaps from our share out session.

The Causes of the Revolutionary War

In our study of Early Wisconsin history, we talked about the formation of our country. Leading up to this, we discussed reasons why colonists wanted to form their own country, separate from the Parliament of Great Britain. Then 4th graders learned the concept of taxation without representation, and the colonists' anger with the King's new laws and lack of representation in the government. In our class simulation, Julia- the king of Great Britain made new, unfair laws, and charged the colonists in the new world taxes (starbursts). The tax collectors (Gabe, Eli, and Daisy) collected the taxes, bringing all money back to Great Britain. You can see by the sad look on Anthony's face that this was unfair treatment!

Peer Editing

We are wrapping up our first writing piece...."Here's the Scoop on Me". Students have been drafting, revising, and editing a 3 paragraph narrative writing about themselves, their hobbies, and their summer.  Below, you can see some writers hard at work during peer editing.

Word Work Rotations

After taking the spelling pre-assessment, students were introduced to the various activities they will participate in during our word work rotations. Students were taught how to be independent during each activity, what materials they need, and how each activity is to be practiced. In the pictures below, you can see some students practicing their independence during this work work rotation: video, independent sort, and speed sort.

Love Khan Academy!!

This week, students were introduced to a teacher favorite...Khan Academy! Our class will be using this website during math WIN to review math skills/concepts, or challenge themselves with upcoming 4th grade math topics. What is wonderful about this site is that the creator made instructional videos on grade level math skills, and offers practice tasks where students demonstrate their understanding. In the pictures below, you can see our 4th graders reviewing place value lessons.

Fluency while reading

On Friday, our reading lesson focused on strategies good readers use in order to maintain good fluency while reading. These strategies include: adjusting your reading rate, reading with expression, reading with your eyes before your mouth, attending to punctuation, and re-reading. Our students practicing these fluency strategies by reading a partner poem titled "Metamorphisis". After much practice, students then read their poems with great fluency to the class. At the conclusion, one student concluded by saying, "well on a scale of 1-5, I think we all deserve a 4 or 5!" I agree!

Book Tasting

Today, the kids participated in their first ever book tasting. Similar to a food or beverage tasting, students rotated from table to table to "taste" books from different genres. Through this activity, students practiced read to self, how to pick a good fit book, responding to reading, and remember how fun reading can be! After this activity, many students were itching to put some new books in their book boxes!

Day 2 in 4th Grade!

Day two was as great as day one! We stared our morning with a team building/collaboration activity. Have you ever heard of an escape room? We did a breakout in our classroom, which is very similar. It was a Dr. Seuss themed breakout. Students were given a box with multiple locks on it. They had to work together to solve puzzles and find clues to unlock the box in 45 minutes. We were successful!

In addition, we took a beginning of year spelling assessment, reviewed read to self and IPICK to pick out good fit books, set up our reading and writing notebooks, and talked about math habits of mathematicians. Below, you can see a picture from our math riddle activity where we learned that mathematicians make a plan, carry out a plan, and check the plan in order to solve a problem. Students also learned about the word--persevere!

First Day of School

What a great first day we had! We started the morning with a school assembly and reviewing/practicing our cool tools throughout the school. In the afternoon, we did a classroom scavenger hunt, a read aloud called "First Day Jitters", did a getting to know you activity with skittles, and organized our supplies. Here are some pictures of us participating in our skittles getting to know you activity, where students had to answer questions about themselves based on the skittle color before eating it.