Friday, December 16, 2011
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.
Thursday, December 8, 2011
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!
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!
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