Weekly Reflection: December 4 and December 11

Reporters: Sandra and Anika    Photographer; Molly

This week in class...
Field Trip
Last Tuesday we had a field trip at the Field museum. We were at the Native American exhibit. We went in the Earth Lodge. After the Earth Lodge we went to do a scavenger hunt in ABC order. We took pictures of artifacts to go with our scavenger hunt to go with our words. After we were done we ate lunch at the museum. Then we went to  ancient Egypt  exhibit. There were female adult mummies, and female and  male baby mummies. Then we went on the bus and left.

Science
Last week in science we learned about canyons, mountains, valleys, rivers, sand dunes, and glaciers.
We learned that a glacier is a sheet of ice, and that a canyon is a deep valley with steep sides shaped like water.

This week we were doing river tables. Each group investigated different factors that shape the rivers. When each group was  done we got out our science notebooks and took notes. Then we were talking about how the rivers changed and what might have happened.

Weekly Reflection: November 13 and 20

Reporters: Tate, Max, Molly, and Jordan     Photographer: Joey

 We learned about really cool dances at an assembly!

During the past two weeks...

We had a Veterans' Day assembly. Many veterans came in and talked to us. Our guest speaker  talked about what it is like to be in the army. They did a really cool flag ceremony. 

We also had a dancing assembly that was really cool. We learned about different dances! They taught us about hip hop dance, ballet, tap and jazz!!! 

This week we had an assembly with an author named Ethan Long. He talked about how to create a book. He drew a tiger named Timmy to show us how to make an in-progress drawing. He was very funny. 

We had reading buddies today. We read a book about the first Thanksgiving. Then we wrote a poem with our reading buddies using our five senses. After that we shared them with our classes. 

Weekly Reflection: November 6

Reporters: Raegan and Sky     Photographer: Emily

We made homes for our Native American unit. We're excited to test it out.

This week in class...

We studied for our history test on the Native Americans and how they came to America. We had a history test and after the test, we got to get a packet and were assigned regions to study. We got into our groups and on the inside of our packets we had resources that were in our region. All the groups decided on a house design that fit their region and then went to the back table and got what they needed to start building their house. We built houses and then picked a region to test them in. We find out today which houses worked best in their regions.

On Wednesday, we Skyped our buddies in Canada and asked each other questions about Fish In A Tree! It was very exciting! There was a riddle that some were able to solve but some weren't. The riddle was this: There is a bag of grain, a chicken, a wolf, and you on 1 side of a river. You have to get everything to the other side alive. You have only a small boat that only you and 1 thing can go in at a time. You can not leave the wolf alone with the chicken because it will become lunch. You can not leave the chicken alone with the grain because it will become lunch. How do you get everything to the other side? Here is there correct answer: Take the chicken over. Then take the grain over and bring the chicken back. Then take the wolf over and come back. The wolf will not eat the grain. Then take the chicken over and you are done!

Weekly Reflection: October 30

Reporters: Ava and Emily  Photographer: Andrea

 We are walking in the parade!

It was fun to see all the costumes and be with our friends.

This week in class...
We started learning about the history of Native Americans and where they lived. We have a test on November 3. Were almost done with the book Fish In A Tree.

We had a Halloween party with lots of fun food, and fantastic Halloween games. We had a costume parade after lunch.  We told spooktacular jokes and did funky fun dance moves. We hope you have a nice Halloween!!!!!!!!!!

Weekly Reflection: October 23

Reporters: Nolan and Andrea

Making pumpkins with our Reading Buddies.

This week in class...
We did a science lesson we combined two things together to make a mixture such as corn starch and water. When your finger goes in fast it acts like hard jello and when you put your finger in slow it acts like a liquid.

Also we started reading buddy with Mrs. Litberg's class.We read a book called Stubborn Pumpkin and we did a activity where we made paper pumpkins.

Weekly Reflection: October 16

Reporters: Megan and Matthew   Photographer: Madelyn

Students looking into a fishbowl watching their friends discuss text features.

Finding problems in the pictures and making solutions.

Learning about 3D printing.

This week in class...
This week we did our first fish bowl. During a fish bowl, four students sit a table and talk about what they learned while reading.  Other classmates observe the discussion just like watching fish in a fishbowl.  Our teacher said we were one of the best of all the years she has been teaching.

