Room 4P

Hello 4P Students and Families!

Are you ready for an exciting year in 4th grade? I sure am! I am looking forward to seeing you on August 31st. Although our day is going to be busy with learning about your new school and classroom, we will certainly find time to do some math, reading and science! Our special on the first day is P.E. with Mr. Duffy.

Please remember to bring your special rock (I am bringing mine!) and your healthy snack. It looks like we may have some warm weather next week, so bring a water bottle and dress cool.

I made a video for you on our class wiki. Click here!

I will meet you in the gymnasium first thing Wednesday morning.

See you soon,
Mrs. Pilver

We made it through a whole week without missing school because of snow! Here’s what’s new!

Math

We’ve started to learn about decimals and how they are related to fractions. The students have been working at memorizing their multiplication facts and we do math drills a few times each week. The most exciting thing in math this week was Math Workshop!! During Math Workshop, students rotate through Math Menu, On My Own, and meet with Mrs. Pilver. Our favorite menu activities this week were the strategy games Quirkle and Gluey and the Tangram puzzlers.

Reading

We are enjoying the book, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, by Grace Lin. We’ve been looking for the Chinese symbols in the book and discussing their possible connections to the story. We’ve started a map of the story that will help us follow Minli’s journey. The students are creating a beautiful scroll that depicts the events of the story, too. Today, we discussed the story on Wiki Talks. You can see our discussions here.

Writing

We are working on lots of different stories and genres. Some students are writing about the pictures in The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, others are writing stories about topics they have chosen. We have a class of magnificent writers and we really enjoy writing and hearing each other’s writing.

Science

The Water Cycle Adventure video is finished! 4P is very proud of their efforts.

Water Cycle Adventure

Social Studies

We are just beginning to study the history of Connecticut. Today the students brainstormed how we could learn about it and how we can share our learning.

Somehow, between the snow days and the long weekend, we’ve managed to do quite a bit since the holiday break. We’ve been learning about water’s magic tricks and the sun’s role in the water cycle. Students are producing a video about the water cycle starring themselves as water vapor, water droplets, glaciers, and more. We are making models of the water cycle and using a grow light to simulate the sun. We’ve done some experiments like the Case of the Disappearing Water and Condensation with Ice.

Students worked hard on the midyear Blue Ribbon tests. They also wrote wonderfully to the writing prompt. We are back into our regular schedule this week with no more testing.

We read and discussed the Japanese legend, Ooka and the Honest Thief. Then we discussed the story on a wiki called Wiki Talks with Mrs. Nyser’s class. This week we will begin the story Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin.

In math we will begin a unit on multiplication. We will be learning strategies for solving and writing multiplication story problems. We will be learning how to multiply one digit times two digit numbers.

What a busy time of the year! We’ve taken some time to show caring and sharing this month by putting up Secret Santa stockings. Each week we put a small gift in the stockings. Children made pictures the first week, cards the second and small tokens the third.

We have finished our geometry unit in math and are starting to learn about fractions. Students will be learning how to identify fractions of sets and wholes and how to compare and order fractions. In writing, students have been applying a variety of techniques as they craft their stories. This week we’ve been learning how to reveal characters through setting. Students are writing short pieces describing their room and the treasures found there. In social studies, students have been “uncovering” Connecticut and learning about our states landforms, regions, climate, animals, natural resources, and plants. We’ve been comparing Connecticut to Hawaii, how each state was formed and its geography. Students are working on digital stories by combining images, words, and music to tell about Connecticut’s unique geography. During this process, students have been learning about ethical uses of images and the meaning of copyright.

I continue to be amazed by the talents of this class. We had a team challenge this week that was a SUPER challenge! As a matter of fact, the challenge, called Bull Rings,  is usually done with older students. However, once again 4P rose to the challenge and did an awesome job. During the debrief, the class all felt that there were things that they could do differently, both individually and collectively that would help them to “succeed” at their next team challenge. As Xandra said, “This is getting us ready for work and life!.”

I am thrilled that many children have selected to do an extra credit project this month. We were so lucky last week to have Claire as our teacher, teaching us how to make popsicle stick ornaments. Next week we will be taught by Alex, Clark and Ana.

I wish everyone a peaceful and joyous holiday.

Mrs. Pilver

We had a busy couple of weeks learning how to read, write, and compare big six digit numbers, how to take notes about the types of landforms Connecticut has, how to use commas in a series, and more!

