Magical Forests, Here We Come!

 

 Wood Magic Forest Field Trip! 

 http://www.state.sc.us/forest/wmfair.htm

 

Check out the site to see what we will be doing.  Look for photos of us on next week's blog.




Results of our Rocket Launch:

Keira and Carson were the all-time winners with a launch of 85 feet!

Maddox and Jonathan were not far behind with a launch of 83 feet!

Kaleb and Michael won 3rd place with 67 feet!

 

 

Catch of the Week for September 14-18

Social Studies– Understand the major motives for early exploration to the new world (political, economic, and technological) and write 6 word memoirs for the explorers.

Reading– Students will read articles on kindness and write summaries, examine character traits finding evidence of traits and make inferences when reading “Don’t Laugh at Me!”

Language– Students will study the friendly letter format and purposes for the friendly letter

Math-We will be adding large numbers in a variety of ways.

Science– Students will practice classifying vertebrates and invertebrates

As we continue to read the novel, WONDER, we will be focusing on the precept: When choosing between being right and being kind, choose kind! Look for our responses to that precept on next week's blog.  This week we will be reading about how others have done "Random Acts of Kindness" and "Paid it Forward."  We will try to collect 100 RAK in our class for one week.  Can we do it? 

This is the focus schedule for the week:

Monday-Show kindness to your family members!

Tuesday-Show kindness to 4th graders, other than your friends!

Wednesday- Show kindness to people you don't know!

Thursday-Show kindness to anyone who works at OES, beside your teacher!

Friday- FREE choice!

 

 

Ground Control to Major Tom

 

Although David Bowie wrote this song 36 years before you were born, it's still perfect for this week's Science experiment! Check out the video above for a collection of real life rocket photos from space. I think he wrote it to help us celebrate the first time a man (Neil Armstrong) walked on the moon.  That was 1969!

 

Get ready because we are designing paper rockets on Tuesday so we can have our own launch on Wednesday. 

 

You will be working in pairs to write a TESTABLE QUESTION: How long should a cylinder be on a paper rocket to make the rocket launch the farthest distance?

 

So, you and your partner will have to decide how long you want your paper cylinder to be.... that is the MANIPULATED VARIABLE!

 

The RESPONDING VARIABLE is the distance your rocket travels. We will have a couple of parents ready to help us measure.

 

 

Check out this link to find out more about rockets and the solar system. http://camp.wonderopolis.org/track/1

 

 

Kaleb had to design his rocket by himself because Michael was absent on Tuesday, but Michael was there today to help him launch it and they were one of the winners!

Adisyn and Brooklyn were excited to have one of the winning rockets.

This is Donnell in action ready to leap up and come down with as much force as possible on the launcher!

Check out Pierce and Connor ready to launch their rocket.

 

 

 

 

This week, besides reading our novel, WONDER, we've been reading other books that have bullying as their theme.  We finished reading Bully by Patricia Polacco and Don't Laugh at Me by Allen Shamblin and Steve Seskin which was actually first written as song lyrics and then later turned into a book. If you want to share the video with your family or just want to hear it one more time check out the link below.

 

 

 

Thank goodness for all the nanas, pop-pops, yayas, papous, nannys, poppys, grandmothers, grandfathers and one mama that made it to our cafeteria Friday morning! Check out our family photos:

 

Whoop! Whoop! Native American Homes Completed!!

As promised, Brave Cooper is proud to share the Native American homes completed this week!  Students from each region did their own blogging.  Mrs. Johnson just typed what they said.  The regions represented are the...

 




Pacific Northwest

First, we used popsicle sticks for building the plank house.  We couldn't decide to use a small box or big box.  So we did both. The one in the picture is the big one because the other one didn't finish. by: Nazarii
Great Basin

The name of our house is the Hogan.  I brought a bowl and we painted it green.  Then we added some bark and hot glued it on.
Next, we glued rocks around the bottom of the bowl. The blue paper is the river and the thing on it is a canoe.  And then the green paper is suppose to be a garden.  Can you see the flowers? by: Kara

 Southwest 
We built a pueblo home.  We used our materials box as the bottom.  And we collected milk cartons from lunch for two days.  Then we glued the milk cartons to the box.  Then we got 4 skewers then stuck them in the materials box.  Then we got a brown piece of paper and stuck the skewers through it so we had a roof.  We got play-dough to form land next to our house.  We had problems with the paint spilling on our land, desks, and chairs!  We had a huge mess on our desks!! by: Keira