We also started lit circles.  We all chose books to read.  We will read a certain number of pages each week and meet with our group to discuss the books.

We reached 50 stars and we got PJ day while it was Heavenly Hats Day. We set up experiment for evaporation and now we are experimenting with mixing materials. We are excited for our guess speaker today.

Weekly Reflection: October 8

Reporters: Madelyn and Avery   Photographer: Lorna

Listening to author of Fish in a Tree read aloud Chapter 8.

Author: Lynda Mulally Hunt

This week in class...
We started the book Fish in a Tree. It is for the Global Read Aloud. Fish in a Tree is about a girl who has dyslexia, and she does not want anyone to know she has trouble reading and writing.

We had a Mystery Skype with another class that is also reading Fish in a Tree! We found them in Ontario, Canada. We played 20 questions to guess where they were in the world. A Mystery Skype is when you Skype with someone, but you don't know where they are.

We also had an assembly, it was called Spark. People came in to share their jobs with us. There was a police officer, music guy, magician, engineer, and more. And that is what we did this week.

Weekly Reflection: October 2

Reporters: Lorna and Sandra   Photographer: Anika

 Displacing water to find the volume of the popcorn

Weighing glycerin in both solid and liquid state

Melting solid ice by applying heat from our hands

Proving that air takes up space

This week in class...
During the week we had a science morning. We rotated stations. First we went to Mrs. Koenig's classroom and learned that if you heat something up it will melt.  So we put wax and soap in containers and put the containers on the coffee warmer to see how it would look if the soap and the wax were liquids. If you cool it off, it will turn back to a solid.

Then we went to Ms. Miller's class. We tried to melt the solid ice cubes with our hands.

Then we went to Mrs. Ricci's class we had to prove that air takes up space. So we put together our own experiments. We used clay, water, cups, paper towels, and water tubes and more. We each proved to Mrs. Ricci that air takes up space. I

n Mrs. Cioni's class we discovered that the water volume rises or is displaced when you put something in the water. EUREKA!!! It was a success. We had a blast during the week.

Weekly Reflection: September 25

Reporters: Anika and Molly    Photographer: Jordan

Discovering the properties of solids, liquids, and gases.

This week in class...
In science we learned about matter. Matter is anything that takes up space and has MASS. There are three states of matter- a solid, liquid, or gas. In the matter lesson we learned how to weigh solids and liquids. We got to work with clay. stackable cubes, and water to learn how to weigh a solids and liquids properly.

We did a lesson to discover properties of solids, liquids and gases. We were curious what was inside the balloons. There was either rice, flour, water, dish soap, and carbon dioxide. We made lots of observations.

In math we're learning about mode, median, MAXimum, minimum, mean, and range. These are all landmarks. We also learned how to collect data from bar graphs. We learned graph  family members data. We had Map Math testing on Tuesday.

Weekly Reflection: September 18

Reporters: Tate and Jordan   Photographer: Max

This week we were looking at pictures and listing all the matter materials we could find.

In this picture we were sorting all the matter into separate groups like solids, gases, mixture, and ?

This week in class...
We also started are Matter unit in science. We learned how to do a fair test. For something to be a fair test, you can only have one variable so you can draw a fair conclusion. We learned the definition of matter. Matter is anything that takes up space and has mass.

In WEX (our writing time) we had an outdoor writing lesson about onomatopoeia. We listened to noises around us and we incorporated those noises into our writing. We learned how to revise our writing.

This week we started MAP testing. We had a assembly for Music For Youth. Classmates played their violins and cellos for us. We got homework passes for our first class reward. It was a great week!

Weekly Reflection: September 11

Reporters: Joey and Max   Photographer: Sky

We played Jeopardy to review for our Geography test.  Jeopardy is a game with fun things like what are cardinal points? Now all of us can get an A+ on our test!!!

This week in class...

We had our first two tests this week, one spelling and one geography. We studied a lot and hope we did well. We played Jeopardy to get ready for the geography test.  

In reading, we practiced using a KWL chart when we read a nonfiction book.  A KWL chart helps us stop and notice when we find a new fact in a book.  

