To view our two Thanksgiving Plays from 4J go to:
Play #1
Play #2
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Monday, November 12, 2012
November 12, 2012
planting the outdoor classroom...
Thank you to JW's for donating A LOT of perennials to our outdoor classroom, and to Mrs. Fisher (former KE teacher) for organizing them. Mrs. Yoder's class spent time on a Friday afternoon planting. We even found some new friends.
Iowa Assessment party...
All 4th graders worked incredibly hard during the two weeks of Iowa Assessments. A HUGE thank you to the families who supplied brain food during our tests. We had a great time celebrating the end last Friday afternoon.
Veteran's Day celebration...
On Friday, November 9, five veterans visited KE to help us honor our active and retired military service men and women. After the school recited the Pledge of Allegiance, Mrs. Juilfs' class recited a poem of appreciation. We then watched a short video before singing as a school. Fourth graders were extra honored as the veteran's visited our classroom to answer questions about the military. Thank you, Veterans!
math news...
We are working through problem solving and number sentences in math. We worked with map scale to determine the distance between Washington, D.C. and other cities in the world. After doing our calculations and multiplication (1 inch = 880 miles), we used the ipads to look up the actual distance. It is amazing that even though we had plastic globes and tape measures (not very high tech tools!), we were very close to the actual distance; in some cases, we were only off a couple hundred miles.
social studies news...
Now that we have studied natural resources, we watched to movie The Lorax by Dr. Seuss (the original movie, not the feature length one that was recently in theaters.) We discoverd hat seems to be a simple children's story is really a story about natural resources, the environments, pollution, and habitats. It sparked some great discussion.
We are now preparing for our first Mystery Skype of the year. On Monday, we will be skyping with another 4th grade class somewhere in the US. We do not know where they are located and they do not know we are in Iowa. We worked to develop yes and no questions to narrow down where they are located. Mrs. Yoder's class will do this first skype and, if all goes well, we will work to find other classes willing to skype with us.
Friday, November 9, 2012
Next week is American Education Week.
The 2012 Motto is: Great Public Schools: A Basic Right and Our Responsibility
We will be dressing up for some of the days. Please see the schedule below.
Monday, Nov. 12 – Wear your favorite sweatshirt day
Wed., Nov. 14 – Wear red, white, and blue day
Fri., Nov. 16 – Black and Gold or School Logo shirt day
The 2012 Motto is: Great Public Schools: A Basic Right and Our Responsibility
We will be dressing up for some of the days. Please see the schedule below.
Monday, Nov. 12 – Wear your favorite sweatshirt day
Wed., Nov. 14 – Wear red, white, and blue day
Fri., Nov. 16 – Black and Gold or School Logo shirt day
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Thursday, October 18th we went on a field trip to Coralville Lake. We started at the visitor's center with a movie about the dam and floods followed by a question and answer session with Ranger Terry Escher.
Then we spent some time in the visitor's center looking at the fossils and stuffed animals native to the lake. After Stopping for a class photo op we headed to the Gate House.
We were lucky to see the inside of the gate house as it is "top secret"! Following that we headed for Fossil Gorge. We saw many fossils and other interesting things.
Our last stop at Coralville Lake was a quick trip on the Veteran's Trail.
Because of the cold rainy day we decided to eat lunch at CoralRidge Mall.
And then we were off to the Museum of Natural History where we toured Iowa Hall, Mammal Hall, and Bird Hall.
This guy was a favorite.
And even with the cold wet weather a good time was had by all!
Thank you to the parents that accompanied us.
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Wow! We have been so busy this past week. Homecoming Week was very fun and we enjoyed seeing the kids dress up on each day. The week concluded with a Pep Rally on Friday afternoon with the captains of the football, volleyball, and cross country teams. The athletes stressed the fun they have while playing, but also pointed out the importance of keeping their grades up and homework.
math news...
We have time in math working with a great program on the ipads, Educreations. This program allows us to make 1-take videos (no editing) explaining what we are learning in class. We have found a few glitches, especially the fact that only one video can be created at a time as there is no saving. So, we are alternating which classes make videos with partners and which make whole class videos.
Our goal in math was to make videos explaining and reviewing the target (secure) goals for Unit 1. We hope to do these throughout the year. The videos are private, meaning you have to have the url to access them as they are not searchable. Hopefully these will become another resource for students as they are working at home.
There is a new page at the top of the blog called, "Links to Educreation Videos." I will keep updating this page with all the links.
This week we moved back to unit 2, Using Numbers and Organizing Data. Today we used fun size packs of M-n-M's to explore maximum, minimum, range, and mode. We will also spend time reviewing multi-digit addition and subtraction.
social studies news...
Now that we are geniuses on landforms, we are also using Educreations to share that genius. While working on these videos, we are constantly asking ourselves if they are "WOW", worthy of the web. We only want to share accurate information while still paying attention to our verbal skills, written skills and grammar. I will post these as we finish.
Next, we will study climate and natural resources.
field trip news...
