Franklin Food Pantry Drive a Success!

GO ROOM 20!  So proud of an amazing food drive!

Thank you to all our fourth grade families who donated food and other supplies to our food drive for the Franklin Food Pantry!  We are happy to announce that JFK fourth graders collected 377.5 pounds of food and other supplies for the Food Pantry!  What a heartwarming and compassionate way to start the weekend!

Thank you, families - none of this is possible without you!

Dig It! Archaeology Program!

What an awesome way to start the week!  This morning, we had the privilege to attend "Dig It!" an archaeology program from the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology's "Cultural Caravan."  Thanks to the PCC, we were able to learn all about the different ways archaeologists use evidence to learn about prehistoric people!  We learned about carbon dating, counting tree rings, pottery seriation, and soil.  We got the chance to reconstruct broken shards of pottery and dig for artifacts to learn about the culture of a Northeast Native American tribe.  We cannot WAIT for the next visit from the Cultural Caravan - thank you PCC!  Check out the photos and video below to get a taste of our work as archaeologists - enjoy!

 

Stone Soup Play!

In reading, we've been practicing reading plays.  We've learned the essential parts of plays - characters, stage directions, lines.  We've discussed the importance of reading fluency and expression when reading lines aloud.  We've made movies in our minds using the stage directions and descriptions of the setting.

Check out the videos of our small groups performing "Stone Soup!"  We're especially proud of our expression, team work, and posture!  Stay tuned - this week, we'll be writing scripts based on our favorite scenes from The Sisters Grimm, the read aloud book we just finished!

 

 

 

Indoor Recess Domino Tricks!

Check out this video that Room 20 domino builders created during indoor recess last week!  Very creative, everybody!  Use the video to help you think about how you'd redesign it next time.

End-of-Week Update, 12/6

We learned a lot about the Franklin Food Pantry, what they do, what they need, and what we can do to help!

What we've been up to:

"Welcome to boot camp," Mrs. Adams told us in writing this week.  This sounds a little harsh, doesn't it?  We didn't have to do 50 push ups for Mrs. Adams.  Instead, we had to write a whole essay in one day!  An essay is when you have an opinion about something and you have to include specific reasons why you think that way.  We wrote an essay about how awesome Kennedy School is.  Don't you agree?  Welcome to the Midwest!  In social studies, we learned our capitals and abbreviations and labeled and colored our poster maps.  Next week, we're going to learn more about the geography, climate, and economy of the Midwest.  On Wednesday and Thursday, the class was practicing reading scripts.  We talked about how it's important to read with expression and know when your line is coming up.  We read the script "Stone Soup."  On Thursday afternoon, we all acted with our friends as different characters.  You can see the videos on the blog coming up soon!  In chorus, Maggie was chosen as "Celebrity Singer" and was one of the only two people left on the list that Mrs. MacMurray and Mrs. Shepherd made!  In math, we took our decimals test!  In English this week, we learned about context clues.  That's when descriptions or definitions of a word are right there in the sentence!  We finally finished The Sisters Grimm!  We really enjoyed reading it together because it had a lot of action, there were a lot of suspenseful parts, there were LOTS of Wordly Wise words, and it was funny!  We have our December speech to do.  There are a lot of different speech topics you can choose from.  The Franklin Food Pantry came to visit us this week.  They feed over 600 families!  We will be having a 4th grade food drive next week to help them out!  Drop and give me 50 - I mean, a good weekend!  :)

Thanks to Ms. Erin Lynch from the Franklin Food Pantry for talking to fourth graders about what they do!

We are looking forward to the 4th grade food drive next week!  

Congratulations to Maggie for being named Celebrity Singer this week!

What's coming up next:

• On Monday, the Haffenreffer Museum in Providence will be visiting 4th graders for an anthropology lesson!  Students will be enjoying the first of four sessions this year about Native Americans!
• There are two half-days of school next week (Thursday, 12/12 and Friday, 12/13) for parent/teacher conferences.  Please send in a dismissal note if your child is going home a different way than normal.
• Fourth graders are holding a food pantry drive next week!  This is an optional way for us to share what we have with those who do not have much.  Any donations are welcome and appreciated!  Thank you!

