Selfies on Selfies

First, let me take a selfie...

Then, I can write a selfie diamante poem all about ME

Finally, I can add some artistic flair and put it all together!!

Here are the girls and their selfies to use for their diamantes..stay tuned to see the final products!

Emma

Jessica

Kaleigh

Hallie

Katherine

Zion

Morgan

Valerie

Jadyn

Kaitlyn

Cassy

Reagan

Madison

Mayra

Peyton

Kassidy

Emma

Carolyn

WE CHANGED THE WORLD

For the conclusion of our "Tread Lightly" PBL, the girls created their very own ACTION PLANS using research and what they were passionate about to help change the world! The girls have been researching and working on documenting their amazing plans of action before Christmas break, and lately room 402 has been busy with writers, artists, and presenters!

After gathering all of the documentation, we wrote about...
1. The environmental problem and why it's important
2. The plan of action 
3. The benefits and potential problems/solutions
4. The impact of the action plan

The girls LOVED decorating and presenting their Action Plan documentation, which you can now see up and down the 4th grade hallway! 

Here are the girls presenting their ACTION PLANS!!

Jadyn- made jewelry out of recycled bottle caps, sold them, and used proceeds to donate blankets to a children's hospital

Jessica-spread the word and cleaned up her neighborhood

Katherine-cleaned her neighborhood and recycled 

Valerie-wrote and taught  a recycling song to a kindergarten class 

Carolyn-cleaned up and planted recycled Christmas trees

Kassidy-wrote a song/skit  and taught a kindergarten class all about recycling

Emma-made a birdhouse out of recycled materials for her neighborhood

Peyton-made a youtube video to teach others about how to reduce their carbon footprints and sang a recycling song to a kindergarten class 

Zion-made her own blog to teach others the importance of the 3 R's

Kaitlyn- collected reusable materials to donate to a family in need whose house burned in a fire

Reagan-ran a 5k race with her dad and cleaned up as well as created a presentation to teach the runners how to recycle their food/water bottles after the race

Morgan-created and presented her original board game to teach others about recycling as they play a game!

Madison- wrote a song and taught a kindergarten class about recycling

Emma-built a zoo out of cardboard and recyclable materials to donate to her daycare

Here is a close-up of Emma's AMAZING zoo!!

"'Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, Nothing is going to get better. It's not." -Dr. Seuss

These girls sure care a whole awful lot about making our world a better place, and I could not be more proud of their hard work and impact on our community!!

SAVE THE DATE

  Be on the lookout for more information about an invite to all parents to attend our class....

 POETRY CAFÉ on February 3^rd from 1:00-2:00 at the OES Library!

Week of January 26th

Ride the Weekly Wave:

Math-We will continue our unit on fractions this week as we practice how to convert mixed numbers to improper fractions and adding and subtracting mixed numbers (with regrouping and simplifying).

Reading-We will continue our POETRY unit as we focus on writing our own limericks and collecting poetry genre examples and original works for our Poetry Portfolios.  

ELA/Writing-In Writer’s Workshop, we will be looking at “on-demand” writing through different strategies to best prepare for the upcoming ACT Inspire Writing Test.

Social Studies-We will finish up our unit on the American Revolution as we learn about important African Americans and women through an exciting “YAKKIT” app activity where we will be recording ourselves from famous African Americans’ and women’s points of view.

Science- We will finish our magnetism unit by exploring magnetism and electromagnets through hands-on stations and experiments! **Be on the lookout for a magnetism brochure!!

News from the Beach:

Upcoming Events:  

·       February 2^nd- PTA Meeting/Science Fair @ 6:30

·       *February 3^rd POETRY CAFÉ at 1:00 in OES Library!!!*

·       Week of February 9^th- Jump Rope for Heart Week

·       February 13^th-Class Valentine’s Day Party

·       February 13^th- Interims go home

·       February 17^th- Booster-thon Kick-Off

·       February 18^th- 2 hour delay for students

Set Sail for…Upcoming Tests/Projects:

·       Friday-M4T Test and Adding/Subtracting Fractions and Mixed Numbers Test

·       Friday-Magnetism Brochure Project DUE!!

Homework for the Week:

(please refer to your child's agenda daily for more details-this is only an OUTLINE of what to expect):

·       Read 2 steps (30 minutes) for 100 BC and sign Reading Log *every* night

·       Return Signed Papers *sent home Monday*

·       Fractions Practice in Math wkbk.

·       STUDY for tests and work on Magnetism Brochure!!!

