Friday, January 11, 2013

Birds of a feather flock together


We read the book Snowballs by Lois Ehlert.  Beyond learning how to make snowmen, reader's eyes are captivated by the illustrations in this book.  Take a peek and you will find lovely woodland creatures peaking around the corners of the books.  Our "mocking birds" mimic Ehlert's.  Here are a few samples.  If you'd like to see them in real life, stop in!  Interested in learning how to make this type of art?  Check out Deep Space Sparkle!

Cardinal Cut-Ups


Aren't these guys cute?  These little cardinals are made with fractions of paper.  In Ed Emberley's book Picture Pie, readers learn how to make all sorts of fractional creatures from a whole.  You'll see these scarlet-winged birdies flitting in our classroom and around the school.  For more information on cardinals, check out Cardinals.
 For more information on Ed Emberley you can stop in here.
Happy winter!

And they're off!

 
That's right folks, our fourth graders are off and running with their NWEA testing.  I had the GREAT pleasure of watching our students score well on their NWEA tests.  Looks like the pep talks, mints, healthy foods, and sleep helped!  We'll test again on Wednesday and Thursday of next week.  Keep pumping them full of good things!  An extra hug or two may also help!


Saturday, January 5, 2013

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!
We've started the new year off with a bang!  We've been learning about circumference and mean averages.  In the pictures below, you'll see us wrapping adding machine tape around our heads.  We took the strips and then measured the length of tape (our circumference) to the nearest centimeter.  Then, in our groups, we connected out lengths of paper together and by folding the paper we were able to divide the total length by the amount of people in our group and got the mean average circumference.    
We also calculated the mean average by adding the measurements together and dividing by the number of people in our group using a calculator.  Most groups had a mean average of 54 cm. On Monday, we'll see what the mean average is for the whole class!
We'll be visiting the Kilton Library on Tuesday.  NWEA testing will start again on Friday: rest up and eat up!