Gretchen's Awesome Domino Tricks!

Welcome back, Room 20!  I hope everybody enjoyed a fabulous Thanksgiving break.  I know I definitely enjoyed relaxing, visiting family, EATING, and having fun!  Gretchen also had some fun over the extra long weekend.  Here she is with her own AWESOME domino trick!  This must have taken a lot of patience, creativity, and time.  Go, Gretchen!

End-of-Week Update, 11/22

Go, Kileigh!  She's this week's celebrity singer! :)

What we've been up to:
By: Maggie, Caroline, and Cormac

We had an accomplishing week!  In chorus this week, Kileigh won celebrity singer!  In music, we are still in the computer lab.  In art, we finished our landscape paintings.  They were awesome!  We finished our fiction drafts and they came out great.  On Mrs. Adams' birthday, George came in at the end of the day.  In social studies, we finished making a packet for home to study for our Southeast quiz.  In math, we are learning about decimals - putting them in order and adding and subtracting.  We had a great week!

Notes from Mrs. Adams:

• We have a short, but busy week coming up!  On Tuesday, students will be delivering their November speeches.  Remember, speeches should be 1 minute long, do not need to be memorized, and will be graded according to the rubric sent home.  Students should bring in a written copy of their speeches, though they will only be graded on their oral presenting skills.
• Also on Tuesday is the Southeast quiz.  Use the study guide and packet to help guide studying at home - including capitals / abbreviations, climate, economy, and the Cherokee.
• We will be having a decimals test at the end of the week we return from Thanksgiving (12/6).  Students will be receiving a study guide this week.  Instruction and review of decimals will continue after Thanksgiving break.  An at-home study packet will be posted on the blog sometime this week.  Stay tuned!
• I wish a happy, healthy, and memorable Thanksgiving to all families who celebrate!  Travel safe, relax, and enjoy!

End-of-Week Update 11/15

Caroline was this week's Room 20 Celebrity Singer!  Go, Caroline!

What we've been up to:
This was a four-day week, but we still completed a lot of work!  In music, we finished up recording our recorder songs on MixCraft 6.  We added background instruments to our "Starburst" recordings.  Caroline won celebrity singer this week!  We're so proud of her!  In math this week, we learned important words such as "divisor," "dividend," "quotient," and "remainder" to help us with low-stress division.  We also learned how to do the multiplication check to check our division.  On Friday, we took our division test and took our time.  We hope Mrs. Adams writes the number 4 a whole lot this weekend!  We read Chapter 8 in The Sisters Grimm.  It was a very long chapter, but it was action-packed and adventurous.  It was very tense at some points.  By the end of the chapter, the girls got Dorothy's ruby slippers and they had their very own disguises - the tin man and Momma Bear!  In art class, we painted landscapes of mountains using light and dark paint.  We mixed white with the dark colors to make different values and hues.  In writing, we figured out how our stories were going to go and added planning boxes to our timelines.  Then, we started drafting our fiction stories.  We worked on making our leads more fun with dialogue, action, and thought shots.  In social studies, we labeled Southeast capitals and abbreviations on our poster maps.  We also learned a lot about the Southeast's people, places, and economy.  For example, more presidents were born in Virginia than any other state!  (There's 8 total, in case you're wondering).  We talked about tourism, the beautiful Southeast beaches, "snow birds," St. Augustine, the Assateague Islands and their wild ponies, the Florida Keys with their coral reefs, and Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas!  In P.E., we learned how to do proper curl-ups.  It was a great week!

What's coming up / From Mrs. Adams:

• Continue to work on November Speeches!  They are due on 11/26.  We discussed how students will be graded on their oral presentation, not their written product.  Students have the scoring rubric for the November speech along with the assignment.  Encourage your child to practice their speech aloud at home!
• Have a great weekend!

