Our Week In Review

We began our week with our book celebration, celebrating The One and Only Ivan, by Katherine Applegate. What an awesome day!  We began our day with "Jungle Yoga".  We also played pictionary/charades with vocabulary words and characters from the book.  We enjoyed "Ivan Snacks", and we finger painted like Ivan!

One of the ways we wrapped up this book was to complete a RAFT.  This type of writing requires students to take on the point of view and perspective of a character in the book, and then write from that point of view, to another character. After writing, students did a "gallery walk" and provided feedback to their friends.  The children enjoyed this writing!

In math, we continued learning about geometry.  We have been learning about angles, shapes and lines.  We will have math MCAS this week, and our geometry assessment will be Friday (5/19)

During writing, we have started our newest unit, writing nonfiction texts.  Our topic relates to our science unit about adaptations. Ask your child about this unit, we are enjoying the planning process!

We began reading our final interactive read aloud, Charlotte's Web. We are doing some deep thinking with this book, discussing the characters' actions, their motivation, and the author's message.  The students have started to realize the importance of writing for your audience. This is a great book to highlight that we "read like writers, and write like readers".  We have been reading this book in a different way, using a reader's theater model.  The children have really enjoyed this!

We will continue our study of the west region of the U.S. In science, we are wrapping up our animal adaptations unit and we will move on to our study of magnetism and electricity next week.  We created "animals" this week that could be camouflaged in our classroom. Can you find our creatures (they are camouflaged pretty well!)?

One of our morning questions this week was "Who in your life deserves an award?"  You may enjoy some of these responses!

students running our morning meeting

Way to Go!

Our excellent effort continues...

Our Weeks In Review

Time is flying by as we are in the final months of fourth grade, still learning and growing! Over the last few weeks, we completed ELA MCAS, and finished our most recent Interactive Read Aloud, The One and Only Ivan, by Katherine Applegate. We all enjoyed watching Ivan turn into the silverback we knew he could be.  Almost all of our class rated this book a 9, 10 or 10+!  If you are interested in reading this book, we are happy to lend a copy to families.  This book is based on the true story of Ivan, a gorilla who lived in the B & I Mall in Tacoma, WA, during the 1990s-2000s. Check out the story below.

We have connected our reading to our writing, and we are working on RAFTs.  This is a method of writing where the students take on a different perspective and write from that perspective . Ask your child about their RAFT.

This week we enjoyed visits from poet laureate Elizabeth Gordon McKim. "Miss Liz" shared her talents, and students wrote beautiful poems, in the spirit of "An Ear to the Earth."    Miss Liz taught us about poetry in the oral tradition, and we participated in a poetry reading. We are grateful to the JFK PCC for funding this amazing experience for all!  

We continue to learn about animal adaptations in science, and we have connected this learning to our reading about Ivan, observing animals using a variety of live animal cameras from all over the world. 

Our travels across the US have taken us to the west region.  We had a very exciting opportunity this week.  We Skyped with "Ranger Cathy" from Yellowstone National Park!   You can see a video of our virtual visit in our tweets.

In math, we finished learning about time and graphing, and have started our study of geometry.

Many, many thanks to the families of JFK and the PCC for the wonderful teacher appreciation week events.  Our teachers enjoyed treats, and delicious lunch, and we received plants, pens, markers, and even signs.  Thank you!

Below are a few other highlights from the last few weeks.

We continue to share our love of books through book talks.  Ask your child if he/she has presented a book talk yet.  All students are encouraged to do this!

May the Fourth Be With You

Check out our fourth grade blog to view the videos that the students have been creating during Technology Workshop.

Please check out all of our tweets in the right margin.  You can follow us  @mertenladybugs.