Funny Feet

One of the loveliest things about being a student at Mount Lebanon School is that you get to be in chorus AND it's part of your academic day!  All students in third and fourth grade get to participate in singing with friends AND they don't have to give up recess to do it!  Mrs. Greenough, our MOST AMAZING music teacher has been working hard putting together her next program.  The students learned a new song today called "Funny Feet."  Guess what!?  There's a dance to go along with this GREAT song.  Here's the link for all of my student followers to help them get their groove on! Funny Feet

One More Popsicle

4th graders are TRYING to earn 12 paper popsicles to earn a popsicle party.  Many of the students tried to earn that last popsicle, but didn't.  We're still struggling with raising our hands.  Hopefully, tomorrow will be a popsicle-earning day.
Today we had our first NWEA test.  Some children finished the reading portion and others did not.  Some students found it fun, others found it boring.
During morning meeting we brought back "On This Day in History".  We learned that Henry Ford designed a assembly line to make a car in three minutes flat!
Forward march!

Math Rules!

Ms. Skiffington, a former Mount Lebanon second grade teacher has changed jobs!  Ms. Skiffington now works as a math coach!  Here's a helpful link to her website! Math Rules

Sometimes You Need a Fresh Start!

You know it's going to be "One of those days" when you go to iron your pants and you discover the hem has come undone.  I should have known it was going to be one of those days.
We started out the morning with bus evacuation which upset our music class.  When we came back we had a big class discussion about our rules and being a 95% 4th grader.  After some refreshers on expectations and some table re-arranging, we were back in the saddle and going off at a full gallop!  So, just like the hem on the pants, anything that comes undone, can be stitched up.
After our complicated morning, we spent time reading the book Eli by Bill Peet and discussing the moral of the story.  We also drew lions that will become part of our next art exhibit.
Our favorite activity of the day, though, was the post-it facts activity.  Students were asked to write one fact about monarchs per post-it note.  Some kids got up to 24 facts!  These facts will later be categorized and used in our writing of our monarch books.  See some of our pictures below:

Metamorphosis

Our students are SLOWLY, but surely becoming fourth graders.  We've been working hard on following the rules and practicing expected behaviors.

In science today, we watched a You Tube video on the life cycle of a monarch.  Our monarchs unfortunately died so we've had to improvise watching the life cycle.  The students read in an article that the milkweed may have been what made them sick.  Ms. Allen has emailed Monarch Watch to inquire about the recent monarch deaths.  We are also working on our books on the life cycle of the monarch butterfly.

Super Spellers!

It's been a very busy day in fourth grade!  We had our first day of chorus and our first lesson in spelling!
We brainstormed some LONG E words today based on the spelling patterns found in the sentence: She really likes to eat green beans.  Here are a few samples: puppy, east, steal, eat, chewy, etc.
In other news, we have a caterpillar going into its J-SHAPE!

Perfect Painters

We have a class pet!  Actually, we have TWO class pets.  Our class pets are monarch caterpillars.  We're observing the life cycle of a monarch.  To do this, we will be making Picturing Writing books about our little critters.  We started our books with the first stage in the cycle of a butterfly - the egg.  

Storyworks, a literary magazine for kids, has an article on volcanoes.  The kids read a book about Mount Tambora.  It was a volcano that erupted in Indonesia.  The article highlighted the volcano's effects in NEW ENGLAND.  

More to come tomorrow - stay tuned.