In music, we are learning to do bucket drumming with our sticks. After two weeks of practice, we sound pretty awesome.   Mr. Whitaker, our music teacher, posted a video link of us on Twitter.  Check us out on Twitter @MrsCionisClass or @PESMusicMan.

Weekly Reflection: September 4

Reporters: Raegan and Nolan  Photographer: Emily

Here is our first VIP! Mrs. Cioni shared fun stuff about herself with the class.

Our first week...
This week we learned about geography stuff, like latitude an longitude. Latitude and longitude helps you find places on the Earth.

We have just started the Forty Book Challenge- to read 40 books in 40 weeks. Some students have already finished their first book. We also have started reading workshop. We have been doing good. We're quiet and smart.

We have gotten many compliments from many teachers like Mr. Dolniak, Mr. Whitaker, Ms. Gordon, Mrs. Melamed, and our very own awesome teacher, Mrs. Cioni! We will tell you about are class stars. We get stars if we are good. We get a special treat or prize if we get 50 stars. We have 35 stars so far in ONE WEEK! We can already feel our prize coming!

Weekly Reflection: May 8

Reporters: Alli and Grant   Photographer: Jake

PSI, Volcanoes, and SKUNK!

This week was awesome! We had so much cool stuff to do and had a lot of fun. This week we had PSI presentations. They were really cool because we all got to create something related to our projects like Rube Goldberg Machines, hovercrafts, cookbooks, 3-D printed models, and more.

We also got to present our Volcano projects. We could make a poster, a volcano that exploded, or one that didn't. 14 students chose to explode their volcanoes, while 2 made really cool 3-D models that didn't. 2 students made posters. It was really fun watching all of the eruptions, and seeing the posters and volcanoes!

This week we also had PARCC which had 1 reading test and 2 math tests. We were also introduced to a new game called SKUNK. It's where someone rolls dice and you can choose to keep the score and sit down, or risk it and stay standing. But if the person rolls a 1, you lose your points. The person with the most points at the end wins.

All in all, it was a great week!

Weekly Reflection: April 10

Reporters: Ryane and Olivia    Photographer: Tina

These are the river tables we built.

Rivers Shape the Land!

This week we made river tables. We learned about how water changes Earth's surface in science.  On Thursday we saw how water shapes the river. On Friday we learned how water reacts to different factors.

One of the factors is rocks and debris. We put the rocks in the middle of the river table. Then we saw how the water went around the rocks then combined back into one river. We also put a dam in the middle of one river table. The water squeezed through the crack of the dam.

Another factor was a slope. Sloping the river made the water go faster. The water went straight to the mouth of the river. It didn't have to go around or through anything.
 
The last factor was the source or adding more water. The water had more force so you could see a clear path of the river. There was a big path rather than a small one.

Building the river tables was really fun and messy.

Weekly Reflection: March 13

Reporters: Grace and Max   Photographer: Aidan

Poetry Wall in the making

Pi Day 2105
On Friday we celebrated Pi day at school. Tomorrow 3-14-15 at 9:26.53 is when it is Pi day starts. Pi is  the circumference divided by the diameter of a circle. Pi is 3.141592653... which means it is an irrational number which is a number that keeps going and going and never stops.

Poetry Unit
We are learning to write different types of poems in class. We are also reading a poem called "Casey at the Bat". We talked about the setting,  the mood, and the theme (or lesson) of the poem. We were assigned a stanza of the poem to summarize and recite. We were set up in partners to recite it on Explain Everything. Some stanzas we did as a class. Listen to it here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pun5ncnciH0&feature=youtu.be

Weekly Reflection: March 6

Reporters: Grant and Alli   Photographer: Jake

PERSONALIZED LEARNING PRESENTATIONS:

This week we did a lot of awesome things. One thing we did this week was PSI (Personalized Learning) presentations. We got to present are own projects and watch others share their projects. We got to present on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. Some topics that a lot of people did were:

• Sicknesses
• Video Games
• Animals
• Soccer
• NASA
• Technology
• Sports

There were a lot of cool presentations. Not only did we just research something, we got to do something with our research! We could make a special presentation, or make YouTube videos, make a poster, and a lot of other stuff!

PARCC TESTING

This week we also had 5 PARCC tests. On Monday and Tuesday, we had math units 1 and 2. On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday we took ELA tests. We read passages provided by the test and answered questions about them. At the end of each unit, we got to write a written response.