Here are some highlights:

We had fun watching our If Rocks Could Talk videos that used the green screen effect. Our next green screen movie will be The Water Cycle!

Mr. DeMers visited and talked to us about how he makes furniture from trees. We learned about wood moisture and different types of woods. He asked us to design some benches for him to use as he designs our garden bench. We picked a perfect spot in the garden for the bench. You can see pictures from his visit here.

Alex taught us about bats and Sam taught us about guinea pigs. Did you know that guinea pigs are fully grown when they are 5 months old? Did you know that white nose syndrome is a fungal disease that is killing millions of bats?

We are reading The Lemonade War. Evan and Jessie have a bet to see who can make the most money by Friday. Most of us think Jessie will win.

We wrote wonderful poems about our favorite places. We used the book My Quiet Place as our mentor text. We used sensory details and personification in the poems.

Jack made his first cooking show! He made Heavenly Vanilla Milkshakes. Wow, were they heavenly! Kyler and Clark were Jack’s assistants while the rest of us were the enthusiastic audience.

Mrs. Nyser’s class invited us to see their Thanksgiving play. To show our appreciation, we brought woven placemats, friendship cards, and FOOD! We worked in committees Wednesday morning to prepare. The committees were the banner committee, the placemat committee, and the hats committee. Thank you, Mrs. Fox, for the delicious Pumpkin Cranberry Spice bread!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!

Wow, time sure does fly!

This week our class focused on personification in writing. Inanimate objects such as pencils, computers, shoes and planes took on human characteristics in poems written by the students. Some of the students are publishing their poems onto our class wiki.

We focused on the concept of place this week. Teams were challenged to list of all of the places that they could think of in three minutes. Then teams were given another three minutes to answer this question, “What makes a place unique?” Students have started to draw pictures of their own favorite place which will be put together into a community quilt.

We started the book The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies. So far it is very good! In reading students have been reading up to 45 minutes on their books. We love reading so much that many of us groan when it is time to stop. I love to read the letters that the students write to me about their books.

The garden is raked, clean and ready for bulbs to be planted next week. Ted DeMers will be coming to talk to us next week about making a bench for the garden. We can’t wait! Jack and the garden committee hung up the bird feeders. Thank you, Mr. M., for the generous donation of bird seed!

4th grade was in charge of the Word of the Week bulletin board last week. The word was estimate. Students were so creative in thinking about how we estimate in real life! We drew examples and wrote sentences to go with them. Mrs. Sullivan came to our class to tell us what an amazing job 4th grade did on the bulletin board.

Everyone did such a great job on their spelling test! Go 4P!

In math, we’ve started to learn about BIG numbers in the thousands and ten thousands. We continue to practice adding and subtracting numbers. This week we’ve started to memorize our multiplication facts.

Laser, Sam’s guinea pig, came to visit. He was so cute with his little mohawk haircut. We enjoyed watching him eat his corn on the cob.

Alex taught us a new game for class meeting. It is an improved version of the killer game. Thanks, Alex! We also learned a new greeting this week called Snowball Greeting.

So many students are working on independent research projects! Ana inspired us with her report about turtles. It is very exciting to learn from each other’s research! Here are the topics the students are learning about:

Will – Hedgehogs
Ana – Sign Language
Amanda – Pilgrims
Claire – Romans
Jacklyn, Josie and Kyler – Greek Mythology
Alex – Bats
Xandra – Computers
Sam – Guinea Pigs
Ally – Seahorses
Jack – Chameleons

I hope I didn’t forget anyone!!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs. P. 

Happy Halloween!

What a busy week we had! We filmed our first video using a “green screen”.  Our video includes short interviews with rocks. It was very fun to put ourselves into places like the Grand Canyon, a volcano, and the desert.

We were successful at a team challenge called Lost in Space. We had to cross space on our space vehicles. Someone had to always be touching the space vehicle or it would lose its charge and drop into space. We could not lose anyone in space either or we would all be lost. It was very challenging at first but it got easier and easier as we worked in our teams to figure out strategies. We learned so much about working as a team and about ourselves. Each of us was very important in our success. We love team challenges!

In math we’ve been practicing subtraction problems with zeros. Very tricky but we have caught on! We have also been reviewing rounding numbers to tens and hundreds.

We have been chosen to be the judges of the Best Discussion Post of the Month on the Nutmeg book wiki. We identified judging criteria this week and voted on the best post. You can see the winning post here.