 Plains
We built an Earth Lodge and a tee-pee.  Some people  stayed in one place so they lived in the Earth Lodge.  Some people lived in tee-pees because they were nomads, they traveled alot. We used a plastic bowl for the base of the E.L.. We put play-dough on top of it with bark.  For the tee-pee we did a circle of tiny tee-pees with a huge tee-pee in the middle.  The tee-pee in the middle was made out of a plastic cup and a cone paper cup.  Our main problem was we ran out of brown paint.  Our other problem was that we couldn't agree on the "ground" but we put brown paint on it anyway, so we had to paint it brown!
by: Sarah Reilly

 





Eastern Woodlands
So we started with the Chickee and we used sticks, cardboard, and 3 popsicle sticks and hot glue as well.   We painted the floor black and the base green because the Chickee had to be built on stilts because they lived in swamps and had to keep the alligators out.  (by: Connor)  We needed a shoebox, a rectangular piece of wood, popsicle sticks, and a hot glue gun to make the Longhouse.  We had to use the shoebox as the base and we painted it brown.  We used the two pieces of wood, overlapping it and glued it to the shoebox.  After that we used popsicle sticks to cover the piece of wood to make it look more realistic.  Our main problem was that everyone had so many ideas that we couldn't do all of them, so we split up into groups. (by: Jayden)  Me and Connor worked on the Wigwam.  We took styrofoam bowls and stacked them and covered them with strips of brown paper.  After we did that we glued small pieces of bark on top of the brown paper.  And then we painted over the white with brown paint. The main problem was making the door.  We had to use scissors at a 50 degree angle and cut through the styrofoam. (by: Chloe)

Catch of the Week for September 8th

Social Studies– Understand the major motives for early exploration to the new world (political, economic, and technological) TEST Tuesday on N.A. Regions

Reading- Continue reading the novel, Wonder, studying about character traits, story elements, and vocabulary within the text.  We will also study the 5 types of bullying. TEST Thursday on types

Language– We will finish writing our memoirs  incorporating examples of transition words and figurative language. Quotation marks will be introduced. MEMOIRS due Friday

Math-We will continue rounding numbers to nearest tens, hundreds, and thousands using the number line. FAST FACTS and ROUNDING TEST Friday

Science– we will design paper rockets and launch them introducing the terms testable question (how far will my rocket go) and manipulated variable (will the length of my rocket influence the distance).

Precept #1:  Your deeds are your monuments!

Here are the student responses that were selected for the bulletin board:

 

I think that it means that if you do good things it will pay off.  by: Sarah Reilly

 

I think that it means that whatever you do in life will affect you for as long as you live.  So, if you do good things you will be known as a good person.  But if you do bad things you will be known as a bad person. by: Olivia Ireland

 

People remember you for all the good things you do. 

by: Timothy Jackson

 

I think this precept means that your actions will define you, and you need to do good things. 

by: Chloe Moyers

 

I think this means that the deeds that you do can be what you're remembered for in life like helping someone who just needs help.  You can even be remembered by very small deeds in life.  A deed does not have to be big. 

by: Jonathan Lewis

 

 

These Kids Making a Splash!

These students already scored a 90% or better on their FAST FACTS test:

99 Club: Erika, Sarah Reilly, Donnell, Connor

90+ Club:  Keira, Chloe, Olivia, Kara, Jayden

 

Congratulations!  9 Down, 15 to Go!


 

Help our classroom by donating to our classroom grant.  We want to get Legos to help us learn math!http://www.donorschoose.org/project/build-it-and-they-will-come/1323424/

 

 

 

 

Laboring on Labor Day?

No, thanks!!!  Although the rest of the family was busy cleaning out the garage, basement and carport, Cooper wanted no part of it.  He opted to stay inside, in the air conditioning, snacking on a few hors d'oeuvres.  He also wanted me to give you a link he found: http://wonderopolis.org/wonder/why-dont-we-work-on-labor-day/

 

What did you do on Labor Day?  Sounds like we were crazy busy! Erika, Ruvim, and Jayden were at the lake. Adisyn was at the beach. Connor and Keira were at picnics or parties. Nazarii and Joseph visited Gravitopia.  Joseph, Jayden, Jonathan, and Connor went to the movies.  Oh, and Carson and Keira got wet at the water park.

