Finally Blogging Again!

It's been awhile since we've blogged, so we thought we'd catch you up on what's happening in fourth grade!

In math we've been practicing multiplication, and we even learned how to do two-digit by two-digit multiplication! Some of us like to use the lattice method to solve these problems, and some of us like to solve them the "traditional" way. On Thursdays our YouthFriends join us for the last half of math to play math games. Today we experimented with pentominoes; we have yet to figure out the solution to the puzzle!

In reading this week we are working on Flat Stanley projects. We are reading the book "Flat Stanley" by Jeff Brown; it's about a normal boy named Stanley who becomes flat when a bulletin board falls on him. He has many adventures as a flat boy! We're writing a flat story, in which we each become flat and have our own adventures, just like Stanley! Our newest project involves making our own flat people; we are going to email pictures of our Stanley's to our parents, and ask them to forward them on to others, who can email us and tell us where they live. We're hoping to get an email from each of the fifty states!

We recently finished listening to Ms. J. read "Found" by Margaret Peterson Haddix; after Veteran's Day, many of us were interested in learning more about World War II and the Holocaust, so we began reading "Yellow Star" by Jennifer Roy. So far we think it is an amazing story; it's even more amazing because it is the true story of a little girl named Syvia who survived living in the Lodz Ghetto in Poland.

In social studies, we have been learning about the Northeast. We are also starting to learn the fifty states song. You can hear it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LmGYjJzzcY&feature=related&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1. We all want to have it memorized by Christmas!

In science, we just finished learning about animal adaptations, and began a new unit about magnets. We watched a funny BrainPOP video about magnets, and learned that each magnet has a north and south pole. Magnets have many uses in our lives; tomorrow we're going to be doing an exciting experiment with cereal and powerful magnets! Stay tuned for more!

Box Tops Rock!

Today in science, we started a new project about food chains. We are making a Comic Life about a specific animal’s food chain. We also learned about the dangers of changing one piece of a food chain. We learned that the bald eagle was almost extinct due to the use of the chemical DDT.

In math we continued learning about function tables, and we had an assignment. Ms. Jameson challenged us with a really tricky table!

We started preparing for college today, as we learned about analogies. An analogy is a comparison between two things and another two things. We played a fun game using our spelling words to practice analogies.

Our school is having a Box Tops competition; if our class has the most Box Tops by October 25, we will earn a popcorn and movie party. So far we have 416. Our class goal is to have 500 all together. Don’t forget to check your boxes and send your Box Tops!

October 5, 2010

Today we planted lima bean seeds in soil and in sand. We have several different opinions about which beans will turn out better. We also got to try raw peanuts; they were disgusting (most of us thought). We discovered that peanuts are best eaten after being cooked. Cooked peanuts, however, are no longer living, and can't be grown. We are going to try to grow a peanut plant, complete with peanuts, so we got raw peanuts.

In science we watched a Magic School Bus video about how some living things are connected. We learned that every living thing on earth is powered by the sun; even us! We don't get our power right from the sun; we eat beef, which gets its energy from grass, which in turn gets its energy from the sun.

In math, we began studying algebra by exploring function machines; we'll be doing that all week! We are very close to passing our addition timed test goal; only 1.5 percent to go!

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Today was fantastic! We got to spend our ten minutes of extra recess that we earned for being good and quiet when we were supposed to.

In math, we got checkbooks today! Each student got a checkbook; they aren’t real, but we’re going to pretend to get money and spend money in math. We also finished our insect life cycle displays in science and we learned more about slaves during reading.

Mrs. Redman came and talked to the whole fourth grade about cliques. A clique is a group of kids that like the same thing. Cliques are okay, but only if they allow anyone to join who wants to.

by Rachel and Paige

Tuesday, September 7

Guess what we added to our classroom today? We added a new class pet; a guinea pig named Cadbury. Our class gerbils were not adjusting to school life very well, so they are going to live at Ms. Jameson's house for now. Our guinea pig was an abandoned animal, and our class rescued her to live and play with us. Cadbury is dark brown with a white spot on her nose, and she is friendly and fun.

In math, we learned that there are three ways to write a number; it can be written in standard form (4,910), in word form (four thousand, nine hundred ten), or in expanded notation (4,000+900+10).

In science, we studied the life cycle of an insect. There are two kinds of metamorphosis; complete and incomplete. The stages of complete metamorphosis are egg, larva, pupa, and adult. Incomplete metamorphosis occurs when an insect looks the same as a baby as it will when it's an adult.

