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This week, 4th graders were very excited to begin our new class novel, Three Times Lucky. This book by Sheila Turnage is a Newbery-Honor winner, and we were thrilled to discover that Amelia’s mom worked on its publication! We have read the first two chapters, and the kids are loving it so far. We also learned a few new vocabulary words which are featured in the book.

In addition, the class has learned three more Latin bases in our study of morphology, and this week we learned about the various forms of the verb ‘to be.’

We also learned the four types of sentences (declarative, imperative, interrogative, exclamatory) and practiced identifying with sentences from our book and our social studies text. We also worked on adding the correct punctuation to each type.

In social studies, we finished our book on the Midwest. Students completed a couple sets of comprehension questions – some independently and others with partners.

Of course, the highlight of the week was our first service learning trip to Harris-Hillman school. Everyone was excited to practice on Wednesday, so they could run through the show and see one another’s dances.

On Thursday, they did a fantastic job bringing energy and happiness to the students of HH. After their dances, we performed a song in sign language and then they helped roll the students back to their classrooms. They had a few minutes to visit there and to learn about their facility.

To wrap up our visit, we gathered together with a few students and faculty for a Q & A. As you probably heard, the Ensworth kids were particularly interested in the technology that helps the HH students communicate. We look forward to another visit next semester!

We celebrated Jackson’s birthday with some treats from Donut Den.

We also attended a Spirit Day assembly, and Leela competed in a ‘witchy’ relay. Her team won!

Since we finished Charlotte’s Web last week, the students are now able to complete the remaining entries in their diary projects. A few kids completed all of the entries as well as the illustrations and were able to bind their books!

This week, the students finished Charlotte’s Web. They completed a brief writing assignment about one of the chapters and continued work on their summaries and diary entries. Today, we enjoyed watching the animated movie adaptation of the novel from 1973!

We also wrapped up the vocabulary words from the book.

In social studies, the students began learning about the Midwest region. They labeled their own maps, practiced map-reading skills in their workbooks, and read Chapter One in the text.

We celebrated Rosalie and Penny turning double-digits this week!

In Morning Meeting, we had fun with Double-Double-This-That, Hidden in Plain Sight, and more.

There was so much happening on campus this week! On Tuesday, the student body had a visit from Aisha Saeed, author of numerous picture books andAmal Unbound, which was an all -MS read this summer. Thursday was Ms. May’s 3rd grade play, and today we had the Grade 1 Pet Show! On top of all of that, we wrapped up the first quarter, and we were busy!

We enjoyed the story Bilal Cooks Daal at our assembly.

The country accents and Western wear were the highlights of this adorable spinoff of Cinderella.

The Pet Show is always a favorite… This year we saw many siblings and their pets.

In class, students read three chapters in Charlotte’s Web and worked hard to get their Diary projects finished for the first half of the book. We will finish the novel next week.

We studied three new morphemes this week and focused on plural nouns in grammar.

We also learned six new vocabulary words that are featured in Charlotte’s Web.

In social studies, we reviewed the facts about the Northeast, as well as the states and capitals. We played Around the World and competed in a Kahoot!

We celebrated Sophia’s 10th birthday with some cookies from Crumbl.

In Morning Meeting, the classes enjoyed games of What are you doing? Mystery Winker, Follow the Leader, Reverse Charades and more.

Today, 12 prospective students visited Grade 4. Each homeroom hosted three. The guests came in the morning and left after lunch. Thank you to Penny, Amelia and Caleb for taking on this responsibility.

The kids had a lot of fun dressing in the various themes this week: sports teams, USA, Wacky Wednesday and Pink Out.

In class this week, we have been very busy! In social studies, the students read all about the Northeast region. Today we filled out our study sheet and went over the map. We will review all next week for a quiz on Friday.

In language arts this week, we have read four chapters in Charlotte’s Web, and we really enjoyed today’s chapter, “Off to the Fair.” 4th graders have also made good progress in their Diary project.

We began a new unit of morphemes and took our first spelling-vocabulary test. The students also started learning some more new vocabulary words that appear in the second half of Charlotte’s Web.

In grammar, we focused on expanding simple sentences and remembering to capitalize proper nouns.

On Wednesday, we had a visit from author Jamie Sumner. Mrs. Sumner shared with us about the many books she has written and how her son with cerebral palsy inspired her. She wanted there to be books in his school library with characters that looked like him – in a wheelchair. We thoroughly enjoyed her presentation, and the kids asked great questions! We are still reading Roll with It, and we look forward to our visit to Harris-Hillman on 10/23. This visit really got us thinking about the issue of accessibility and how we treat others with differences.

In Morning Meetings, 4E & 4M enjoyed games of Boom, Clap, Snatch, Mystery Winker, Follow the Leader, and What are you doing?? 4M also had fun with the Price is Right greeting. They also shared about their favorite places to shop, things they love about fall and more.

Jackson shared a snakeskin with his class today. (That’s the only kind of snake I’ll allow.)

