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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!

This week, 4th graders were excited to learn about Dictionary Digs. This is one way we will learn new vocabulary words which are pulled from our class novels. We make it exciting by racing through the dictionary to see who can find the word first.

On Thursday and Friday, students were tasked with crafting a letter to their teacher. Inspired by the picture book we read on Wednesday, students received a letter from me, reviewed the parts of a letter, and wrote to me about themselves. They had already generated a list of ten character traits as a part of their summer work, so we used that to get started.

In addition, we made our way through two pretests, one in geography and the other in morphology, to see what the students already know. Finally, we completed a comprehension check about their summer read, Because of Winn-Dixie.

In Morning Meetings, we enjoyed the butterfly handshake, finding things in common with a partner, and a game of Back-to-bBack. I also read aloud The Legend of Rock, Paper, Scissors. Afterwards, my homeroom engaged in big game with Will coming out on top. When we play ‘entourage-style’, kids play Rock, Paper, Scissors against one opponent, and then winners find new opponents. It’s what the other kids do that is so important. They turn into the ‘entourage’ for the person who beat them and cheer them on to victory. That’s exactly the kind of resilience, teamwork, and sportsmanship we want to see in our classroom.

Students were excited to be able to browse our classroom library and check out books today. They also had a little bit of time to read independently.

We took a tour of the servery yesterday before our first lunch. With a new food service company in place, some changes have been made to the set-up.

We also had a good time learning things about Miss Earhart in a game called Take a Guess About Your Teacher!

The 4th graders were excited to come to the classroom today. They found their lockers and desks and busied themselves with a word search while waiting on their classmates to arrive.

In our Morning Meeting today we practiced greeting one another with eye contact and a firm handshake. The students wished one another “Good morning” by name. They all shared about one fun thing they did over the summer, and we played a game of ‘Quiz, Quiz, Trade.” This got everyone up and moving, as well as interacting with one another.

We also went over our schedule, practiced a few procedures and enjoyed a read-aloud. Then the class was off to Mr. Mogle! When 4-M arrived, we learned a bit about the classroom, and then we played the same game and read the same book. A Letter from Your Teacher will lead into a writing assignment later in the week.

All 4th graders enjoyed a brief recess together and a school-wide assembly in Brown. Mr. Stabler introduced new faculty & students and set some expectations for the year. It was a great day – short & sweet!