In reading today we learned about slavery in the southern United States. We listened to a story called "Follow the Drinking Gourd," which was a song that told slaves where to go if they escaped. Today we will be bringing home a book order form. We may order books through Ms. Jameson and through her website on Scholastic.com. Book orders are due Friday!!

We also had a tornado drill today; we are prepared for any emergency!

Fun Friday!

Today was a busy day in the fourth grade! We started our day by doing our five minute timed test; our class goal is to achieve a 95% average on addition for the first nine weeks. Today we raised our average to 76.4% thanks to many hard workers! We also played "Beat the Teacher" again; this time some of us were able to use our place value skills (and a bit of luck) to beat Ms. Jameson. During beat the teacher we talked about expanded notation, and learned a new way to write numbers.

In social studies many of us completed our maps of the southeast region of the United States, and we took a spelling test on spellingcity.com. We had to get that done this morning, because the afternoon was reserved for...FUN FRIDAY!

Fun Friday is a special day that only fourth graders get to have. It helps us get used to the responsibility of having homework and getting letter grades. Every other Friday, Ms. Jameson and Mrs. Goertzen plan a special activity. Students who have all of their homework done by that day get to participate, while students who need to finish their homework get the chance to complete it. It's a good reason to be responsible for turning in homework when it is due! Today we got to color and construct gigantic insects during Fun Friday; we were very creative! Our class finished the day in the library with our kindergarten reader's friends. We get to read a book with our kindergartner before helping them pick out and check out a book to take home. When they go back to their classroom we pick out a new book to read to them next week. We are having lots of fun, but are also learning that kindergartners can be a big responsibility!

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Today in math our teacher beat us! We played "Beat the Teacher," a Place Value dice game, and she won. Tomorrow we are going to beat her!

In science we worked on our insect Keynotes, and researched what foods insects eat and what eats them. We learned the words omnivore, carnivore, and herbivore. In social studies we began making maps of the southeast region of the United States.

At second recess, there was a dust storm, and we had to come inside. We thought it was a tornado! It was okay, though, because when we came in we got to have a birthday celebration.

We also received our new home-reading calendar; in order to earn pizza, we have to read 20 minutes each night, 4 nights a week. That's a total of 18 evenings in September!

Tuesday!

Today, our class is so sad, because one of our frogs died.

We had music, and got to play music bingo.

Today in math, we built mansions. Place value mansions, that is! Each group used place value blocks to design and build their mansion before giving it a name. Each student had to estimate how many place value blocks it took to build each mansion before we knocked them down! Stay tuned tomorrow to find out whose mansion was worth the most, as well as who estimated each mansion correctly!



In science, we used computers and books to research the habitats our insects live in.

Busy Week

Sun and Friends by Preston

The Life of the World by Jessie

It has been a busy week in fourth grade! We've been learning new stuff, and having lots of fun.

In math we learned about shapes and created abstract artwork to further our learning. We also took a shapes quiz. Yesterday we explored coordinate graphing; this is a new topic for us, but we already think it's easy! We have also been doing rocket math every day; our class goal for this 9 weeks is to earn a 95% class average on our addition timed tests.

In science we are becoming entomologists, or insect scientists, and we are preparing to begin research projects about insects. In social studies we have been exploring Google Earth, a fun application that allows us to fly around the world and see pictures of different places. We even got to look at pictures of Afghanistan, and to learn about its people and the war being fought there to prepare us to read the book "Extra Credit" by Andrew Clements.

Tomorrow, we get to have our first session with our kindergarten Reader's Friends. We get to take them to the library, read books, and help them learn how to check out!

Oh, the Places Fourth Grade Will Take You!

This is our first class blog! This has been a fun year already, and it's only the third day of school! Our class has 24 students this year, and 6 of those students are new to BGS. We're going to make lots of new friends this year!

This week we have been busy learning procedures to help our year go more smoothly. We've also made individual time capsules, met our new class pets (2 gerbils named Mr. Nibbles and Chesnut, and 2 frogs who have yet to be named), and done math with Skittles. Who knew math was so good! We also began our first science experiment of the school year; on Tuesday we peeled apples and left them out to decompose while we observe what happens to them.

There are two very important dates we want to mark on our calendars; next Tuesday, August 24, we will be having a back-to-school night in our classroom, and on Saturday, August 28, the BGS PTO will be hosting a pool party fundraiser at the Buhler pool.

Our class wants to send out a special thank you to Mrs. Vicki Adrian, the owner of Adrian's A-Z in Buhler, for donating our new African Dwarf Frog Ecosystem to the classroom! Thanks Mrs. Adrian for such a great gift!