Super Surfer of the Week

Reagan is our star student this week for showing the character traits of RESPONSIBILITY, RESPECT, and COOPERATION in the classroom!! She will be our “tweeter” of the week, posting about what is happening in our classroom! You can follow our class on twitter.com @mrsburns19girls

 100 Book Challenge Goals

  

        Good: 250 steps

  Better: 440 steps

**Our entire class has reached 300 steps! Way to go girls!

Special Visitor and Blackout Poems :)

We had a very special visitor in room 402!!

Her name is "Miss Lauren" (Mrs. Burns' sister), and she is a college student at Columbia International University. She has had a lot of experience with public speaking, theatre, and she is passionate about speaking out to help others and poetry!

The girls got to practice their speaking skills while getting some special coaching from Miss Lauren about what they did well and what they can work on. They LOVED meeting Miss Lauren and learned a lot about how to become better public speakers! They got to share their free verse "Black Out" poems to the class, explain the project, and talk about why they love writing and reading poetry!

Our Blackout Poems on display!

"Security Cameras" by: Emma Mize

To learn more about the amazing free verse poetry inspired by Austin Kleon check out this video: Blackout Poetry

Thanks, Miss Lauren!! We love you!

IT'S ELECTRIC!!

We have been busy in room 402 exploring electricity through building circuits, testing conductors v insulators, making circuits online, and MORE!! Check out what we have learned and some resources to view at home for our upcoming test!

Go to this website to practice series and parallel circuits, conductors and insulators, and complete circuits:  

http://thefusebox.northernpowergrid.com/page/circuitbuilder.cfm 

Watch this Science Court Video all about Electricity: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WQJnolKnQs 

Here are the girls building simple CLOSED circuits using batteries, Christmas lights, and electrical tape

After we learned about building circuits, we did a lab activity to test if different objects (such as pencils, keys, paperclips, screws, metal nails, wooden tees, etc) were CONDUCTORS or INSULATORS of electricity

CONDUCTORS keep the flow of electricity and the light stays ON!

INSULATORS stop the flow of electricity and the light stays OFF!

Here are the girls testing the materials and recording whether they are conductors or insulators of electricity

For 2 bonus points on the Science Electricity Test this week POST A COMMENT BELOW answering the following...

1. What was one thing you LEARNED about electricity?

2. What was your FAVORITE part of learning about electricity?

3. What is the DIFFERENCE between a parallel and a series circuit?

OR

 **REMINDER!! Science Fair Projects are due on February 3rd! Post a comment about your great ideas, girls!!

Week of January 20th

I hope that all of you enjoyed your long weekend celebrating the life and work of MLK! Here's what is happening this week in room 402!

Ride the Weekly Wave:

Math-We will continue our unit on fractions this week as we practice using mixed numbers, improper fractions, and how to add and subtract mixed numbers!

Reading-We will continue our POETRY unit through station activities such as “Blackout” poetry, word work, and buddy reading. We will be working on our poetry collections this week from in class poetry reading and analysis as we look at different genres of poetry…our final test is this week!

ELA/Writing-In Writer’s Workshop, we will be integrating capitalization rules as we finish our Action Plan write up and presentations.

Social Studies-We will be continuing to learn about the key battles of the Revolution as we finish up our timeline project!

Science-IT’S ELECTRIC!! We will finish our unit on Electricity. We will also begin exploring magnetism and electromagnets through hands-on stations and experiments! **Be on the lookout for a magnetism brochure project next week!

Set Sail for…Upcoming Tests/Projects:

·       Wednesday-Science Test on Electricity (*Study notes on Heat, Light, and Sound; Circuits and Symbols, Parallel v Series Circuits; Conductors v Insulators)

·       Friday-Final Poetry Test (*Study poetry collections and notes in Reading notebook)

·       Friday-Social Studies Test on Key Battles of American Revolution (*Study notes on battles #1-6 in Social Studies notebook)

Homework for the Week:

(please refer to your child's agenda daily for more details-this is only an OUTLINE of what to expect):

·       Read 2 steps (30 minutes) for 100 BC and sign Reading Log *every* night

·       Return Report Cards *sent home Tuesday*

·       Fractions Practice in Math wkbk.

·       STUDY for tests!!!

News from the Beach:

Upcoming Events:  

·       January 20^th-2^nd Nine Weeks Report Cards Sent Home

·       January 23^rd School Spirit Day and 2^nd Quarter Awards

·       February 2^nd- PTA Meeting @ 6:30

·       February 18^th- 2 hour delay for students

Super Surfer of the Week

Cassy is our star student this week for showing the character traits of RESPONSIBILITY, RESPECT, and COOPERATION in the classroom!! She will be our“tweeter” of the week, which is a new responsibility for star students! You can follow our class on twitter.com @mrsburns19girls

                                                           100 Book Challenge Goals

  Good: 233 step

Better: 400 steps

Love, 
Mrs. Burns