Community Work Day

This Saturday is an Evergreen community work day. Please come out and show your support by volunteering a few hours. There are a variety of projects that you can participate in. If you are handy with a drill, there are some small shelves that we would like hung in our classroom. I haven't had the time to hang them myself. Thanks for all that you do and please consider representing our classroom, and Evergreen, this Saturday from 9:00-12:00.

Also, if you are interested, we still need a driver for our trip to the Big Bald Banding Station. This is going to be an awesome experience for all of us! Check out the links posted below to learn more about this great opportunity. Have a fantastic day!

Writing Lesson

During our writing time we have been discussing the 6 +1 writing traits. Currently, we are working with the trait: Voice. (If you are interested in learning about the 6+1 Writing Traits click HERE.) I would like to share with you all a written response to a R.A.F.T. prompt. (To learn about RAFT click HERE.) Below is the assignment and written response by Oz.

Role- Momma Frog
Audience- frog eggs
Format- letter
Topic- growing up

Dear Frog Eggs,
Here you are today in little white spheres. One day you will pop out and take your first breath. And, as time passes you will soon be swimming around. Do not be startled when legs pop out, it's normal. You will soon be a fully grown frog and as you grow you will learn things, but here are the most important things: Always do the right thing. Life is not fair... deal with it! And, stay away from snakes!

Love,
Momma Frog

Field Trip Rescheduled

Our field trip to the Big Bald Banding Station has been postponed to this Friday, October 26th. We have decided not to go tomorrow due to the weather. We should have a better chance on Friday, of seeing some hawks. If you are interested in where we will be going click HERE to learn more about this service project and partnership. This is a great opportunity for our students and a wonderful way to enhance our flight investigations.

October 22, 2007

Student
Hi, today some of the kids in the class went to the book fair. Many of the kids finished the symmetry name activity. Name symmetry is when you cut out a name and it looks really cool because it’s symmetrical. We also had indoor recess because it was to wet for Lee. We read about The Lost Colony it was very interesting. Did you know that the colonist were horrible to the Native Americans? Bye for now! A.G.

Teacher
Today was one of the most memorable days of my life. The Red Sox are going to the World Series! Whoo Hoo! Oh, and in other news, the new spelling list has been posted. Have a great day!

New Spelling List

Spelling List
October 22, 2007
Short vowel in a closed syllable
(a closed syllable begins and ends with a consonant)

animal
wagon
thumb
August
bottom
stretch
cannot
spaceship
December
September
February
fifth
pocket
follow
November
pencil
uncover
shrunk
crumble
struggle

Challenge List
adjective
welcome
terrific
except
difficult
symbol
principal
Africa
citizen
metric
magazine
central
glance
helicopter
gentle
frantic
scenic
happen
gallon
jiggle

Health Adventure: Flight

I hope you enjoy the slide show from our recent visit to the Health Adventure. We learned a lot about the basic principles of flight. The students loved all the really cool activities that they were able to participate in. After learning about flight we had a few minutes to explore the new exhibits featuring transportation. Thanks for such wonderful kids! I'd also like to extend a big THANK YOU to our chaperones and drivers. Enjoy your weekend!

October 10, 2007

Student:
Today we went to the Health Adventure! We learned how lift helps with flight. We also got see how to force the air out of can!

Teacher:
We had a real blast today! I think the kids got a lot out of our visit to the health adventure. It was spectacular. Ask your child about the bottle and small paper ball trick. Also, ask them about the smashed can. Hopefully they will tell you that the air has pressure and after you force the air out of the can (by heating it) the can will collapse. They also were able to experiment with paper airplanes… something we will be doing more of. It was a fantastic day. Be sure to look for pics soon!

The important thing about our 4th grade class is how much fun we have while learning.
We play math games to learn multiplication,
Brain Pop to test our knowledge of different subjects,
write to cool prompts to get us ready for the writing test,
use tools, art supplies and research to create projects that demonstrate our understanding of where we live.
But the important thing about our 4th grade class is how much fun we have while learning.


Ask your child about "The Important Book" and what we're doing in class.

What a great week we had!
Lee

Thursday, Oct. 4th- Our blogger student is absent today. Kevin is out until Tuesday. I 'm tired and I wanna go home!
Spelling test tomorrow and 8th grade debate on the "Lost Colony"- ask your child what they know. Please send in $5.00 for Health Adventure field trip next Wed. at 11:00- we are to see the "Wright Stuff" program. Parents have an assignment due Fri., Oct. 12th- see your newsletter for details on 'your letter' to your child.
We took our first 4th grade writing test prompt practice today- ask your child about this.
I shared with the kids today just how touched most parents were when reading their "I am" poems. Thanks again for all the great conferencing- we have an amazing class!
Lee

October 2, 2007

Today is the second day of October! We started the day with a crazy picture prompt. It was of a man with roots as his legs! He was carrying a big walking stick. It looked as if the stick was carved very carefully. He was walking in the desert. The whole class thought this prompt was really cool. We didn’t have time to share all of our stories. In math, we are working on place values and rounding numbers. We were “shopping” in catalogs and cutting out the prices of items and then rounding the prices. The class is finishing their box habitats in expedition time. We keep writing and writing and writing. In art, we are finishing our soda bottle fish. -Wanagi

Spelling List # 3 short vowel i

Short vowel – i

chill
didn’t
unit
since
fifty
little
inches
listen
children
stiff
picture
himself
magic
which
little
conflict
getting
friend
except
ever

Challenge List
Atlantic
automatic
interesting
multiply
negative
continent
independence
dolphin
chicken
medicine
liberty
invited
justice
traffic
uninteresting
magnetic
positive
million
alligator
investigation