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!