Class Picture 2012

Parents - If you are interested in purchasing the

class picture, please make sure you mark it on your

picture order form.  Forms are due by April 5.

Bartering Day

One of our Tennesse SPIs is to distinguish between a

barter economy and money economy.  Well, what better

way to learn than by doing it.  So we held a bartering day

from my class and Mrs. Simpson's class.  They could bring

a small item from home to barter.

We had everything:  matchbox cars, necklaces.

headbands, gum, notepads, pencils, beef jerky,

cokes, drawings, and even those funny clown glasses.

Mission Accomplished!  We know bartering!

Mystery Guest Speaker

To wrap up our mystery unit, I invited in Officer 

Toungette and Officer Maples from the Waverly

Police Department to speak to us about solving

real mysteries.  These 2 gentlemen happen to have

a pretty cool connection to my classroom.  I teach

their grandson/son every day!  

WOW - love that our

local heroes could help us out with 

our "everyday" learning!

Officer Toungette sharing one of his real mysteries

in our small town.  He explained how the clues and

evidence lead them to the criminal.  He is showing a

picture of tire tracks that connected the suspect to the crime.

He did an AMAZING job speaking to the kiddos.

He said more than once how important it was for a 

good detective to be a good listener and pay attention

to the details....just like they should listen to the teacher-

that would be me.  I LOVED IT!  I could have hugged

his neck.  What an awesome message for these kids!

Here he is asking Scott (his grandson) to pick up 

a drinking glass so he can lift his fingerprints.

Lifting Scott's (the criminal's) prints from the glass.

A little assistance from Scott's dad, Officer Maples.

THANKS A MILLION GUYS!

Yes, for coming to speak to my class, but more than

that...thanks for all you do to keep Waverly safe!

Goodbye Student Teacher

Our class said goodbye to our neighboring student

teacher.  She wasn't ours all the time, but my kiddos 

enjoyed their time with Mrs. Little during Science and 

a couple of other special projects.  Thanks Mrs. Little.

My neighboring teacher (Mrs. Simpson) and Mrs. Little

Learning about President's Day

We had many questions about why we celebrate 

President's Day, so we took to the library to find out.

Why do we only celebrate G.W. and A.L.?

We checked out a ton of books on these two famous

presidents and began "harvesting" information.  The kids

then turned their info. into a graphic organizer and shared

what they learned with their classmates.  We of course

did 2 quick art projects to make our display pop!

Poetry Practice Freebie

We've been practicing poetry to prepare for
our state testing in April.

Here's a page I created to help the kiddos.
Kids "infer" the word that rhymes and goes in the blank.
They then complete the questions.
It's not fancy, but was a good intro for us.

These are my first document shares.
Please leave a comment if you use and let me know
what you think.  I hope there are no mistakes.

Poetry Practice Freebie
Poetry Practice Freebie 2

Mysteries

We've taken a break from our basal (thank goodness) and

we are working on reading groups using mysteries.

Kiddos were introduced to mysteries with the Scholastic

website, vocab, and even more ideas.  You link to it below.

Here they are practicing their vocabulary words.

They were super excited to get reading.

We read the following:

Who Cloned the President?

Jigsaw Jones and the Stolen Baseball Cards

Jigsaw Jones and the Case of the Kidnapped Candy

The Mystery of Snowday Bigfoot  (Calendar Club)

Kiddos did great reading, discussing, and searching for 

clues during the mystery read.  We even had a special visitor 

at the conclusion of our "mystery week".  

Check back soon for pictures.

States of Matter

Student teacher, Mrs. Little, led students in a science

experiment with "oobleck".  Students mixed water and

cornstarch until it reached the correct consistency. 

They couldn't decide if it was solid or liquid or both!

My First Linky Party

Fabulous 4th Grade Froggies Blog

Joined Fabulous 4th Grade Froggies linky party in hopes of finding 

more upper elementary blogs.

