Three of my boys went to the championship Brewer game last Friday. They sent me these pictures. Sure looks like they had a terrific time.
Brewer Game
Oct 9
We Are Connected
Oct 9
Over the summer I read about a beginning-of-the-year activity on one of the many 4th grade classroom blogs I follow. Unfortunately, I didn’t keep track of which blog that was so I can’t give credit where credit is due. The activity was to make a poster identifying all members of the classroom and one like, dislike or talent for each. Then each person draws a line from their spot on the poster to another person’s spot if the two have that like, dislike or talent in common. We did this activity for the first time this year and the finished project now hangs proudly in our room – a testament to some of the many ways each of us are connected to members of our class.
Every fall the fourth graders at SMV visit Old World Wisconsin (OWW). We have time to explore two different areas each having three different stations. These stations have hands-on activities students can participate in to make their learning come alive. Students learn about industrialization at the Crossroads Village where they helped stoke a fire at the blacksmith shop while the blacksmith forged a good-luck horseshoe for our classroom, unpacked a wagon at the general store, and built a wagon wheel at the wagon shop. In the German area, we learned how flax was made into cloth, how clothes were woven on a loom, and how cooking was done in a central room which also heated the house. Best of all in the German area, we met and played tug-of-war with Ted and Bear, two eleven-year-old oxen who work at OWW. The kids were confident going into the match that they would win. I didn’t want to crush that for them. The 4,000 pound team of oxen did the crushing. Thankfully, most students stayed on their feet this year since the ground was rather muddy from all the recent rain. At least it looked like mud…
In science this past week we explored classification. The textbook had an activity in which students sorted ten different kinds of seeds. Well, I didn’t have any seeds and the store I went to only had bird seed in ginormous, dog-food-bag sized bags. So, instead of using seeds, I bought three different kinds of trail mix for us to classify: regular trail mix, tropical fruit mix, and indulgent mix. Not only did the students have to come up with their own classification systems for the trail mix, they also were able to sample several new nuts and dried fruits including macadamia nuts, dried mango (yuk) and dried pineapple (yum). The M & M’s and the different flavored chocolate chips were a huge hit. Thank goodness we don’t have any nut allergies this year. When we finished with our hands-on exploration and taste test, we hit the computer lab to explore several classification websites. We used our newly-selected clock buddy system to determine which partners to work with.
Animal Classification by Habitat
Animal and Plant Characteristics Game
Established by the United Nations in 1981, September 21 is the International Day of Peace. Each year the students of St Mary’s Visitation School join with the School Sisters of Notre Dame in a prayer service. We usually walk across the street to join the sisters in their garden but, due to road construction, this year they came to join us in our church. The church was alive with the combined prayers and voices raised in song in the hope that someday soon our world will know peace.
Each September my class participates in a yummy yet challenging collaborative project hosted by Projects by Jen. The O.R.E.O. Challenge is in its thirteenth year with more classrooms and students participating each year! We make two attempts each to stack Oreo cookies in this project and try to see how high of a stack each student can build. Our range went from 11 cookies to 25 cookies! Our average was 17 for our class of 22 students. Afterwards we enjoyed eating brand new cookies that hadn’t been handled or picked up off the floor. Our Certificate of Participation can be viewed here. The results page of the O.R.E.O. Project website includes a map showing where in the world each class that has contributed their results is located.
We’re Going to Space Camp!!
Sep 22
Mrs Biernat, Mr Falk and I applied last May for a grant through NASA Explorer Schools to attend a micro-gravity space camp at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas next February 5th through 11th. We found out yesterday through this announcement that we are one of 14 schools picked to attend this amazing professional development opportunity. While there, the three of us will perform experiments in micro-gravity to see how the results differ from when our students did the same experiments in our classrooms in regular gravity. Comparing the data benefits not only our students but it furthers NASA’s ever growing body of research about our world and space exploration.
I introduced my students to Edmodo today. Edmodo is a secure, social-networking site for students and teachers. Students belong to a group and only people I share the group code with can access our chatroom. Friday, I posted questions each child needed to answer: What types of books do you most like to read? Why are these types of books appealing to you? Each child answered these questions then moved to the setting tab of their page where they could choose an avitar icon which represents them online. 
Before we visited the Edmodo site, we discussed internet safety. Specifically, we should never, ever offer anyone personal information about ourselves or each other. Internet safety is one of the two main focuses in computer class during fourth grade so students will have many opportunities to interact with and hear about safe practices. We also discussed appropriate language and discussion topics. I require students to use capital letters and punctuation at the beginning and end of each sentence. I repeatedly ask students to proof-read their posts and replies before submitting them for all to see and read. I’m working on getting them to not be critical of each other’s posts and replies.
After the required work was done on Edmodo, the conversations took off! As of the writing of this post, there have been almost 900 replies. Students are using the Edmodo site at home as an instant messaging forum for their group chat. I’m reading through their posts to delete any I feel are inappropriate. Who knew they would take to the discussion aspect of the site so readily?
I signed our class up to participate in the second annual Global Read Aloud in which classrooms all over the world read the same book during the same time period and meet online to discuss the story, make predictions, share opinions, and more. This year 127 classroom have signed up and we begin reading Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt on September 19th. I’ll be reading our weekly required pages to my students during their art class. 
On Thursday, September 15th, we Skyped with Ms Grayson’s twenty-two fourth graders at Hampton Roads Academy in Newport News, Virginia. We shared our predictions and began learning a little about each other. Ms Grayson and I have decided to have our classes meet regularly this year to share our learning across content areas through Skype (video chat as a whole group) and Edmodo (secure social networking site for individual student posts).
Mastodon Matrix Project
Sep 17
In a previous post, I explained the Mastodon Matrix Project. This week we viewed the DVD sent to us with our two kilograms of matrix then began our explorations into our matrix samples. Matrix is made up of dirt and clay with shells, plant remains, insect remains, and tiny rocks, teeth and bone mixed into it. The kids have the choice of visiting the Mastodon Matrix Project worktable when they finish their classwork for any subject. As they find items in the matrix, they use tweezers to remove the item to a labeled petri-dish. They have impressed me with their behavior at the worktable: using quiet voices, sharing tools, helping one another identify items found in the matrix, not shoving to get a closer spot at either plastic bin, and keeping the matrix contained in the bins. They are so excited by each new item pulled out of the matrix!
