Nine Days 'Til Christmas!

Our class is busy wrapping up our first semester of learning.

Last Friday, we went on a field trip to the Fox Theater to see "The Prairie Nutcracker," an adaptation of the original story that is set in Kansas.  There were lots of different schools there. We got to see a preshow, ballerinas dancing on toe, and some awesome tap dancers! 

We've also been learning about Christmas (and other holidays) around the world.  In Russia, Babushka comes instead of Santa Claus.  She is an old woman who brings simple gifts for children on January 7 during Epiphany.  We also learned about La Befana, the Christmas witch from Italy.  She comes and cleans your house in addition to leaving you gifts.  If you're naughty, she leaves you dark candy or coal. In Ethiopia, Christmas isn't a huge holiday.  Families celebrate together on January 7 by eating doro wat, a kind of chicken stew.  Then they spend time together.  Next week we're going to learn about Christmas in Sweden, Czechoslovakia, and several other countries.  We're also going to learn a little about Hannukah and learn to play dreidel!

We finished reading "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever!"  Today we created Vokis of the main characters.  Head on over to the BGS Christmas Wiki to see all of our Vokis!  Click on the character's names in the left sidebar to check out our work. 

Pageants, Multiplication, Postcards and So Much More!

Our first semester of fourth grade is almost over; it's gone so fast!  This month has been especially busy for us.  We've been doing projects involving postcards, the Hutchinson News, multiplication, "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever," and we're preparing to help Santa with a little present-making through Operation Elf.  Our lips are sealed about that though; don't ask, we won't tell a single thing!

In reading we've been working through "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" by Barbara Robinson.  It's about a family with 6 children (the Herdmans).  The kids don't act like your typical kids; some even say they are the worst children in the history of the world!  The book is about what happens when the town's Christmas pageant is performed with the Herdman kids in the main roles.  We're excited to see how the pageant will turn out.  We're also going to be using a fun website to create Vokis of our characters.  We'll show you next week!

Today, an employee from the Hutchinson News came and talked to us about their Design-an-Ad contest.  We're going to be designing advertisements for specific businesses, and then those businesses will choose one ad apiece to be published in the newspaper.  We're also talking about author's purpose during this activity, and keeping in mind what grabs the attention of readers. 

Math has been a big deal in our classroom lately.  We've been learning two-digit by two-digit multiplication.  It's tricky!  There are lots of ways to solve these problems.  We've learned the traditional way and we've learned a special way called "lattice multiplication."  You can learn all about it by asking one of us or by going to Super Teacher Worksheets and reading their tutorial about the process.  We also sent three students from our classroom to Math Contest this week.  Congratulations to Andy, Molli, and Trexton for a lot of hard work!

Last, but definitely not least, we've been very excited to get the mail each day!  Our postcard project has been a big success so far; we've gotten postcards from 15 states and the country of Poland.  We've learned a lot of fascinating things.  Today we got our most exciting postcards yet!  Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and Donald Duck each sent us a postcard from Walt Disney World in Florida.  They wrote a special message on each oversized postcard just for our class!  We were so surprised!    Check out our Postcard Geography page to learn more about our project and to see a map of where our cards have come from.  Keep spreading the word about our awesome project; we still have a long ways to go.  Stay tuned for more postcard updates!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!  We hope that you all find lots of things to be thankful for this holiday season.  Over the last two weeks fourth graders here at BGS have been sponsoring a food drive for the Reno County Food Bank.  We collected 401 items!  We're very proud that we are getting to help other people!  While we were collecting food we kept track of how much food we got each day.  We'll use this data to learn about mean, median, mode, and range after break.

We are starting a special project called "Postcard Geography."  Our goal is to receive at least one postcard from each state in the U.S.A.  You can learn more about our project, and keep track of our progress, by looking at the page on our blog called "Postcard Geography."  If you or someone you know could help us out by sending a card, we would be thrilled.  We are also encouraging parents to forward Ms. J's email about our project, and to share it on facebook.  We're excited to see how social media can reach lots of people from all over the place!

Where Did October Go?

Our class had a busy October; so busy, in fact, that we didn't have much time to blog! 

In reading we read our first novel, Coyote Autumn.  It was about a boy finding a coyote puppy and trying to tame it.  We thought it was an amazing story!  We also continued working towards our Sunflower Reader goal; 9 of us have already finished! 

In math, we practiced equations; this is an all-new concept to us, and was difficult!  We also took an assessment and got to do Gizmos on-line.  Gizmos is a program that allows us to get real-world math experience with topics we are studying!

In science we studied sound and created instruments, and in social studies we began studying the Southeast.

Monday was Halloween!  We had a Halloween parade, and our teachers surprised us by dancing to Thriller.  You can see a video of the dance on our Facebook page.  While you're there, don't forget to "Like" Buhler Grade School so you can stay up to date with the latest news!  We also had Halloween centers with Mrs. Goertzen's class before our party!