Hope you enjoy mine!

Biography Video

Parts of a Non-fiction Book

We've been studying parts of a non-ficton book.

They include....table of contents, title page, glossary,

and index.

Science

Mrs. Simpson and Mrs. Little taught "types" of

clouds and the kiddos did a great visual to help

them remember each.

Adjective Frames

As an adjective review, we did "adjective frames."

I took pics of the kiddos.  The kiddos added

3/4 adjectives describing themselves.  Then,

they took it home and their families added a few

more.  Finally, I added two more adjectives.

They look great hanging outside our doors!

Chinese Culture

Thanks soooo much to Mrs. Gretchen Turner who

came to speak to our class and share about Chinese

culture.  She did a great job and the kids loved it.

We discussed population, geography, food, language,

and of course art and music.  The kiddos tried chopsticks,

a scarf game, and a few Chinese snacks.  

Inference Trash Lesson

We did an awesome lesson with TRASH.

I collected trash over a month and divided it 

into "clean" bags.  The kiddos dug through my

trash and inferred what they could about the 

person who threw away that item.

It sounds strange, but truly was awesome!

Here are a few pictures:

Super Bowl 2012

We played Mrs. Simpson's class in a Superbowl

Showdown at the first of February!  We randomly

pulled names for kiddos to go head to head.  So funny!

First name I pulled was Caroline and Mrs. Simpson 

pulled Catherine.  How neat......twins in our classes.

They were our first head to head competitors.

3 Ring Circus

Sometimes my room looks like a 3 ring circus, but there's a 

good reason why.  We have 3 ring circus 2 days a week.  

Students rotate through 3 rings (stations) during the end of

the day.  I snapped a few pictures during one a few weeks ago.

This is just a sampling.....we do all sorts of things.

Multiplication war with a deck of cards.

Language TCAP practice at the table with me.

3 digit subtraction with Mr. Michael.

Biography Book Reports

Biography Book Reports Due:  Februrary 13, Monday

Below you will see a sample of a "peek through" board.

These are bought and not kid made.  I want the students 

to use a large posterboard to create their own "peek through"

board for their report.

Happy Reading and Have Fun!

Metric Measuring

I introduced to the kiddos centimeter, meter, and 

kilometer in a recent math lesson.  At the end of the

week we partnered with Mrs. Simpson's class to play

a round of Race to Measurement.  Students drew a 

card and read the question and determined which unit

of measure would be used to complete the task.

Fun game and great reinforcement!

We've Got Rocks in Our Heads

Our reading story last week was a biography titled,

Rocks in His Head by Carol Otis Hurst.

Before reading the story,  I handed the kiddos different

rocks, minerals, and fossils to study, touch, and talk about.

When the explore time was over, each group had to

sort their rocks.  They were very creative....they used

color, shape, size, weight, shiny and dull to help them.

They loved the rocks!

Symmetry Lesson

After reviewing the definition of symmetry and doing

a little book work, I put my kiddos to the test.  The ruler

represents the line of symmetry and students had to create

a symmetrical design with a partner.

A few days later, the kiddos designed their own

symmetrical butterfly for morning work.

Introduction to Division

To introduce the division concept, I read 

The Doorbell Rang by Pat Hutchins.

This story does an excellent job of explaining

that division is sharing equally.  We then took

CookieCrisp cereal and acted out each page of

sharing from the book.

12 cookies are shared with 2 kiddos.

Students drew on their desk with pencils and 

equally shard the cookies with 2 people.

(They loved writing on their desks.)

12 divided by 2 = 6 cookies each

12 cookies divided by 4 people = 3 cookies each

12 cookies divided by 6 people = 2 cookies each

12 cookies divided by 12 people = 1 cookie each

Then we took this knowledge to a worksheet of division.

The kids learned to draw a picture.  

Below is a picture of their work as they worked

through a worksheet!

  Awesome learning :)