Our 4th Grade field trip to the Coralville Lake (visitor's center, gate house, fossil gorge) and to the University of Iowa Museum of Natural History is scheduled for THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18. Your child will bring home a form on Friday asking you to indicate whether he/she will be bringing a sack lunch or will purchase a sack lunch from school that morning. Please return this form by October 16 so we can let the kitchen know.
blog survey...
According to our latest survey, only 1 person has signed up to follow our blog and receive updates. Please consider doing this.
parent-teacher conferences...
Conferences are scheduled for Thursday, November 1 and Thursday, November 8. If you have not returned the bright green scheduling form, please do so as soon as possible so we can get those scheduled.
math news...
We have time in math working with a great program on the ipads, Educreations. This program allows us to make 1-take videos (no editing) explaining what we are learning in class. We have found a few glitches, especially the fact that only one video can be created at a time as there is no saving. So, we are alternating which classes make videos with partners and which make whole class videos.
Our goal in math was to make videos explaining and reviewing the target (secure) goals for Unit 1. We hope to do these throughout the year. The videos are private, meaning you have to have the url to access them as they are not searchable. Hopefully these will become another resource for students as they are working at home.
There is a new page at the top of the blog called, "Links to Educreation Videos." I will keep updating this page with all the links.
This week we moved back to unit 2, Using Numbers and Organizing Data. Today we used fun size packs of M-n-M's to explore maximum, minimum, range, and mode. We will also spend time reviewing multi-digit addition and subtraction.
social studies news...
Now that we are geniuses on landforms, we are also using Educreations to share that genius. While working on these videos, we are constantly asking ourselves if they are "WOW", worthy of the web. We only want to share accurate information while still paying attention to our verbal skills, written skills and grammar. I will post these as we finish.
Next, we will study climate and natural resources.
field trip news...
Our 4th Grade field trip to the Coralville Lake (visitor's center, gate house, fossil gorge) and to the University of Iowa Museum of Natural History is scheduled for THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18. Your child will bring home a form on Friday asking you to indicate whether he/she will be bringing a sack lunch or will purchase a sack lunch from school that morning. Please return this form by October 16 so we can let the kitchen know.
blog survey...
According to our latest survey, only 1 person has signed up to follow our blog and receive updates. Please consider doing this.
parent-teacher conferences...
Conferences are scheduled for Thursday, November 1 and Thursday, November 8. If you have not returned the bright green scheduling form, please do so as soon as possible so we can get those scheduled.
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Field Trip
We will be going on a field trip on Thursday, October 18th. We will leave school at 8:45 a.m. and return by 3:00 p.m. We'll visit the Fossil Gorge and Museum of Natural History. At this time we are looking for chaperones. Please email or send a note to Mrs. Juilfs. More information coming at a later date.
In the meantime, check out the programs offered at the Museum of Natural History. You can find them HERE.
SCIENCE
Our first science unit is "Earth Materials". We began with a QCE using a Snickers. Students designed a test to prove their claim as to what a Snickers contains. Most of us were surprised at what we later found is in a Snickers that we just couldn't prove. The Snickers is similar to a rock in that it has more than one ingredient.
Pam Holz visited to teach us about the Rock Cycle.
READING
In reading we are almost finished with our first theme--"Journeys". In this theme so far we have read "Grandfather's Journey", "Akiak", "Finding the Titanic", and a chapter from "By the Shores of Silver Lake". The students have especially enjoyed studying about the Titanic. We will be taking our unit test soon.
Chapter book reading and writing book reports is coming along. I hope everyone is reading at home each night. Remember our first quarter goal is 400 pages.
Math
Mrs. Yoder recently finished teaching the first math unit which was Geometry. Mrs. Juilfs brought in some quilts to share. The students identified shapes they found in the quilts.
We will be going on a field trip on Thursday, October 18th. We will leave school at 8:45 a.m. and return by 3:00 p.m. We'll visit the Fossil Gorge and Museum of Natural History. At this time we are looking for chaperones. Please email or send a note to Mrs. Juilfs. More information coming at a later date.
In the meantime, check out the programs offered at the Museum of Natural History. You can find them HERE.
SCIENCE
Our first science unit is "Earth Materials". We began with a QCE using a Snickers. Students designed a test to prove their claim as to what a Snickers contains. Most of us were surprised at what we later found is in a Snickers that we just couldn't prove. The Snickers is similar to a rock in that it has more than one ingredient.
Pam Holz visited to teach us about the Rock Cycle.
READING
In reading we are almost finished with our first theme--"Journeys". In this theme so far we have read "Grandfather's Journey", "Akiak", "Finding the Titanic", and a chapter from "By the Shores of Silver Lake". The students have especially enjoyed studying about the Titanic. We will be taking our unit test soon.
Chapter book reading and writing book reports is coming along. I hope everyone is reading at home each night. Remember our first quarter goal is 400 pages.
Math
Mrs. Yoder recently finished teaching the first math unit which was Geometry. Mrs. Juilfs brought in some quilts to share. The students identified shapes they found in the quilts.
Sometimes looking at the back of an unfinished quilt square surprised us as it is hard to tell what shapes are sewn together when you look at the front.
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