Just for fun...domino tricks!

Lots of Room 20 kids have been working on domino creations during indoor recess!  We enjoyed watching this together after chorus today - enjoy!

End-of-Week Update, 11/8

Student council elections were this week!  Check out the candidates below!

Andrew promised to work hard to make Kennedy School a better place!

Alexis promised to be a good listener for all of our ideas!

Jack promised to listen to everybody's ideas and share them with student council.

Caroline suggested an idea box for our classroom so kids could submit their ideas to the representative!

Cormac promised to organize more school spirit days.  He said not to vote wrong, Vote Wright!

Stephen promised to organize fun events, like spelling bees!  He said, "Don't be a bully, be a friend!"

Josh promised to organize more fundraisers for people who need help!

Kileigh promised to be determined, courageous, colorful, talented, and hard-working!

Cullen promised to organize fun activities, like trivia games, spelling bees, and sports challenges!

Gretchen promised to be on-time, organized, dependable, and hard-working!

What we've been up to:

This week we devoted our time to division, student council elections, writing our fiction stories, completing our remarkable 4-door projects on Washington, D.C., and doing our best!

We are working on “spa” division (low-stress division).  On Friday, we got a sheet called “How to Deal with My Remainders.”  We also called it the Kitten Paper.  Ask a Room 20 student why…  Click on the right to see the kitten remainder sheet.  We had a lot of fun talking about the kitten sheet and the different ways you can deal with your remainder in a division number story.  If you think that’s a lot, that was only what we did in math this week!

In writing, we’re working on our new realistic fiction stories.  We’re starting to develop our main characters.  We started with a theme – honesty, kindness, perseverance, courage, friendship, determination, acceptance, or compassion.  We’re building our stories off of that.  We can’t wait for writing on Tuesday.

For social studies, we finished our in-school 4-door projects.  They look great!  We also did an acrostic poem for Washington, D.C.

The people who ran for student council were Andrew, Alexis, Jack, Caroline, Cormac, Stephen, Kileigh, Cullen, Josh, and Gretchen.  Mrs. Adams is proud of how the students ran their campaigns, how they gave their speeches, how they won, and how they lost.  They all deserve a BIG congratulations!  Jack was the winner!  We have ideas to give him and can’t wait for him to represent our ideas at student council meetings.  We had no school on Tuesday because of Election Day.  On Friday, Room 20 got the Golden Broom for the cleanest floor in the whole school.  We can keep it until next Friday.

Dory and Andrew are celebrating the Golden Broom Award!

Go, Justin!  We're so proud of your celebrity singer status!

In music, we recorded part of our recorder song, “Starburst.”  In chorus, Justin became celebrity singer!  In art, we shaded precious pumpkins using gray scale and oil pastels.  In health, we played Exercise Bingo.  In library, we learned many important facts about Susan B. Anthony - just in time for elections!  One of them was 100 years ago, women were not allowed to vote.  We’re really glad that this isn't the way things are anymore!

This was one of our busiest weeks yet!  This week we had so much fun and so much learning, it felt more like five days instead of four!

What's coming up / Notes from Mrs. Adams:

• There is no school on Monday in honor of Veterans' Day.
• Next Friday (11/15), there will be a division test.  The best ways to prepare are to (1) practice the low-stress (partial quotients) division lots and lots, (2) practice basic multiplication and division facts, and (3) use the study guide and at-home study packet for studying!  Any questions, don't hesitate to ask!
• If you have not signed up for a December conference, please do so!  Email me for the link to the Sign-Up Genius website.  There are many open times and I can arrange a time that works with your schedule is nothing works for you!

Low Stress Division Video!

We worked hard on low-stress division today!  Check out this video.  Watch it a few times because tomorrow we're going to do some more practice and have some division homework!  Also, keep practicing your facts!

