The Big Trip by William

Fourth grade had their yearly field trip to the Liberty Science Center. We had a blast. There was all sorts of exhibits.

One of the most enjoyed exhibits was the Touch Tunnel. The Touch Tunnel is where you go in this black room and try to find your way out. The people on the outside can see you with these special cameras that are in the room. A tip is to keep your right hand on the right wall.

After lunch we went to this big dome-like room. We watched a movie called an IMAX movie. It was really cool, it was like 3D without the glasses. If you stood up you felt really dizzy! The movie was called "Amazing Caves."

If you want to learn more, go to www.lsc.org.

Independent Projects - Launched!

On Monday, Room 101 was abuzz with excitement over independent writing projects.

Students brainstormed possibilities for a chart of what writing can become and filled out proposals for their projects. Proposals required writers to name the topic and genre of their piece, plan their notebook work (pre-drafting work), choose mentor texts (published texts in the same genre as their project), and choose a tentative due date. Students spent writing workshop on Tuesday and Wednesday beginning to work on their independent projects.

The photo above shows the brainstorming the writers in Room 101 did about possible independent projects. (Click to see a larger, easier to read image:)

The work of independent projects is so valuable because students are able to explore an often new genre they are interested in and take themselves independently through the writing process. Some of the independent projects our writers are undertaking include: comics, plays, sports programs, picture books, fantasy stories, and interviews.

As we enter into this new world of balancing two writing pieces (independent projects and our class genre piece, currently realistic fiction), we will be learning that it's important that we do not rush through our realistic fiction work to get to our independent projects. Instead, we will use independent projects to help fill our writing time with writerly activities. One way students will show that they are balancing their writing work is through their plan box, which shows their own, individual, plan for writing workshop each day. Students may choose to work on independent projects as one of the three activities in their plan box.

In Room 101, the feeling is, indeed, that there is so much writing to be done.

Writing Celebration by Andrew

This week we had our first writing celebration. We were able to bring in our published stories. Some even had drawings in them! We left our stories on our desk and a piece of paper so that we can give compliments on what we read.

We also had a paper that we could put Golden Lines on. Golden Lines are when we pick out our favorite line and write it on the piece of paper. Our stories were Personal Narratives, true stories from our lives. Some were about sporting events, family events, and special events. This was a great day because we all got to read each of our friends' stories!

(Note from the teachers: The video above was complied by Andrew and shows our pieces being read during our celebration.)

What We Do at Art! by Aloka

At Art, we do so many fun and interesting things. We learn about 3D drawings, overlapping, cubism, and so much more interesting things. We also make skeletons out of paper, straw, and glue, we sketch whatever we want, we paint, color, trace people and SO MUCH MORE.

Art is great for expressing your imagination. What else would have made video games video games? Without art, there would be no video games! And I know a lot of people like video games very much.

(Note from the teachers: the video above contains photos that were taken or drawn and edited into a movie by Aloka. Caroline assisted with some of the sound effects and narration.)

411 on Science by Ellie

Room 101 has been up to some work in science. We have been working with K'NEX and making vehicles to study Motion and Design. So far, we have made a custom and a standard vehicle. We test standard and custom vehicles with washers, rubber bands, and just pushing it.

We used the washers to pull the string connected to the car by dropping it. We used the rubber band another time by harnessing the rubber band to the front bar and wrapping it around the rear rod to make it go. Also, we just pushed it.

That's what room 101 has been up to in science.

(Note from the teachers: the video above demonstrates how to use rubber band energy to make a vehicle move. This vehicle has been customized to hold a sail, as our upcoming investigations are focused on the effects of air resistance on a vehicle's motion.)