We ‘kicked’ off this short week with one of the kids’ favorite greetings -the shoe greeting! With their eyes closed, they pull a shoe from the pile and have three guesses to figure out whose it is. When they return the show to its owner, a greeting is exchanged.

We spent some time reviewing the nine morphemes we have learned this year, and we will move on to a new group next week!

This week, the students finished writing, editing and typing their ‘Special Place’ pieces. They chose places such as lakehouses, camps, the beach, and even Starbucks! Their pieces are brief but include lots of sensory details and similes.

Once the piece had been printed, they were off to illustrate! You can see the finished products on display in our hallway.

In social studies, we finished labeling our maps of the Northeast region. 4E had time to read the first chapter in our text, and 4M will begin the book next week.

We also read Ch. 12 in Charlotte’s Web. In this chapter, Templeton the rat is sent to find words that Charlotte can weave into her web to save Wilbur’s life. Just like him, 4th graders scavenged through magazines and cut out words to put on our web.

We have also continued the work on our Diary of a Spider/Pig project this week.

4E had fun with a new game – Boom, Clap, Snatch, and a silly greeting that we called the Home Alone since their faces look like Kevin McAllister.

Coming up with these titles is tricky! Monday we had our first Patchwork assembly with Caldecott Medal winner Dan Santat. An author and illustrator, he is also a very entertaining presenter. We all had a great time learning about his life, his career, and his books.

In grammar this week, the focus was on what makes a sentence. We discussed the essential parts of a sentence and contrasted that with fragments. Throughout the week, we engaged in numerous activities to help us differentiate between them. We also tried unscrambling some sentences, which is trickier than it sounds.

We took fragments and turned them into complete sentences, and we enjoyed the SchoolhouseRock video ‘Mr. Morton.’

Our morphology lessons this week centered on more suffixes and Latin bases. We learned about -less, -ive, and flex/flect. That last one inspired us to see how flexible we are!

While we did not read any new chapters in Charlotte’s Web this week, the students made great progress on their Diary of a Spider/Pig project. They craft rough drafts in their Reader’s Notebook (where they keep their chapter summaries.) Then, I edit them, and they write final drafts on the special paper.

We also did some brainstorming about our Special Place writing project. The kids chose a place to write about, and then listed all of the five senses they remember about that place. Rough drafts have begun and we hope to have final drafts up by conferences.

We wrapped up our spelling-vocabulary list, and to review, the students studied on Quizlet and completed some fill-in-the blank sentences.

In social studies this week, the focus was on preparing for the quiz on the Southeast. We played all kinds of review games: Sparkle, Around the World, and more to practice with the map, the facts, and the states and capitals. The most popular one was the Kahoot in which teams compete to answer questions quickly on their laptops.

We celebrated two birthday this week: Mason and Will!

We also attended the first of the 3rd grade plays. Mrs. Voigt’s class entertained us with “The Big Cheese.” Our students wrote and illustrated ‘fan mail’ for each member of the cast.

In Morning Meetings this week, the students played review games, shared about their dream jobs, and enjoyed several silly handshakes.

We wrapped up the week with an 8th grade vs faculty volleyball game in Brown gym. Mr. C represented the 4th grade team, and I think the faculty won!

This week, we had students perform a skit to introduce the lesson on similes. Thank you to Cooper, Amelia, Charlie and Ellie. The students enjoyed finding all the similes in the script, as well as writing some of their own.

I also shared one of my favorite picture books, All the Places to Love, which is chock full of similes. We will try incorporating some in a writing project next week!

In social studies, this week, we read all about the Southeast region of the U.S. Students learned about the mountains and rivers, as well as the culture and the crops. They finished labeling the states and capitals, and practiced their map skills, too.

We read two exciting chapters of Charlotte’s Web and created final drafts of our first few diary entries. Students enjoy the opportunity to be creative while writing from the point of view or Wilbur or Charlotte.

In addition, we learned the last few words on our spelling-vocabulary list and three more morphemes.

Today we celebrated Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15-Oct. 15) with an awesome assembly. It was full of students speaking Spanish, songs, drums, and dance.

In Morning Meeting this week, the students enjoyed games of Don’t Guess the Word, 20 Questions, 4 Corners, and Strong Person, Pirate Game, Hula Dancer. They also shared about rules they have for technology at home, favorite movies and more.

Happy Birthday tomorrow to Cooper!

This week was only four days, but we accomplished a lot! In grammar, our focus was on capitalization. Students reviewed categories of words that need capital letters, such as months, names of places, titles, and more. They made corrections on our slides, did some cutting and pasting in their interactive notebooks, and completed some task cards.

We also had a lesson which focused on capitalizing nationalities and languages. The students had fun writing sentences inspired by the mentor sentence.

This week we read three more chapters in Charlotte’s Web. Students wrote summaries in their Reader’s Notebooks and answered some comprehension questions, too.

They were the most excited to choose either a Diary of a Pig or Diary of a Spider book cover to illustrate. That determined whether they will write their book from the point of view of Wilbur or Charlotte. They have some beautiful pictures in the works. We will being our ‘diary entries’ next week.

In addition, we learned a couple more vocabulary words from the novel.