Spotlight on Caroline

In social studies, we have been learning about the important monuments, memorials, and museums that are part of Washington, D.C.  We've found that a lot of the memorials in our nation's capital are war memorials, built in honor of the men and women who were involved in war efforts throughout our country's history.  Caroline has a LOT to share when it comes to WWII because her grandparents both served on Cape Cod in a facility used to intercept Morse Code from German UBoats!  Caroline's family provided us with these amazing photos (below) and a link to this article all about the once secret Cape Cod facility!  Caroline's grandparents and the men and women stationed with them were a big part of the US's success in helping Allied ships arrive safely in England.  We are honored to know their story and excited to share it here on our class blog!  Thank you so much to Caroline, family, and especially her grandparents for their amazing story and for their service to our country!

Caroline's grandfather

Caroline's grandmother

End-of-Week Update, 11/1

What we've been up to:
It's November and we're already off to a busy start! In math this week, we wrapped up multiplication.  We reviewed with a study packet and took our multiplication test.  Then we did test reflections sheet to review our mistakes and make a goal for next time!  Later in the week, we started our next unit - division!  We learned two ways to draw pictures to show our division - arrays and tape diagrams.  Some people liked arrays better and some people liked the tape diagrams better.  A few of us brought in weather posters and shared them.  They were really cool.  Mrs. Adams hung up our weather posters.  We watched "The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" film with the other fourth graders.  It was really fun.  We started making our posters for Washington, D.C.  They have four doors with illustrations and facts.  We can't wait to hang them up when we're done!  In reading, we just finished Chapter 7 of The Sisters Grimm.  It was an interesting chapter because the girls get a magic carpet and find Jack, the Giant Slayer!  We have been asking questions and making predictions.  In writing we finished our first fiction writing drafts!  We made the "MEGA BIG REVISING LIST." It is awesome. It reminds us of all the great writing strategies we've learned so far so we don't forget to include them in our work!  For example, we added similes, conversations (dialogue), thought shots, show-not-tell feelings, and descriptions to our drafts.  They were much better!  We had a Happy Halloween! Check out Kileigh and Gretchen's costumes below! We're looking forward to a great November!

Happy Halloween from Gretchen & Kileigh!

Notes from Mrs. Adams:

• We are working on division, but please continue to review multiplication facts with your child at home!  It is crucial to our work in the next few weeks with division!
• There is NO SCHOOL on Tuesday, 11/5.  Teachers are having a full day professional development workshop.
• Student Council elections are next week!  Posters are due Monday (11/4) and speeches will be on Wednesday (11/6).  Students who have signed up to run for student council should be prepared on those days.  Elections will be on Friday (11/8).  Good luck to our 12 candidates!  I'm so proud of your bravery and hard work!

End-of-Week Update, 10/25

What we've been up to:
We've been busy this week!  In writing, we've started drafting our fiction stories.  Some of us finished, but we've been busy revising to make our stories better.  Some of us went up in front of the whole class to read our drafts and our classmates suggested ideas to the person who wrote it.  We are so excited to publish!  In reading, we have been finishing chapter 6 in The Sisters Grimm.  So far, almost every chapter has had a cliffhanger!  We have been working on asking questions before, during, and after we read books and chapters.  In social studies, we are studying Washington, D.C., our nation's capital!  So far, we have learned about some of the major monuments, memorials, and museums that are in the city.  We'll learn more and create a 4-door poster next week!  In math this week, we learned how to multiply to find mammoth products in different ways.  We know Windows, standard, and area model.  Also we have had this for homework many times.  We are getting more and more confident each time we practice.  This week, we got a point in EVERY special so we got a bonus point!  We voted for a movie and chose Cars 2.  We talked about the overall message, life lesson, or "theme" in the movie and decided it was "Be yourself" and "Let your friends be themselves - accept them for who they are."  These were important lessons!  We cherished this week!

Happy Friday from Room 20 (and our furry friends...)