It was really fun writing the extended response because we write our own story. Even though the tests were hard, everyone had a great week.

Weekly Reflection: February 27

Reporter: Ryane and Olivia  Photographer: Jakub

Field Trip to the Art Institute of Chicago

One group got to create art like Jackson Pollock's masterpiece on their tour.

They got to throw pieces of string to create abstract art.

These are the strings that we got to walk through.

It felt like cold rain.

This is a picture of one of the Thorne Rooms.

This week the 4th graders went on a field trip to the Art Institute of Chicago. It was a lot of fun. We got to take a tour with a docent and explore with a group. During our tour we saw a piece of abstract art and a sculpture with dangling tubes that we got to walk through. During our free time some people saw the Thorne rooms and many enjoyed looking at the armor. Some people also went to the touch gallery where we got to touch the sculptures and the plaques were braille. At the end of our free time one group went to the puppet room. They got to play with puppets and put on a show.

Explorers of the New World

 A few weeks ago we started researching explorers of the New World.

We started sorting and glueing our facts.

This is a picture of someone typing their research paper.

At the start of February, we all started researching a specific explorer of the New World. After  researching and organizing our facts, we began to type our paper. We learned a lot about our explorer and are now excited to create a website about our explorer. We are excited to share our knowledge on our websites.

Weekly Reflection: February 6

Reporters: Amanda and Keira

This week we learned about Jackie Robinson. We did a reader's theater where we read about  Jackie Robinson entering the Major Leagues as though we were the real people. He, at first, didn't think he belonged in the Major Leagues. But when they played the Star Spangled Banner at the World Series, he finally felt like her belonged, like the song was playing for him this time.

This month is black history month. We watched a video on some of the famous black people we celebrate like Harriet Tubman and Fredrick Douglas and how they helped more then 1,000 people escape their owners in the Underground Railway. We learned about Martin Luther King Jr and the marches he lead and the speeches he made. We learned that Jackie Robinson made a speech. f
Rosa Parks would not give her seat to a white person so she was arrested. Barack Obama was the first African American to become the President of America.

We saw a play called Ben and Me. It was about a mouse named Amos and Ben Franklin, and how Amos helped Ben with his experiments with electricity. First Amos went out to find food for his family. Next, he went into a house and met Ben Franklin. Then they started singing about how the pen was more mighty than the sword. They made a contract that stated they would do something for someone in exchange for something else. Then Amos gets tricked into helping Ben with an experiment. The experiment was that Ben was testing to see if lighnting was a form of electricity. They made a contract that ended war. The end.

Weekly Reflection: January 16

Reporters: Kaitlyn and Sophie    Photographer: Reese

Guest Speaker: Mr. Spaid

In school field trip with Mr.Spaid, an electrician

Mr. Spaid came to teach 4th grade about electricity and his job as an electrician, as well as electrical safety. We learned that there is AC(alternating current) and DC(direct current). He showed us how to light a lightbulb with different colored wires-blue, red, green, and white. He showed us devices that could tell us the amps in a lightbulb. He brought in all sorts of wires and plugs to show us. He also showed us how a light switch works. There are also 2 wires in 1 cord. 1 wire sends the electrons and 1 wire brings them back. We learned a lot from Mr. Spaid.

New Lesson in History

In school we are starting a new lesson in history about explorers. Mrs. Cioni put a ''boat" on the floor. There were separate parts on the ship. Each part had a picture of either a technology that they used back in the olden days that helped them travel in the right direction, a New World product which was something they found in the New World like tobacco, or a motive which is a reason they wanted to go to the New World like to spread their faith and to claim the land. 

Weekly Reflection: January 9

Reporter: Olivia    Photographer: Tina

Making a motor run in science.

  Coming back to school was hard. We all wanted to stay under the covers even the teachers. We were all "asleep," and we all wished it was still break. This was the shortest week of the school year (so far) because we had 2 snow days. This was a fun week for us because we had snow days & got to play with science.

  This week we got back into science. We are learning about electricity. We've been having fun making circuits and lighting light bulbs. But, we are still learning stuff about electricity. Some circuits power  other things like the energy of movement or sound.