November is shaping up to be just as busy.  We  studying Cinderella stories from around the world, graphing in math, and personal safety and awareness.  Next week we get to go on a field trip to Dillon Nature Center to learn about health!

Ag Day or Our Fantastic Field Trip!

Today we went to fourth grade Ag Day.  It was put on by the Buhler High FFA students, and allowed us to learn about farming.

Our first stop was at the Bartel farm.  While we were there, we saw rabbits and chickens, and learned about how they are shown. We also got to see Dr. Dick, a veterinarian, explain different animal parts.  He brought all kinds of animals and animal parts in preservation jars.  We got to see a cow's eyeball, a dog's brain, kittens and puppies that were preserved.  We also got to learn about animal nutrition.

From there we went to the Pauls farm.  A man from Yoder Meats taught us all about the different cuts of meat.  The  meat around big bones is less tender, and around smaller bones is more tender.  He even brought summer sausage for us to try.  It was yummy!  We got to see the water conservation model and learn about water conservation and pollution.  From there we went to a horse demonstration, where we learned how they prepare for shows.  Then we got to pet a horse!


After lunch at the high school, we went to Gaddert's.  While we were there we learned how corn is planted and harvested, about animal skins and antlers, and about farm safety.  During the farm safety presentation, we got to see what would happen if you got caught in the PTO shaft of a tractor.  The high schoolers put a dummy on the shaft, and then turned it on.  We talked about how to stay safe on the farm, a very important lesson for all Kansas children!

We loved Ag Day.  It was a lot of fun and allowed us to learn about agriculture.  Thank you to all of our parent helpers, presenters, and high school students and teachers who made Ag Day possible!  Stay tuned for pictures from our field trip!

All's Fair in the Fourth Grade

These last two weeks have been a little crazy and fun in the fourth grade.  Last week we went to the Kansas State Fair.  While we were there, we had the opportunity to listen to Governor Brownback announce the top 5 notable Kansans.  They included William Allen White, Carry Nation, Jack Kilby, Bob Dole, and Dwight D. Eisenhower.  After that, we got to explore the fair.  Some of the highlights included the western comedy show, building toolboxes at Star Build, the magic show, and eating lots of yummy fair treats!

Back at school, we have been busy finishing up our insect keynotes.  Today we got to present them to the class, and next week we're going to present them to our parents at conferences!  We also learned about the properties of addition in math (ask a member of our class about the CIA!), and we started practicing place value.  This morning we had a surprise when we got to school.  One of our mealworm pupas hatched, and now we have a darkling beetle in our container!  Ms. J. thinks it might be time to let the beetles and mealworms go free.  If anyone's parents would like to volunteer to take them home instead, she would be happy to let them go. 

This week was spirit week.  We had a blast wearing our hats, dressing up, fixing crazy hair, and showing off our socks.  Some of us dressed up as celebrities or twins, and most of us wore maroon today!  Our class has been earning gumballs for good behavior and compliments from other teachers. Today we got 100, which was our goal, so next Wednesday we're going to have a celebration.  Before we go we want to send out a great big congratulations to Mrs. Nickel, one of the kindergarten teachers in our building.  She had a baby boy last night!  We also want to shout out to Mrs. Goertzen, for earning the Region I Kansas Teacher of the Year Award.  We're proud of you!

Bugs, Cranes, and September 11

This week has been a very busy week.  We have been working on our insect keynotes, doing math reviews, practicing our stamina in reading and writing, and learning about some special things such as September 11.

We have had a lot to learn about insects in science.  In order to help our learning, our class got mealworms, which are the larvae of darkling beetles.  We're going to try to raise them until they turn into pupae and adults.  Ms.  J. is trying not to kill them, but since they gross her out so much she is letting the kids take care of them.  Several students have also brought insects to share with us.   We each chose an insect to make a Keynote about.  We are learning about adaptations, life cycles, habitats, and many other things.

Yesterday, a fifth grader came to our class to teach us how to make paper cranes.  In Japan, making someone 1,000 paper cranes out of origami is said to bring good luck.  We made our cranes to encourage a student who has cancer.  We thought it was cool, awesome, fun, and really really difficult. 

Today was a special day in our classroom.  We have been learning about the events of September 11, 2001.  We read a special book called "The Man Who Walked Between the Towers," which is a true story about a man who tight-rope walked between the twin towers when they were being built.  We also watched a video about the events of September 11, and read another book called "September 12 We Knew Everything Would be Okay."  It was written by a group of first graders the day after the towers fell, and it reminded us to remember our heroes and that everything turns out okay in the end.  Ms. J. challenged us to participate in the national day of service that is taking place on Sunday, September 11 even if all we can do is help out at home.

Next week we are going to the State Fair on Thursday!  We're very excited!  Stay tuned for more information!

Insects Abound!

Today our class read a great book about insect life cycles. In order to memorize the stages of an insect's life cycle, we made up a chant with movements to help our brains remember it better. Check out our video!

