Wild About Reading Week

Last week we celebrated reading in a WILD way!  We themed the week with wild animals.  Students ate animal crackers, had animal bookmarks, read about wild animals, and raised money for wild animals with a penny drive.
Today, we went to Ledyard Bank and exchanged our coins from the penny drive.  We raised $300.00 for black bears!  A check has been sent to Mr. Ben Kilham to help support his efforts in rescuing and rehabilitating native black bears.

We're Getting Wild!

Next week is Wild About Reading Week.  We'll be decked out in wacky clothes and hairstyles as we celebrate reading.  We'll kickoff the event THIS Friday, March 1st during morning sing.  In addition to wacky clothes, we'll be collecting pennies for a penny drive to support the rearing of a black bear cub.  Ben Kilham of Lyme has been rescuing and rehabilitating black bears for over twenty years.  This year, Ben has had trouble putting his bear cubs to bed.  Twenty bears have decided to stay awake for the winter.  This means Ben has to feed them.  It costs about $1,000.00 to feed one bear for the winter.  We've decided to help him by holding a penny drive.  Every little bit helps! So, send in those coins!  Here's a link to Ben's site:  Black Bears

A Fish Out of Water...

Two weeks ago we received out brook trout eggs.  They made the trek from the hatchery with Mr. Spinella (4th grade teacher at HSS).  Today we had the opportunity to view the eggs under a digital video microscope.  Under the scope you can see the eyes, backbone, and tail.  Students drew scientific drawings and wrote their observations in their trout journals.  Ask your fourth grader about the project today!

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!

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!