Virtual Field Trip: Beyond the Battlefield

Students got a behind the scenes tour of the Museum of the American Revolution in Philidelphia hosted by Lauren Tarshis, author of the I Survived series. Ask your child about their favorite part of the trip!

Science: Changing Land

Students created a beach, then waves to replicate how waves change the land.

Spencer and Aiden taking measurements of the "beach" after waves.

Meredith creating waves.

January Writing Parent Celebration

Thank you to all those who could attend this celebration. The kids loved reading all of your comments about their opinion essays. Students should have come home with these published pieces for you to read if you were unable to attend that day. 

Social Studies: A Train Tour Through New England

One of the stops on our train tour brought us to Hershey, Pennsylvania. Students participated in an activity where they got to experience what it might be like working in an assembly line for mass production as a candy wrapper. There were 3 people on their line: a cutter, a candy placer and a candy wrapper. For three minutes students worked in their lines to see how many candies they could wrap. Then students had to inspect their work for quality to make sure the candies were completely covered. It wasn't as easy as it first seemed.

After the activity, students were asked to think about what facial expression and adjectives they would use to describe how they were feeling if they had to do that job for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. Some students said they would be happy because they would be earning money. Others thought they would be tired, bored, frustrated and sore. They also thought about pros and cons to having a machine do the job of wrapping the candies. Some of the pros were the job would get done faster and they wouldn't be as tired. Some of the cons were the machines cost a lot of money, people would loose their jobs, machines could break down and cause pollution.

Our Kindness Theme Door Decorating Contest

Our Buckets are Full
with Warm Fuzzy Feelings! An arched banner with an over-flowing bucket connects our two classroom doors!

Flat Stanleys Have Been Arriving

It has been so exciting to receive so many emails and letters from Flat Stanley's travels. He has had lots of adventures that have been beautifully narrated by family and friends. We even had a poem written about his outing! He has gotten to see so many places. We will be looking closely at each adventure as we "travel" in our social studies units to each region of the United States. This is a year long project, so you are welcome to tell friends and family that have not sent Stanley that he can come back anytime. He is even welcome to have multiple excursions :). As we study each of Flat Stanley's adventures I will send all of the artifacts from his adventures home with the student who sent him. Thank you so much for supporting our project. I have loved this as much as the kids!

Unit 2 Realistic Fiction Writing a Success!

Students recently published their realistic fiction pieces and shared with students on the downstairs 4th grade team. It was a great opportunity for them to see their friends and receive/give positive feedback on their realistic fiction stories.