iPods and the Powhatan

Today some of the students began watching a podcast and completing a graphic organizer on Jamestown and the Powhatan Indians. They were looking for six key features in the information about their food, clothing, tools/technology, recreation/arts, religion, and society.

Even though we are done studying this part of VA history, what a great way to keep them engaged in learning this information.

Smell the Flowers?

Today we did! Besides smelling them, we also dissected some tiger lilies. Since yesterday we began studying about flowers and the parts of a flower today we decided that there is no better way to be able to identify the parts then to get inside one. And that's just what we did. The students were able to identify and remove the petals, sepals, stamen and pistil. After the removed and observed these parts we then added them, literally to our data sheets, and had to describe their function.

The class did an awesome job!

Wordle and Story Summaries?

Today in Literature the class completed summaries of their survival themed books. Rather than simply write a "typical" summary, we used a free web-based program called Wordle to create our "So Far Summary" for our book. The kids had a blast and demonstrated comprehension of the book they were reading.

Spookly the Square Pumpkin

Today we read a book called Spookly the Square Pumpkin. The kids enjoyed listening to the story and hearing about how it's not always a bad thing to be different. There is a great message in this book! And according to the website...they have made the book into a movie. Cool!

Game Classroom

I just added a link to the links section of this blog called Game Classroom. It's a really great website that you could use with any of your children, not just your 4th grader. There are games there for all grade levels. The links are broken down into two different categories, homework help and games.

Check it out. I would love to hear what you think of it.

Watershed Education

This week, for 3 days, we were fortunate to have Jeanette Stewart from Lands and Waters come in and speak with the students. She spoke about erosion, habitats, run-off, as well as various other topics that were covered during our Sharing the Planet unit. Ms. Stewart will be joining us in early November to work on planting and making our school a more eco-friendly place to live, work, and visit.

Here is a link to here presentation she did with the kids about habitats and the book she used with her discussion. It was a fun and amazing way to learn about issues going on here right in our own backyard, literally! The book she read from was Happenings in our Habitat.

Parent/Teacher Conferences

Be on the lookout for the parent teacher conference sheet I will be sending home today. You will need to fill out the bottom portion, sign, and return. If the time on the form does not work for you please fill out some alternative times and I will find a time that can work for the both of us.