Visit from Author Julie Berry

The fourth grade students in our school were lucky to have a visit from children's author Julie Berry.  She gave a presentation to all the fourth graders and then spent the day leading classroom workshops.  

Julie gave the kids many ideas to get their creative juices flowing and how to make their stories original.

The children were so excited to start their own stories after Julie modeled some ideas.

Watt's Up Thomas Edison???

One of our new Common Core ELA Units is called "Figure it Out."  It is about notable people who overcame challenges to become successful in life.  We read about Helen Keller, Leonardo da Vinci, George Washington Carver and Thomas Edison.

We created lap-books about Thomas Edison.  Here are some samples of the student's work.  It also fits in with our electricity unit.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!!!

We celebrated Read Across America and Dr. Seuss' birthday yesterday at school with readers from the Middle School.  They come every year and share their favorite Dr. Seuss book with every class.  I was very happy to see a former student walk into my classroom wearing a hat and whiskers on his face.  He chose "The Lorax."  Thanks for coming Douglas!

Mostly Magnets

The kids have loved studying magnets for the past two weeks.  I have to admit, I LOVE playing with magnets too.  We only had to address a few standards and cover some basic vocabulary: attract, repel, magnetism, poles, compass, types of magnets, magnetic fields, classifying things that a magnet will attract and not attract.

Here are some materials that we used in class:

    

The last day I set up a few stations.  They used the iron filings to see the magnetic field, they experimented with the mineral magnetite, used a compass and a compass made with a needle and cork that floated on water.

  

Paint Chip Poetry

We created poems using paint chips, metaphors, feelings and similes...ENJOY!!!