Career Day

 

Check out the video from today's fantastic Career Day! Thanks to all the professionals who came to talk to our students. It was truly a wonderful learning experience for all the fourth graders.

Miss Mayfield's Solo Week

  This is Miss Mayfield's solo week. What does that mean? Well, Miss Mayfield has been working with our class since the beginning of January. She has been learning what it feels like to teach the students. She started by just helping out in the class and learning the way it worked. Then she moved to taking over a lesson during the day. From there she started taking over a subject, getting the feel for the continuity of planning day to day.  Two weeks ago, Miss Mayfield taught the entire day. I was in the classroom, there to help her in any way that I could. We have done a lot of reflecting on her successes and on ways to improve. Last Wednesday, she took a day by herself. I was in the building, but she had the chance to experience first hand what it is like to come in first thing, set up for the day, and then execute her lessons.  We spent a great deal of time on Wednesday afternoon discussing the day. I have been so impressed with Miss Mayfield's drive, her passion, and her willingness to continually push herself further. 
    So that brings us to this week.  Together, we have collaborated on the planning of the week. Miss Mayfield knows where we've come from, and what needs to be taught this week to get us where we need to go. This week is entirely her week. She has planned some fantastic lessons and will be running the classroom as the teacher. I know the kids are in for a treat. We are so lucky to have Miss Mayfield with us this trimester!

States of Matter Fun

We had a bit of fun today. We are finishing up our unit on states of matter in science class. The students are clear about solids, liquids, and gasses, as well as the molecules behaviors that cause them to have their unique qualities. Our culminating activity included ice cream and soda. You guessed it, ice cream floats! Students made predictions about the gasses that would be created and observed what happened when they mixed the cold solid with the liquid. 

The Ends

The fourth grade is part of a pilot program at Hartford using online portfolios. This  year each student has created a portfolio and are now beginning to put in work that they are proud to show their academic success.  This week we started to dig deeper into these mysterious things called, "The Ends."

The idea of the online portfolios is that they will be used by every student in the district for their entire school career. It will be a place to collect work that they have done that shows how far they have come in all aspects of being a student. These aspects are broken down into what are called, The Ends. They include: Citizenship, Life Skills, Health and Well Being, Global Awareness, Academic Excellence, and Technology/ Information Skills.

The fourth grade team decided to start the process slowly. We chose to focus only on two areas this year, technology and academic excellence.  So this week we began to really look at Technology and Information Skills and what that means to our students. We broke down this end into manageable goals that the students could understand. We asked them to brainstorm ways that they are already showing and demonstrating their knowledge of this particular End.  We then broke them into smaller groups and gave them each one goal to focus on. Each group came up with a skit that could be used to teach younger students about the Technology End. Here is the video that they created.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuLvSKjfVEk

Density Experiment

  Ask your kids about density tonight!  They should be able to tell you that things with more molecules are more dense and things with less molecules are less dense. We spent the afternoon playing with water, oil, corn syrup (they loved that!), pennies, plastic, hard candy and cork! We tested their densities by creating what I called a liquid sandwich. Check out the photos below.

Reading Olympics

Today the fourth and fifth graders kicked off their Reading Olympics! For the next two weeks teams of four will be competing to see who can read the most minutes.  Students have been divided into twenty-one teams consisting of a mix of four students from both grades. Students will be recording when they read, and for how long. They will require an adult signature in order to keep everyone true to their word. Please encourage your child to read and to help their team win some great prizes! Friday, February 14th students will have a "Closing Ceremony" where gold, silver and bronze will be awarded.  Happy Reading!

Billings Farm Field Trip

The fourth graders had so much fun at Billings Farm on Tuesday.  As soon as we got off the bus we were greeted by "Uncle Eli," who told us that we were traveling back in time to 1890.  The students counted back from 2014, 2010, 2000, 1990, 1980... and then were "magically" transported to another time.  They received new names, and were told that old standards applied.  They used sir and ma'am, the boys held doors for the girls, and manners were of the utmost importance. The class was broken up into four groups, and the students began working on the chores of the farm to help out the "Monroe Family." They did the laundry by hand, made their own butter, cleaned out the stalls in the barn, sewed a quilt for a sick relative, and even made their midday meal.  I was so proud of my students. They were so kind to one another, listened to directions, and truly got into the play acting of the day. At the end of the trip the actors all commented how wonderful the class behaved, and one even mentioned that this was the best group they had come through this season. I couldn't have been more proud!