 

This past week we worked in our Writer's Notebook and brainstormed some things that were "Close to Our Hearts."  Here are a few pics I snapped while we were working on that page.

We tried to put the most important things in the center. 

 



 

 

Here are a few things we will be focusing on this coming week:

 

• Building Native American homes on Tuesday and Wednesday (Don't forget to bring any materials your group still needs!)
• Science Process Skills Test on Tuesday
• WONDER Vocab Test on Wednesday (study flashcards for  Tuesday's homework)
• Multiplication Fast Facts Test on Friday 

Check out WHO is "Making a Splash" and already mastered their facts with 90% or better:
Erika
Connor
Chloe
Kara
Keira
Donnell
Olivia 

Did you know? Every week we sit in teams and try to compete for showing KINDNESS, RESPECT, and ORGANIZATION.  The two teams that collect the most "rocks" (marbles) earn a trip to the treasure box and have "Challenge Time."  Here are a couple of snapshots from
one of our Challenge Times:

Nazarii, Keira, and Erika playing "Cool Math."

Brooklyn, Chloe, and Jayden challenging each other in a game of Jenga.

Stay tuned to next week's blog when "Brave Cooper" will share our Native American homes from the Pacific Northwest, Eastern Woodlands, Great Basin, Plains, and Southwest Regions.

 



Dive in on Three...1...2...3!

                         Catch of the Week:
(or... what's going on in 4th grade this week!)

Social Studies-We will be reviewing our 7 continents and 5 oceans and finding out what the "Land Bridge" theory is all about.

Reading-We will be exploring KINDNESS by creating our own class acronym and designing kindness bracelets as a kick off to our "Choose KIND" PBL.

Language-We will be comparing two "What If" poems about the first day of school and trying our hand at writing our own version.

 

Math-Multiplication Fast Facts!  Practice sheets will be corrected in class.  Check out your misses and practice just those at home.  Remember success with division and fractions depend on these facts.

Science- Our first unit is all about "Process Skills" and "Inquiry."  We will be doing some exciting, hands on activities such as...

The Thing!  Each group had an observer, relayer, buyer, and constructor.  Only the observers from each group were allowed to get a close up peek at the THING inside the shoebox.  They had to use their quantitative and qualitative observations in order to report back to the relayers.  The relayers had to be outstanding listeners so that they could pass on the detailed observations to the buyers who had to remember what they were to buy (how many toothpicks & gumdrops).  The buyers then brought back the materials to the constructors who were the only ones allowed to actually TOUCH the materials and build according to specific instructions from the observers.  Very challenging!! 

Check out our 1st place winners! Theirs was identical to the shoebox version.

Gummy Bears Taking a Dive:

Day 1- Each group had 4 different solutions (plain water, vinegar, baking soda water, and salt water). Here is Ruvim, Connor, and Zachary getting ready to drop their unsuspecting, gummy bears into their different solutions. Next, back to their notebooks to predict what changes may or may not happen in each solution.  Now there's nothing left to do but WAIT! Check back with us tomorrow for the results.

Stay tuned for more inquiries to come:  Elephant Toothpaste...and Color Changing Milk!

What Keeps YOU Sailing?

 

We all want to get to know each other...and that will happen real soon!  When I meet you on Wednesday, I'll give you a packet of information, a surprise bag : ) and your first homework assignment.  I've gotten a head start on mine.  Check out my boat above.  You'll get the outline of your sailboat and you will think of all the people, places, hobbies, activities, and things that "keep you sailing." It isn't due until the second day of school, but you might want to get a head start on it.

 

 

One of the important family members on my sailboat is Cooper. Here's his picture. Can you see why he keeps me smiling everyday?  When he greets you at the door he has to have at least one toy in his mouth first.  He has two sisters that he likes to boss around...I'll show you pictures of them soon.

 

 

 

Meet Jillian, my talented daughter, who lives in Chicago.  She loves the stage and writing.  I try to see her as much as possible.  Now, you know why "Chicago" is on my sailboat!

This is my husband, Ray, in his new sunglasses.  My sailboat would definitely not stay afloat without him!  We love coffee at our house and he is the expert coffee maker and does about a million other things to keep everyone happy.

.
And, last but not least, here's a picture of me building a sandcastle just for YOU!  I can't wait to meet you in person and hear all about you and what keeps your boat sailing.

Love,
Mrs. Johnson