Our Week In Review

What a busy week in fourth grade!

We started off our week with Tie Dye Tuesday.  What fun we had, and we were lucky the weather cooperated!  A great big THANK YOU to Mrs. Choudhury, Mrs. Sharma, Mrs. Cuneo, and Mrs. LaFrance for helping with this project.  Our orange shirts came out wonderfully!

We have been working diligently during Poetry/Technology Workshop.  We have been typing and illustrating our expert pieces, and we have enjoyed writing some new poems.  Our forgiveness poems are funny and make some of us laugh out loud.

 In science we had the chance to try some experiments with magnets.  We enjoyed feeling the magnets attract and repel.  We also explored items that would stick to magnets. Check out our science links to see some interesting sites about magnetism and electricity. Next week we will try some experiments with electric circuits.

What an awesome experience we had today!  We were able to skype with a fourth grade class from Bellingham, Washington. Mr. Pahl and his class answered some questions about their state and we were able to guess where they were from.  Then his class asked us the same questions, and guessed our state.  We had a great time!  Take a minute and check out their class blog here.  I bet they would love to have comments from our students on their blog.  We had so much fun, we would love to do this again.  If any family knows of a fourth grade teacher from another state who might be interested in skyping with us, we would LOVE it! Please send Mrs. Merten an email.

Mr. Pahl's Fourth Grade

We carefully listened to their answers.

Students ~ If you can think of someone you would like to skype with, please respond in the comments.  Maybe we can skype with them!

In the next week, students will be working at home to memorize their Coffeehouse poem.  We are looking forward to seeing you on June 10!

Spotlight On...

...Derek and his sister Alexis!  They had a fun filled weekend visiting Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.  Here are some photos of their adventure!  What an  awesome adventure!

Our Week In Review

It's been quite a busy week in Room 24.

We spent a lot of time in Poetry/Technology Workshop, finishing up our expert pieces and poetry.  We have become quite proficient with using Google Drive, and are really enjoying this. Check with your child if you'd like to see his/her work in drive.  They should be able to log in and show you progress.

We have been really enjoying reading Charlotte's Web!  We created birth announcements for Wilbur, and Mrs. Merten hung them up in the classroom.  They are awesome! They have all of the elements of  a real birth announcement, and some individual art work!

During reading this week, we noticed that we had a visitor, a black spider.  This spider has been around during our reading a few days this week, and we have named her Charlotte.  She didn't show up today, but we hope we see her again next week.  If you have something to add about Charlotte, please leave a comment for our class.

Charlotte is sitting on the red pin.

In math, we have been reviewing various topics from the year. We also began to learn about lines and patters and how to use lines to create 3-dimensional patterns.  Some of us have become experts in this! We will continue to explore this next week, and will use these skills to sew a line design as the year comes to an end.

In social studies we began our journey to the west.  We have our west test scheduled for next Friday. Vocabulary was sent home early this week, and a study guide went home today.


During science we have started to learn about magnets and their uses.  We read a folktale about a boy named Magnus who learns about magnetism in a type of rock.  You can reread the story here.  We will complete several hands on experiments with magnets and with electricity in the coming weeks. Our electricity and magnetism test is scheduled (tentatively) for June 12.


In preparation for Tie Dye Tuesday, we tied our t-shirts today.  We are very excited to dye them (ORANGE) on Tuesday and to see how our designs turn out.  Students, please take a minute to fill out this survey AFTER you have dyed your shirt Tuesday.

Our Week In Review

Spring has finally arrived!  We have been working very hard to wrap up various activities before the home stretch.

This week we completed the math MCAS tests.  The children worked really hard for both days!

Due to the MCAS we did not read much from our newest interactive read aloud, Charlotte's Web.  We are all looking forward to reading this story of friendship and overcoming challenges.

We have been working to wrap up and publish our expert pieces.  This week we started to type these assignments into our Google Drive.  We learned how to insert a page break and a table.  Next week we will continue to type and learn how to insert pictures into our books.  We will also illustrate some of the pages and create a final book, complete with a table of contents and chapters.

During poetry workshop, we learned about a poet/artist, Douglas Florian, who paints watercolors and writes nature poems about those paintings.  We painted nature themed water colors on brown paper bags this week, and have started writing companion poems in free verse style.

We wrapped up our final piece of our Weather unit!  Next week, we will begin our last science unit ~ Magnetism and Electricity.

We also wrapped up our study of the Midwest, and have completed both assessments.  We will "travel" to the West beginning on Monday.

Spotlight On...

...Will and Jack!  They have been doing a great job during their lacrosse season, and even had the opportunity to play during half time at the Cannons game.  Unfortunately, the weather ruined their plans.  Way to go guys!!!!!

Spotlight On...

Ryan and Travis! They have been having a wonderful lacrosse season! We enjoy hearing about the lacrosse games every Monday morning.  Remember...If your child would like to be spotlighted on our blog, just send Mrs. Merten an email

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Our Week In Review

We had quite a busy week in room 24!

On Monday and Wednesday we were lucky enough to have our Poet in Residence, Ms. Elizabeth McKim come to JFK to work with our class.  She spent 90 minutes with our class on each of the two days, and the children have written some beautiful poetry!  (Stay tuned, you will see some of it this weekend!) Ms. Liz has a wonderful way with the children, and is able to bring out the most beautiful poetry imaginable.  Below are some pictures and videos of her time with us.  She will join our class at our Poetry Coffeehouse on June 10th.  We hope to see you there (more details to follow)!

The Poetry Bus

During reading we began our next (and possibly last) Interactive Read Aloud, Charlotte's Web.  Mrs. Merten LOVES this book, and has assured us we are going to be doing some "serious thinking" about the characters in this story.  Our goals while reading this book are:

• To read with expression (Ask your child about Reader's Theater ~ and Kids ~ add a comment about how you feel about Reader's Theater).
• To understand character's actions and their motivation
• To understand the author's message through character's actions
• To understand how the characters' actions lead us to different themes.

We have only read 2 chapters, but can't wait to read more!

During math, we have spent the last week reviewing the various concepts learned this year.  Mrs. Merten has been quite impressed with our ability to recall the topics.  Math MCAS is next Tuesday and Wednesday.

In Science we have been learning about storms.  We read various non-fiction books and created a chart about the storms.  Mrs. Merten shared some actual videos showing hurricanes, tornadoes and blizzards (including pictures of hurricanes from the National Weather Service).  Our last weather assessment is scheduled for next week.

We also cleaned out our terrariums.  Your child will be bringing his/her terrarium home soon (if it didn't come home today).

We are also wrapping up our study of the midwest.  We have learned so much about this part of the country.  We even discussed the Continental Divide (which many parents learned about in high school!).  Our assessment is also at the end of next week, and then we will travel to the west region.

Lastly, what a wonderful surprise this morning!  I arrived to a sign on the classroom door, 

a sign on the lawn, 

and many lovely notes.  Thank you for your thoughtfulness.