Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Social Studies Final Project - we need your help!

Fourth Grade Families – we need your help!
            In social studies we have been learning about the geography of Washington and we are preparing for our final geography celebration.  We need your help providing the following supplies by Wednesday, November 20th for our edible project:
·         Gel icing (any color)
·         Miniature marshmallows
·         Licorice (ideally pull-and-peel varieties)
·         Bugles crackers (preferably plain)
·         Small fruit snacks
·         Small pretzel sticks
·         Other various small candies (nut-free and no M&Ms)

Keep in mind that there will need to be enough for 19 students so please send anything that you can with your student so that I can collect it ASAP.  Thank you so much for your help with our special edible celebration!  J

Help Support Our Classroom!

DonorsChoose.org is an amazing website dedicated to getting teachers the materials they need to help students learn.  Our classroom currently has a project posted on this website (you can access our page if you click HERE).  Our classroom needs nonfiction books and materials to help make social studies more engaging.  By supporting our classroom with these books, you're helping students get a better and much more fun social studies education that will stick with them for years to come.

The project is currently eligible for a special dollar matching event from the National Education Association (NEA) which means our project is half funded through them!  Right now we would get a HUGE set of books for only $152 more dollars.  If you're able to help our classroom at all with a monetary donation, this is a PERFECT way to support us!

Thank you in advance for your generous support!

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Guest Blogger: Katie

Our guest blogger today is Katie and she has a story that is ready to dazzle us all!

My blog story                                                                                                                                    By: Katie
                I am going to tell you a story from the book: Wayside School is falling down by Louis Sachar. Ok so we start at wayside school. A school that was accidently built sideways. The builder said he was very sorry. The story that I am going to tell you is called Maurica. Maurica was a pretty girl who could beat up any boy in the class. Everyone liked Maurica. But Maurica didn’t like anybody. She only liked Ice Cream. But one day a terrible tragedy happened. Maurica got tired of Ice Cream. Her teacher was sad to see Maurica sad. What’s wrong Maurica? Asked Mrs. Jewels. There just aren’t any good flavors of Ice Cream anymore. I got tired of Vanilla, Chocolate, Maraschino cherry, Caramel and everything else. For the rest of the day Maurica was sad. So Mrs. Jewels went home and worked hard all night on a new flavor of Ice Cream. The next day she brought in Maurica flavored Ice Cream. When Maurica took a lick, she said, this Ice Cream has no flavor!! Mrs. Jewels was heartbroken. Hey let me try it! * SLURP * you’re crazy Maurica! This is the best Ice Cream I’ve ever tasted!!! Said Todd. My turn said Jason. MMMMMMMMMM…… That is SO good! Everyone loved Maurica flavored Ice Cream except for Maurica. She thought it had no taste. Mrs. Jewels slapped herself in the face. Of course you don’t think it has any taste!! It’s the same thing you taste when you do not taste anything at all! So the next night, Mrs. Jewels brought in Todd flavored Ice Cream. The whole class loved it. Except Todd. He thought it had no taste. Now everyone liked Maurica. But Maurica only liked Todd. The following week, Mrs. Jewels had brought in a flavor for everyone so Maurica liked everyone and everyone liked Maurica. The only bad flavor was Kathy flavored Ice Cream. It tasted like old Balonie.

Write KATIE on Monday's planner to get double bonus points! 

Friday, November 15, 2013

Shrinking Bigfoot Workshop

The wonderful people from Seattle City Light came and did a follow-up to our assembly in our classroom for all of the 4th graders.  

We started off by explaining and reviewing some renewable types of resources that we have in the Pacific Northwest, namely Seattle, like heat and wind energy.

And we talked about how the excessive traffic we have in Seattle is putting out a lot of extra carbon dioxide into the atmosphere that causes the Earth to heat up.


Then we played a game that was like memory with a twist!  Students had to choose two cards that matched.  The cards showed different ways that the students can make choices around their house that are beneficial to our environment.  For example, in our homes we can change to LED or high efficiency light bulbs instead of the standard ones.  What other choices can you make?


Once students found a match, they had to choose a card from the gameboard.  Then, their group had to brainstorm how this was helping the environment or other ways they can improve their choices.





We had a LOT of fun and learned a LOT about energy and how we can make better choices for our environment to make sure that we are leaving it better than we found it.  Draw a footprint on MONDAY on your planner for bonus points.  :)

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Plant Life Still Art

Mrs Loubet was back again to teach us about drawing plants.  We had to be REALLY careful to draw our plants exactly like they looked in person so that our drawings looked accurate.  We had real Pacific Northwest plants to use as inspiration for our drawings.  Here is how they turned out!
















Our final product will be traced with pen and colored with oil pastels to make our still life really pop!  Write ART on your planner tonight for bonus points!

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Shrinking Bigfoot Assembly and Reminders!

The wonderful people from Seattle City Light came to North Beach to help us learn about conservation of resources and how we can choose renewable resources on a daily basis.  The assembly was FANTASTIC and pretty funny!  Here are some pictures from the show:





Our own Lily P. got to help the squirrel friends explain what more carbon does to our environment!





Lily B. got to demonstrate what hydropower is - do you know?



And Harrison was wind power, a fantastic renewable resource!

He's grooving with the presenters!








Check out this video of our squirrel friend during the assembly!

Write SBF on your planner for tonight to get bonus points!

Reminder: book orders are due next Thursday by the end of the day so hopefully they will be here by the time we get back from conference week.  Also, tomorrow is our field trip to Carkeek Park - remember to dress for the weather, it will be cold and maybe rainy but we will be outside either way!  :)

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Halloween Party

Even though the Halloween party was almost a month ago (sheesh, where has time gone!?) I just got the last set of pictures sent from parents so I wanted to show you how great it was!

Han, Thom, and Harrison were all dressed up and focused on our Halloween maze!

Chris was our resident lumberjack!

Becky was a cowgirl

Imani was quite a great Michael Jackson look-alike!

Angela was a fly caught in a spider web - EEK!

Ango was Selena Gomez!

Zombies, soldiers, tigers, and queens filled the room!

Some of us even sprouted facial hair over recess!


What a cute set of skeleton snacks!

Spooky Halloween ladies!

I loved that different costumes brought very different reactions - ferocious and dead.  :)




Sam was a killer clown - pretty creepy if you ask me!


Students "mummified" each other with toilet paper during our party.  








The party was a BLAST and one of the most relaxed parties I have ever had - it was great!!  Write "boo" on your planner for tonight for bonus points!