Sharing Portfolios, Google Earth Projects & Writings

The class returned from the bowling party to host our families for an afternoon of sharing various projects and portfolios. Student/authors took turns reading selections from their collected writings "published" earlier in the week.

Bowling Party

The traditional fourth grade post moving on ceremony bowling party was fun for all.

Class of 2018

Families and friends gather for the moving on to middle school ceremony.

Some of Our Authors

Maxx, author of Ketchup with Ice Cream


Elia, author of Party


Gunther, author of I Hate Sharks!


Julia, author of Hermit Crabs


Evan, author of A Fan and Other 4th Grade Writings

Colonial Day

Colonial children for a morning made butter and rope, tapped tinware, played games with potatoes....to name just a few activities.

Potato Power

We started the year investigating electrical circuits....so at the end we juiced a potato to learn what its properties are and wired some others to generate an electrical current.

Thursday's Family Schedule

Families are invited to be with us twice on Thursday.

8:30 Moving Up Ceremony in the theater.

1:15 in our room for a celebration of our young authors sharing and reading from their books

2:00 picnic area....ice cream

2:15 computer lab....viewing of Portfolios and Google Earth tour projects.

Our Collective Writings To Be Published

We are putting all the year's finished writings into a book for each student. This can be done as a collaborative effort at home and brought to class sometime next week or we'll do it here.

We've agreed to title each book by the name of the poem displayed for Poetry in the Park. Each book will use the artwork that went along with the poem. So the title will be: "Poem Name" and other 4th grade writings of Your Name. Each book will have a table of contents. Students may add illustrations as well.

The list of writings includes: personal narrative, poem, haiku, short story (fiction), historical fiction, two Wrap stories, persuasive and literary essays.

Families are invited to a special book publishing event and author share for next Thursday afternoon. You will be able to enjoy our portfolios and special Google Earth projects as well.

Easy Colonial Day Costumes

We're all planning to arrive at school Tuesday in Colonial garb.

Boys? Just wear long pants rolled up to the knee with long soccer or baseball socks and a white shirt with a vest if available, otherwise that's it.

Girls? Wear one of your Mom's long skirts held up with a belt. Wear a white blouse and an apron if you have one. And have a bandana or scarf to wear around your neck and maybe on your head.

We sent a link to other ideas. But really the above easy suggestions will do.

Bring your school uniform to change into at the end of our Colonial Day morning or just stay a Colonial era child all day.

Chess Beats Backgammon

All year we've been playing backgammon....but turns out, give a chance to play....chess won out.

Our Math & Science Units Connect to Gulf Oil Spill

A couple of real life connections to what we're studying in class have come to our attention. Scientists are trying to figure out the rate of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico. The estimates of 5,000 gallons per day didn't make sense to a Purdue University engineering professor who specializes in the rates fluids flow. Here the class watches a video on the subject. (see link to the right)



Our current math unit is on the exact same subject calculating rates. A recent lesson was entitled "Do these numbers (rates) make sense?" In addition, our current science unit is on classifying different life forms. Now everyone is concerned with the possible damage to various species dwelling on the gulf sea floor. Some relatives of these species we have recently been examining.

Classifying Animals Up Close

Fourth graders took a science outing to Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo as part of their animal classification studies.

Mariah V. and Jasmine L. enjoy the meerkats.



Evan S. and Maxx M. feed the rays.



Eye to eye with a manatee.

Classifying Collections

As part of our investigation into scientific classification, students assembled collections of ten related things. After careful looking, they developed a classification system based on observable traits.

Here Evan S. shows off his collection of leaves from plants in his front yard.



Matthieu's shoe collection was a hit with the class. Here Kyle M., Mariah V., and Danny K. try and figure out a way to classify them.



At first it appeared that many marbles are exactly the same. But Elia J. spent considerable time observing minute differences and cataloging them. She developed a dichotomous key to classify them all.



Nick B. brought in his Mexican jumping bean collection. Besides classifying them, we enjoyed a demonstration of their hopping abilities.

Staying Positive with Negative Numbers

One of the trickier concepts for fourth graders is adding and subtracting with negative numbers. Here Julia P. and Jasmine L. use two colored chips to help visualize the problems. For instance, to solve 8 + (-7) students put out 8 red (+) sided chips and 7 yellow (-) chips. They then take away 7 pairs of red and yellow chips (each representing zero) leaving one red chip which is the answer (+1). Confused? Ask a fourth grader to explain.