In morphology, we learned about the Latin base ‘cred.’ We brainstormed words, drew pictures, and had an interesting conversation about credit cards!

In social studies, the focus this week was on continents and oceans, as well as using our directions. To get ready for the quiz today, students played games with flashcards, practiced writing and spelling the words on marker boards, and enjoyed games of Sparkle. They also completed some map activities at home.

I also introduced latitude this week with an ipad app called Nearpod. It allows me to share out slides to them and then ‘quiz’ them on the information.

In Morning Meeting this week, 4E had a blast learning the lumberjack greeting and the potato handshake. We played games of 4 Corners and several rounds of Clap, Snap, Stomp among other things. It’s a great start to every day.

Most days during our homeroom period, I read aloud to the class. Our current book is by a Nashville author, Jamie Sumner. Roll with It features a girl with cerebral palsy who is wheelchair-bound. This book leads to lots of great conversations and connects to our visit to Harris-Hillman next month. We will also have the author visit and share about her own child with special needs on Oct. 1.

Today, Mrs. Masoner led a LS assembly about our expectations for walking in the halls, attending assemblies, moving around the lunchroom and more. The assembly featured some 5th grade leaders sharing about these policies.

We have really been enjoying our recess time this week with the beautiful weather!

This week, 4th graders read three more chapters in Charlotte’s Web. After each chapter, they wrote brief summaries in their Reader’s Notebooks. They have also answered comprehension questions after most chapters.

Today we read Diary of a Worm which will be the inspiration for an upcoming creative writing project. Students noted that the book had dates on each page, was comprised of short entries, and told about the worm’s day-to-day activities in a humorous way. This will be what they aspire to do in their Diary of a Spider or Diary of a Pig.

To begin, they wrote rough drafts of their About the Author pages. Using actual profiles of authors in book jackets as examples, the students generated a list of topics they might include on their own pages: hometown, awards, hobbies, family, and more. They also noted that they’d need to write in third person.

We learned about the suffixes -able and -ible this week, as well as four new vocabulary words from the novel. They love racing to find words first in Dictionary Digs.

In social studies, students have been working with cardinal and intermediate directions as they navigate around maps. It can be tricky! We also began work in a map skills workbook.

They got up and moving when it was time for geography task cards. They reviewed the locations of all continents and oceans as well as their locations in relation to one another.

The students cut and pasted pictures of continents onto a sentence strip to create a study tool. In 4E, we had time to play a game with continent flashcards, too.

In Morning Meeting this week, the 4Ms enjoyed games of Agreeable Corners, Two Arms, One Arm, No Arms, the middle name greeting, and more. Charlotte also brought some corn for show and tell. She told us about getting to ride on a combine on a farm in Kentucky!

Go Blacks! Go Oranges! Everyone looked great today decked out for Spirit Day! We also enjoyed the Spirit Assembly at the end of the day.

This week in social studies, the 4th graders have learned all seven continents and all five oceans. They can find them on a world map, and they can even sing them all in order from largest to smallest!

We also reviewed cardinal and intermediate directions. Students have labeled them on a compass rose, and today we practiced navigating with them.

If you came to Parent Night on Tuesday night, you might’ve seen your child’s “I am from…” poem on display. They wrote the poems in class on Monday using an outline which encouraged them to write about family traditions, special foods and more. On Tuesday we typed and printed them.

We also kicked off our first class novel, Newbery-honor winner, Charlotte’s Web. The students were amazed to learn that the book was written back in 1952, so it qualifies as ‘traditional literature’ and a ‘fantasy’ book. Throughout the week, we read three chapters – two aloud together and one at home. In class, I read the narration and the kids assume the character parts, reading dialogue aloud.

One skill we are working on this quarter is summarizing. We learned an efficient way to summarize any book, movie, chapter, etc. We use the ‘Somebody Wanted But So’ method. Students to identify who the main character is in the chapter, what the character wanted to do, what the obstacles were, and what the end result was. They have written their brief summaries in their Reader’s Notebooks.

The Reader’s Notebook is one of my favorite tools. Students keep track of all the books they read and they record the genre. They write down books they plan to read, ones they hear about from classmates, teachers, or Patchwork guests. They use it as a place to write about their reading, and it holds their weekly reading log.

In morphology this week, we reviewed the suffix -s or -es and when to use each one.

In Morning Meeting this week, we enjoyed games of Elevens, the middle name greeting, Two Arms/One Arm/No Arms, and Agreeable Corners. We also shared our goals for the year which helped us create our classroom expectations.

This week, all students in K-7 had school pictures made, and today we gathered for a group photo of the entire grade.

We were all excited to gather in Brown Gym today for the captains’ speeches. Nine 8th graders were nominated by their peers, and all students in Grades 4-8 cast votes. Congrats to all nominees, including Benjamin Hudson, Luke Jones, Evan Clardy, Claire Schneider, and the winners, Dalton Weprin, Hayes Hampton, Jaxon Hopkins and Betsy Blair.

We are enjoying all kinds of games on the playground and all the sunny weather!