Our Week in Review

Even though it was a short week, it was a busy one in Room 24!

In writing, we continued to work on our Ivan poems, and finished publishing our narratives.  We also completed a narrative writing assessment.

In Reading we finished up some of our Ivan activities, and focused our reading on non-fiction.  We have read about Gregor Mendel and about Mexico, focusing on non-fiction text features such as bold/italic print, captions, headings, maps and tables.  We have been learning a lot in both science and social studies, and about how to read non-fiction in a different way than fiction.

On Thursday we learned about "ojos de dios" or God's Eyes.  This is common craft done in Mexico. Together with Mrs. Williams' class, we created our own God's Eyes.

Today we had a very special treat!  Our Creative Arts Friday was highlighted by Mrs. Tracey!  She came to our class and taught us all about the Aztecs (from Mexico).

 We reviewed a bit about their history and discussed their artistry.  We drew some Aztec suns, focusing on imagery and emotion.  We then drew our suns on foam board.

 Mrs. Tracey helped us with ink and a brayer, and we created some Aztec sun prints!  We learned about Mexican poet, Octavio Paz, and  wrote some free verse poetry in his style.

We will mount our suns with our poetry soon! Thank you, Mrs. Tracey for such an awesome day!!!

Poetry Spotlight

Here are two poems written today about the sun prints.

There's a sun

among the trees

that smiles at me.

And I smile back.

                          ~Emily 

Sad Sun

Tears are dripping

down my burning face

as the rain falls

I grow weaker

and lose my light.

It is soon dark.

                      ~Sarah

From the Teacher's Desk

The next few weeks will be busy with preparing for our tests in science (Heredity) and social studies (Mexico).  The children have all of the necessary materials to begin studying for both tests.  They have been reminded to bring their materials back and forth to school/home, so that they are able to participate in school activities as well as study at home.  Students should also be preparing and practicing for their November speech.  The speeches will be given in front of our class on November 26th.  If your child will not be in school on that day, please contact Mrs. Merten, so that arrangements can be made.

What a Week!

It has been a very, very busy week in Room 24.  We have really established a nice community of learners, and the children are excited about all we are doing.

In math, we wrapped up our unit on Place Value and Addition/Subtraction.  We had a great week reviewing these concepts and playing some fun games.  Our favorite is the "CHAMPS" vs. the "Teacher".  We are still the Champs!  On Thursday we spent our math time reviewing our math concepts in centers.

 We were able to practice the things that would be on the test, and ask questions if we were confused.  Then on Friday...we had our first Math Test! Though Mrs. Merten hasn't corrected them yet, she was really proud of how hard we all worked.

In Reading we have been talking about strategies "good readers" use to get better. Everyone has chosen a strategy and is working at practicing that strategy. We will continue learning about some reading strategies next week, and then will begin our first Interactive Read Aloud.  Stay Tuned, I think you will all be excited about our choice!

We had a lot of fun activities this week as well.

On Tuesday we celebrated Constitution Day with the rest of fourth grade.  We watched a couple of quick videos, and then talked about the signing of the Constitution.  One of the videos we watched is the Preamble video by Schoolhouse Rock.



We learned about the Bill of Rights, too!

On Wednesday, we were so lucky to have Storyteller Len Cabral come to JFK. He told some wonderful folk tales and reminded us of the importance of reading.  He also gave us some tips on coming up with ideas for writing.  We just loved hearing his stories!

Today was such an exciting day.  We had Creative Arts Friday today. So far in technology, we have learned to create, name and save a document, choose a printer and print, and set bookmarks and a home page on the Internet.  Mrs. Merten is really impressed with our listening during this time of the day.  During Poetry with Mrs. Williams, we have wrapped up our Biopoems and we started learning about the poet Walt Whitman.  Later in the day, we had a chance to work on our Puff Mobiles with our groups.  We also had our first chance to spend our chips at the class store!  We were so excited to use our chips to buy some fun items.

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Abstract Sculptures and Drawings

In Art Class on Friday, we created Abstract Sculptures in groups.  Then we sketched our sculptures individually. Can you guess which sketches and sculptures match? Impressed by our artwork?  Leave a comment!

The Sculptures

Our Artwork (students chose if they wanted their sketch posted)