What's coming up / Reminders from Mrs. Adams:

• Tuesday is our math test on multiplication.  Keep the questions coming and make use of the at-home review packet emailed out last week!
• We are studying Washington, D.C. in social studies.  If you have any books, maps, brochures, postcards, etc. that you'd like to send in - feel free!  We'd love to see them!
• Thursday is Halloween and also a half-day for students (PDD for teachers).  Please be sure that your child knows how they're going home that day.  We will be celebrating with party-in-a-bag special snacks if you'd like to send one in for your child.  As a reminder, this is a special snack that can include a sweet item, a salty item, a candy item, and a special drink.  In the past, parents have made these as a surprise for their children.  It's a fun, but low key way to celebrate Halloween!

End-of-Week Update, 10/18

Mrs. Adams here!  Sorry for the tardiness of this post - computer glitch!

What we were up to last week:

It was only a four day week, but it felt as long as a century!  Not because it was bad, but because we were so busy!

In math this week, we learned "Windows," which is an easier way to do multiplication.  We did lots of partial products this week.  We are still working on our fact quizzes and many of us are getting personal bests!

In reading this week, we finished Ch. 5 in The Sisters Grimm.  It was really weird because Sheriff Hamstead turned into a pig and his pants got ripped by barbed wire!  Then, pixies guided the girls to some kid sitting on a broken toilet in the woods!  Then pixies told the boy to drown Sabrina and Daphne!  We read 20 minutes each day.  Most of us finished our books and are working on letters to Mrs. Adams.

This week in writing, we made comics to make our fiction stories into seeds.  We're also working on timelines to show how our stories are developing.  We are finding leads from other books and getting ideas for our own stories.  We can't wait to publish!

In music on Thursday, we learned A on our recorders.  We learned how to pick our fingers up on our recorders to make different music notes.  We're also going to prepare for our Northeast test on Tuesday.  On Monday, we're going to play a Jeopardy game to help us prepare for the test!

We can't wait to see what next week will bring!

What's coming up / reminders from Mrs. Adams:

• Our next math test will be coming up a week from Tuesday (10/29).  This will be a multiplication test and will cover long multiplication and multiplication word problems.  An at-home review packet will be emailed out to parents by Wednesday evening.  Just like last math test, this is an optional packet and does not need to be returned to school!  Please make every effort to study / help your child to prepare for this test in some way.  The review packet is a great way to structure this study time at home.
• Next Thursday is Halloween!  We will be celebrating with a special snack ("party-in-a-bag") and by completing some special activities together.  If you misplaced the "party-in-a-bag" letter, please let me know and I can give you the information.  Keep in mind that Halloween is also a half day for students.

End-of-Week Update, 10/11

Congratulations to Maggie for her art show debut on Wednesday!

 This week has been exquisite.  Here’s what we’ve been up to:

·         We finished Chapter 4 in The Sisters Grimm.  Mrs. Grimm and Mr. Canis got trapped by a mammoth giant’s shirt pocket.

·         We mastered our extended multiplication facts. In case you don’t know, extended multiplication facts are when you do a basic fact then add a certain amount of zeros represented in the factors.  Check out this picture of Justin with a multiplication “mat.”  We used ones, tens and hundreds (cubes, French fries, and waffles J) to fill in the area of each multiplication problem.  We pretended they were backyards of Lego toys!

 

Here's Justin using base-10 blocks on a multiplication mat!

 

·         We started to write fiction stories this week!  We have lots of ideas, but some of them were watermelons.  Mrs. Adams showed us seeds!  We enjoyed some seed stories – “Partysaurus Rex,” Knuffle Bunny, “Knick Knack,” “Jack-Jack Attack,” and Zathura!  Pixar short films are seed stories.  Regular Pixar films are watermelons!  We made back-of-the-book blurbs for all of the Pixar films and picture books.

·         We had an awesome time in social studies.  We studied the Narragansett.  We also studied the Northeast’s climate, states / capitals /abbreviations, geography, and economy.  Our quiz study guide will go home next week.  Our teams (or “cars”) have been earning points this week!

