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.

Weekly Reflection: December 19

Reporter: Caden       Photographer: Brooke

 For our science experiment we had to figure out how to light a lightbulb with a battery and a wire!!!

The 5th grade show was a success!!!

   This week we got to see the 5th grade show. It was about celebrating holidays all around the world like Hanukkah and Christmas. For science we learned about Thomas Edison and how he created the lightbulb. We did an experiment about trying to make a bulb light up with a wire and a battery. It was very fun and very challenging. During Art class we watched the movie The Grinch  and drew a picture of the Grinch. It was very fun. Our V.I.P. this week was Caden and his book recommendation was Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. On Thursday we met our Reading buddies and we exchanged gifts. We also got a chance to read the book The Gift of Nothing.