We finished The Thing About Georgie. We all loved the way the book ended and the poem that Georgie wrote for his new little sister. We will be starting The Lemonade War this week.

We wrote poems and songs this week for Halloween. On Friday, some of us performed them. We also performed a Reader’s Theatre for Mrs. Nyser’s class. Amanda taught us two games. Thanks, Amanda! Xandra and Jaclyn judged the bats and we had a first, second and third place winner. Everyone received a certificate for participating. Thank you, Xandra and Jaclyn for a FUN contest! Josie made ghosts for people. What a wonderful contribution to our community! Thanks, Josie!

Our garden is weeded thanks to the hard workers who have volunteered during recess. This week we will be planting bulbs and mulching the garden. We will need to think about plant height, color and bloom time as we plan where the bulbs will be planted. We had a committee pick out bulbs that come up in the spring and can be grown in our zone.

Have a safe and fun Halloween weekend!

This week we did the ultimate team challenge called Don’t Break the Ice! At first it was very challenging because we were not working as a team but once we started to listen to each others ideas, we did it! One team even accomplished the challenge without talking! We learned a lot about working together, respecting ideas, and problem solving. It was fun, too!

Be sure to check out our Voki Poetry on the wiki. We learned how to discuss and give feedback on the wiki, too. We had an online discussion about our read aloud, The Thing About Georgie.

The stories we are working on in writing are coming out so good! We have been listening to each others stories and asking questions, sharing comments, and giving suggestions. Many of us want to publish our magic shop stories.

In math, we’ve been adding 2 digit numbers, learning how to measure in inches, and practicing math facts. Next week we will focus on adding and subtracting large numbers in real-world problem situations. We are also going to begin making a multiplication book.

In science, we learned about 3 types of rocks. Do you know what rocks that are made from cooled lava are called? Igneous rocks! We also performed a test on minerals called the Scratch Test.

Thank you, Mr. Makuch, for donating garden tools! Next week we will test our garden’s soil and weed it to prepare for bulb and perennial planting.

Have a wonderful long weekend!

This week we created our 4P Class Constitution this week and everyone signed it, including Ginger and Oreo! Here are our rules:

Treat all people and animals that way you’d like to be treated.
Respect the core values.
Be honest.
No violence.

We learned about HMS feathers and talked about things that each of us want to work on. We discussed how doing things that are out of our comfort zone or don’t come easy to us help us grow.

In math, we collected data and made graphs. We’ve been learning how to subtract with regrouping in our AM work. We have started a unit in measurement.

We are writing poems and stories in writing. On Friday, we wrote descriptions of dragons. We enjoy listening to everyone’s stories after lunch and recess.

We are up to 45 minutes of independent reading time. The Thing About Georgie is getting very good and we love to listen to it as we eat our snacks.

In Science we tested rocks and minerals for hardness. Using a nail, fingernail and penny, we tried to scratch each specimen. Some rocks were hard enough to scratch glass!

Next week, we will be practicing a poem that we chose during a poetry break in class. We are going to record the poem on iPods and make a Voki that will read the poem! We can’t wait!

This week was very busy with the book fair, Blue Ribbon testing and the writing prompt! We worked very hard on all of the tests. Learning how to take the test on the computer was challenging. We read a book called Rocks in His Head and shared what things we have in our heads. We talked about about big goals in life and then about what we could work on this year that would help up reach our goals. We created  a quilt of our goals.

Mrs. Sullivan came and talked to our class about the garden and bench idea. She said that she is very happy that we want to make the garden look better and beautify our playground with a new bench. We measured the garden this week. Jack brought in four bird feeders! Next, we will see how much sun the garden gets so we know what we can grow in it.

Math

In math we’ve been working on Topic 1, Math in Our World. We’ve been practicing reading graphs and super challenge graphs. We will be creating our own graphs using data we collect from surveys.

Science

In science, we continue to learn about rocks and minerals. We learned some new words like property, luster, and geologist. Did you know that a rock is composed of two or more minerals?

Reading

We have been increasing our reading time each day. We finished Shredderman and have started The Thing About Georgie. Click here to watch a video of someone reading parts of the book! Someone hacked into Shredderman.com and we were able to figure out the username and password to fix it!

Social Studies

Sept. 17 is Constitution Day. We are going to be learning about the Constitution and writing our own Class Constitution. Our constitution will be based on the individual needs of our classroom community.

Writing

We decorated our writing notebooks and some of us started to write in them. They came out so wonderful!