Our Week In Review

This week we had a lot of fun things happening in Room 24!

Early this week, we started learning about tessellations in math. We enjoyed using pattern blocks, and will use templates to recreate our tessellations soon. It is really fun.

We also learned about measuring and practiced using a map scale in math.

Our Summer Reading was rewarded yesterday with Casey Carle, the Bubble MAN! Everyone got directions on how to make bubble solution. We enjoyed his performance. 97% of the kids in 4th and 5th grade completed summer reading! We should all feel proud!

In reading we started reading a new Interactive Read Aloud, Mr. Popper's Penguins. We are enjoying this story about an eccentric man who gets a penguin for a pet. We are discussing asking "talkworthy" questions and making predictions.

In writing, we finished our List Poems, wrote some Halloween Haikus, and started a scary Halloween story!

In science we got to use magnifiers to look at different objects, and we learned about the parts of a cell. We will get to use the microscopes on Monday!

Our Week in Review

This week we had our Puff Mobile Races (check out the earlier post for pictures and videos). We also finished writing our "When I was Small" paragraphs, just in time for Open House. Last night was Open House and we all had a great time! Today we took our first class reading assessment. It long and some of us thought it was hard. Mrs. Williams invited us over to her class this afternoon. We got to look at Pond Water through a microscope! It was really creepy when we saw creatures moving really fast. We saw lots of creatures in the water. Our terrariums are really growing well. Some have roots! Some of them are dying. All of our terrariums are showing the water cycle. Some people moved seats today.

In math, we started learning about tessellations. They will be fun!

Today we started learning about list poems. We wrote a class list poem:

Things to do if You're a Leaf

by the Kids in Room 24

Sway in the wind

Change color in autumn
Fall off trees
Get raked into a pile
Fly up in the air
Crackle
Fly in the breeze
Watch the moon go down and watch the sun go up
Help build a bird's nest
Decompose
Sprout
Drink
Feed caterpillars
Make air
Photosynthesize


From the Teacher's Desk It was wonderful to see so many of you at Open House last night. The children were so proud to show you all that they have accomplished so far this year. Everyone certainly has been working very hard.I hope that everyone who attended the Open House was able to sign up for a conference. If you need to reschedule your conference, please let me know as soon as possible, particularly if it is an evening appointment. If you were unable to schedule an appointment, I will be contacting you with a date and time to discuss your child’s progress. Thank you to everyone who made a donation to our class wishing well. Your money will be well spent on much needed classroom supplies.

Puff Race

Today was our puff mobile race! We had a great time!




Our puff mobiles

More of our puff mobiles



The winners of the "Boys' Race"

The winners of the "Girls' Race"

The overall winners!


The overall Girl and Boy winners! Both from our class!

A Photo Finish!


The Puff Off!



The overall winners!

From the Teacher's Desk

From the Teacher's Desk

Our first six weeks of school have been great, and our class is becoming a little community. Overall, I am quite pleased about the progress we are making as a class. I wanted to share a few things about homework and assignments before the coming week.


Assignment Update

Often after I have graded an assignment, I have a question or comment for the student. I may write SEE ME on a paper. This does not necessarily mean that I have a concern about the assignment. In fact, at times I want to remember to give a student a blue ticket or a chip for work well done. When I have seen a student, I will cross off the "SEE ME" in a different colored pen. This shows you that your child has come to me.


At times, you may receive a paper from a student that says "parent signature" or "please sign". Understand that I ask for a signature not so that your child is punished, or gets into trouble, but because I want to be sure that information is communicated to you in a timely manner. If you get a paper that has a signature requested on it, and you have questions/concerns about this, please don't hesitate to contact me.

Homework Update

I have been noticing that more students have been forgetting items at home, which resulted in homework being missing. As you know, the focus of fourth grade is helping the students become independent, however some students still need reminders. Please check in with your child to see how they are doing with this. If he/she is forgetting things like getting the assignment notebook signed or library books, please try to remind them. I find that creating a list for children to follow helps them to remember all of the items they need. This week, I will no longer be checking all of the assignment books nightly, rather, I will be doing "spot checks" to check that all assignments are written and materials are packed for those I'm checking. This is another step in the independence process.

Our Week In Review

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This week we took our second math test. We reviewed in math centers on Thursday. We played games and completed some papers about our math unit.

In science we planted grass seed in three different soils. We planted it in soil, sand, and a mixture, and we made a hypothesis about which type of soil we thought the grass will grow best in. We will measure our grass on Tuesday.





Today we made our terrariums. We learned that the terrarium is a mini ecosystem. We went outside to plant, and we can already see the water cycle starting in some of our jars.



We finished racing our Puff Mobiles and we even got to test our vehicles in the gym. Our big race is scheduled for Wednesday!

Representative Jim Vallee

Today Representative Jim Vallee came to Kennedy School. He read a commendation which was given to the Kennedy School by the State House. We received this commendation for being named a Commendation School by the governor! Mr. Vallee graciously took our questions and answered them all! We learned that he went to Kennedy School, and was one of the original Ladybugs!