Fourth Grade Beginnings

We've had a busy two weeks getting used to fourth grade! We've read lots of books and practiced building our reading stamina, and we've met our Reader's Friends. Reader's Friends is a partnership between our class and Mrs. Tech's kindergarten class. Every Monday afternoon, we take the kinders to the library, read a book to them, and help them check out a book to take home. We get to be their Reader's Friends for the whole school year! We also finished our first read aloud, "Larger than Life Lara" by Dandi Daley Mackall. It was a great book! We learned that you should never judge a person based on how they look, because they might be really good on the inside if you get to know them.

In math we spent last week learning about shapes and creating abstract shape art. Today we took our first quiz, and then we learned about coordinate graphing. Our classroom has been turned into a giant coordinate grid, and we found our individual coordinates yesterday. Today we used the Promethean to practice plotting points on the grid.

In science we finished our first experiment (the apples turned brown and got smaller), and now we're starting our first major unit about insects. This week we will begin making Keynotes about insects, and will have to work hard to complete them by the end of next week when we will present them!

First Week Fun!

Wow! The first week of school is already over; some of us are tired, but some of us want to come to school tomorrow! Or maybe not...

We started off our school year with a whole-school assembly called Terrific Together Time. We'll be having an assembly every Thursday morning for the whole school year! We got to meet our new principals, Mr. Bryan and Mrs. Dreiling. We think they're AWESOME! They taught us the power clap, introduced the teachers, and surprised us by dressing up and lip syncing to "Tonight's Going to be a Good Night!" They have pretty good moves! We all got to get up, clap and dance with them.

Today we learned that there are a lot of different teachers here to help us. Mrs. Ruder, our Title I teacher, taught us to play a really fun game called "Look Down, Look Up." It helped us remember our Character Counts! pillars, especially trustworthiness and fairness. Mrs. Smith, one of our special education teachers, also joined our class today. She read us a story about people who are different from the rest of us; it taught us that everyone is special in their own way, and that we should never exclude people because of what they look like, sound like, or do.

We also became scientists today. We even learned a new word, "hypothesis," which is harder to say than you would think! Our first experiment involves apples. We peeled, them, weighed them, smelled them, measured them, and looked at them closely. We're going to observe them to see how they change after they have been peeled. They'll be in our classroom for one week while we see what happens!

Our first week of school was AWESOME. We can't wait to see what fourth grade is all about!

Classroom Preview

Wow! It's hard to believe we have just over a week before the new school year begins. I've been working hard in our classroom to make sure that everything is just right for the first day of school. This is my favorite time of year; there are so many exciting opportunities ahead of us, and I get the privilege of getting to know twenty-two new people (and their families)!

I hope you've had a most-amazing summer; I can't wait to hear about all of the adventures and fun you had. I had a few adventures of my own; we'll have a lot to talk about when school starts!

Our building theme for this year is "Lights, Camera, Learning!" All of the teachers have been busily decorating and getting things ready to go. I hope you are starting to get excited too! For now you can spend some time looking at our blog pages (in the right-hand navigation menu), and looking at a few "preview" pictures of our classroom. Enjoy the rest of break; I'll see you next week!

Move-Up Day!

Welcome to 4th grade! Today was an exciting day at BGS, as all of our students got to "move-up" and spend time with their teacher for next year. In 4J we spent our hour doing a fun science experiment and getting to know each other. We used oil, water, food coloring, and Alka Seltzer tablets to create mini-lava lamps. We discovered that oil floats on top of water, food coloring won't color oil, and that Alka Seltzer makes bubbles that will move the colored water up through the oil.

This summer our fourth graders have a few important missions; they need to read books for their reading log, complete their "Lights, Camera, Learning" booklet, and have FUN! I am very excited to hear all about everyone's summer vacation excitement and to begin a great year in fourth grade. Have a wonderful summer!

Paper Slide Videos

Today we had a viewing party for our latest math project; paper slide videos. In order to review place value and number forms, we created a story showing a number in each of its forms: standard, word, and expanded. From there, we illustrated our stories and recorded them using the paper slide method. Check them out on our schooltube channel: http://www.schooltube.com/user/4jameson!

Ramping It Up in Fourth Grade!

For the last few days, we've been building, building, building in the fourth grade! No, not skyscrapers; ramps! We're beginning a science unit about forces of motion, and were exploring what makes a ramp effective. Some groups chose to build their ramps out of cardboard, while some chose wood. The only rules were that students couldn't spend any money on the ramps, and the ramp had to be constructed at school. As you can see, we have some very creative minds in the fourth grade! Check out the pictures of each group's ramp; our winning group was made up of Hunter, Aron, and Joseph. Our class decided that their ramp caused the ball to go the furthest because they had a downward drop before the ball actually hit the ramp. Gravity pushing the ball down caused it to move further. We also discovered that our hallway is not very level!