Midwest, Hosting & Halloween

The week began with a bang! Not only did we host prospective students on Monday, we also attended a Patchwork assembly with performance artist, Doug Berky. The kids were AMAZED by his talents: juggling, mime, unicycle riding, and more.

Thank you to Sally, Leela, Jackson, Mason, and Kate for being such great hosts to our visitors. (I didn’t realize my picture of Sally & Marjorie was blurry!)

In class this week, we have been very busy! Students reviewed each day for the Midwest quiz. They practiced with the map, played games of Sparkle, 5 Questions/3 Clues, Around the World, and their favorite – Kahoot!

In language arts, we continued in morphology with inter-, trans-, and pend. The students came up with some great words using the morphemes. In grammar, we examined verb tenses, and they had fun constructing sentences with multiple verbs in the past tense.

We also read two chapters in Three Times Lucky and learned more vocabulary from the novel. One skill we are focusing on is making connections. We want our readers to notice when something in the book reminds them of another text, something in their own life, or something in the world.

The most fun lessons were about the new unit we are starting on songwriting and the history of country music. A longstanding tradition in 4th grade, this unit will teach the students about the industry right here in Music City, about the pioneers of country music, and all about writing songs.

This week, we learned about the Carter Family and listened to some of their hits. We also learned about how the Grand Ole Opry came to be. In their journals, students were asked to record what they know about songs and to try a write a song before learning any of the lessons. Throughout the week, we learned about verses, the chorus, a bridge, and more…

We also wrapped up many of the diary projects, and the students had fun binding their books.

Also this week, each student was matched up with one of the 50 states. We began browsing some books Mrs. Gaines shared with us from the library. More to come!

Because of the dreary weather, our recess was moved inside a few times this week. This game us time to play games together such as Yahtzee, Shut the Box, Battleship, Tenzi and more. Building with dominoes is another popular activity.

On Wednesday, we attended Mrs. Royse’s 3rd grade play, ‘Miss Nelson Has a Field Day!’ We were throughly entertained, and each student wrote a member of the cast some ‘fan mail.’

In Morning Meeting this week, we played review games about the Midwest, enjoyed the T-rex handshake, and much more. Students shared about favorite Halloween costumes from the past, and we played Halloween-themed Reverse Charades and Pictionary. My class also enjoyed the Price is Right greeting.