·         In Wordly Wise, we’ve learned 90 new words so far!  Isn’t that a mammoth achievement? (Wordly Wise Word!!! J)  After all that, we’re feeling pretty drowsy – just kidding!  Bring on more words!

·         We earned 20 points for our specials and voted to watch a movie together sometime soon!

·         Maggie’s artwork was in the Franklin Art Show at the high school this Wednesday!  She represented JFK with her one-shape abstract painting.

·         In chorus, Mrs. Adams thought we were sounding great!  We are working on posture.

We’ve had such a fun week.  Can’t wait for Tuesday!

 

 

 

What's coming up / Reminders from Mrs. Adams:

• A study guide and study materials will be going home on Tuesday for our Northeast quiz.  Similar to the weather test, please guide your child to utilize the study guide and break up the studying over the week.  Our quiz will be on Tuesday, 10/22.
• We are beginning to explore and learn more about long multiplication algorithms.  Automaticity with our multiplication facts helps tremendously in this process!
• If you haven't yet signed up for a conference in December, please do so at the SignUp Genius link that was emailed out after Open House.  Let me know if you'd like me to resend you the invitation.  Looking forward to meeting!

 

 

End-of-Week Update, 10/4

What we've been up to:

This was a week of achievements! On Monday, we completed the testing of our puff mobiles and chose our puffers.  Then, the big day came!  Thursday, October 3^rd – Team 20 became puff mobile champions!  We had a huge success – our class had the best overall puff mobile!  The winning team was “The Yellow Hornets.”  Great design work and teamwork from Will, Chase, Natalia, Jack, and Justin (who was also the puffer in the winning race!!)  Congratulations to all!  See some pictures from the mammoth race below. 

 

We continued taking timed multiplication fact quizzes and we’re hoping to improve each time we take one.  In math, we also learned about factors and multiples.  Ask us about skip counting for multiples!  J  Dory also recommended some really neat divisibility tricks that help us figure out a number’s factors and if the number is prime or composite.  We’ll be doing more work with that next week. 

 

We had a big weather test on Monday and showed all we knew about weather.  Now we’re starting social studies – the regions of the USA!  We’re going to take a “road trip” in cars with our teams.  They are actually characters from the movie “CARS” (Mater, Doc, Luigi, Fillmore, and Ramone). 

 

This week in writing we finished up our drafts and then we also had a publishing party, which was very fun, and we got to share our writing with the whole class and we had a dance party beforehand too!  Check out these pictures from our writing party below.

 

 

 

 

 

We read a VERY interesting chapter in The Sisters Grimm.  It revealed many secrets that may change the whole story!  The ending was a cliffhanger!  We can’t wait to read Chapter 4 next week.  In science this week, we made terrariums with Miss Farrell’s class.  We are starting to recognize some of the steps of the water cycle right in our terrarium jars!  Thursday night was Open House.  Parents and siblings got to come in and see what we’re writing and what we did for published stories.  Also, they saw our puff mobiles, our terrariums, and all our work around the room.  We have finally earned enough points from our specials to vote on a class prize!  We’ll vote next week.

On Friday, Mrs. Hess came in and announced that Maggie’s artwork had been selected for the art show at the high school.  Only 7 JFK artists were chosen!  We are so proud of Maggie!  Stay tuned for a photo of Maggie with Dory.  In chorus on Thursday, BOTH celebrity singers were from our class!  Congratulations to Andrew and Gretchen!  Some students even were brave enough to sing solos in front of the whole 4^th grade!  Way to go!

 

 

We had a very busy and fun week!  Enjoy the weekend, ladies and gentlemen! 

What's coming up / reminders from Mrs. Adams:

• Many families have already signed up for December conferences using SignUp Genius!  If you have not received the email invitation to sign up, please let me know and I can re-send it to you.  If there are no remaining conference times that work with your family's schedule, let me know and we can work out something that works for all of us!
• Keep up the good work with the multiplication fact practice at home!  Many students are beating their personal bests and improving over time.  Keep it up!

Have a wonderful weekend!