Personal Essays Hanging Around Town

Our second published pieces of the year - our personal essays - are now up around town! You'll find a breakdown of whose pieces are hanging where below.

Each essayist chose a goal for the unit from three of the big focuses we had as a class: writing a strong introduction, organizing in paragraphs, or elaborating our essays by including anecdotes and examples to support our ideas. While each essayist had one goal in particular, you'll find evidence of all three goals in each of the pieces you read.

We used mentor texts (published essays) to help us write strong introductions and conclusions, sometimes mimicking the phrasing or craft moves (e.g. making an interesting comparison or including our experiences with our topic) that the mentor texts used in their introductions and conclusions. Using mentor texts in this way helps push us to try new things as writers. We also studied anecdotes in mentor texts and noticed that many of the craft moves we learned in personal narrative (like, dialogue, inner thought, and tiny actions) can still be used in our essays to support our thesis idea.

At the end of our unit, we wrote six word essays, inspired by Ernest Hemingway's six word memoir. This required us to synthesize our essay; after several weeks of elaborating, we had to get down to the heart of what we were trying to say across many paragraphs, and sometimes pages, and say it in just six words. This work is more challenging than it first appears! You can find our six word essays hanging outside of Room 101.

Here's where you can find our pieces (by the end of the year, we'll all have been shared in each place, but we will have some repeats of where you'll find our piece along the way):

Tavolo - Will, Caroline, Evan, Lauren, Scarlett, RJ, Ryan, Eva, Jackson, Matt, Antonio, and Emma

River Road Books - Vivian, Alex, Patrick, and Ben

Fairwinds - Georgia, Megan, Dylan, Annie, and Serafina

What We Do in Gym Class by Jackson

One thing that we do in gym is play games like capture the flag, poison ball, or knock out. Another thing we do in gym is play sports like basketball, or soccer. We also have strength tests like when we do pull-ups and how many seconds you stay on is your score.

One thing we do in gym is play games like capture the flag, poison ball, or knock out. In case you don't know how to play capture the flag at Knollwood, you put some footballs in the ball boxes on each sides and you make teams. Each team has to get to each ball box before getting tagged in order to get a point and then run back without being tagged again. There are jails, too, that if you tag someone, that's where they go. The people from the team that has the person in jail, one of them has to run without being tagged, take one of the people from jail, and you both have to raise your hand and walk back so the people on the other team know that they can't tag you.

Another thing that we do in gym is play poison ball. Poison ball is pretty much like dodge ball but whoever's side has the ball on it last loses.

We also have strength tests like when we pick ourselves up on the pull-up bar and how many seconds you stay on is your score. Another strength test we have is the pacer test when there is a voice telling you what to do when it dings and you take it to the next line of the gym. You keep doing that until you get tired or don't make it to the side before it dings and how many times you get to the other side is your score.

click here to see what our gym teacher says about gym

The Fourth Grade Field Trip by Matt

October 24, 2014 was the big fourth grade field trip. We went to the Liberty Science Center. I woke up at 6:30 and I was very tired. We went to school at 7:30 and the buses left soon after. Everyone was excited to go. I got to sit next to my best friend Evan. The trip took 1 hour and 15 minutes, it felt like 45 minutes.

When we arrived we got into our groups and started wandering around.  We did the Touch Tunnel, we learned about buildings and lakes and fish.  We watched an I-Max movie.  We learned about the Hudson River and we learned about skyscrapers.

My favorite thing was the I-Max movie, it was about the world we can’t see, for example heat waves, microscopic bugs and energy waves. It was very interesting.

This was probably one of the best field trips I've ever experienced.  I think everyone should visit the Liberty Science Center because it is really fun.

The photos below were chosen by Matt from the Liberty Science Center website (http://lsc.org/).

Owen's Marshmallow Chick by RJ

This is a book that I recorded using iMovie. iMovie is an app that lets you take pictures then record yourself and stretch the picture to match the words. We sent the video to a kindergarten class so they can read along.

Writing Celebration Time by Evan

We do writing celebrations when we are finished with a unit.  At writing celebrations, we first do a writing reflection for ourselves. Then we do a museum walk around the classroom to look at other people's writing. There is usually a stack of post-its in the middle of each table so we can take one and write a compliment about the students' writing.

At times, we search for and read our writing partner's published piece and we take a post-it from the center of the table and write what we think is their golden line.  A golden line is a line that you think is one of the best lines in their story.  We may also sing the song Celebration Time because it is time to celebrate our writing achievements.

My favorite part of the celebration of our writing pieces is when we write down our partner's golden line because it shows that we are enjoying each other's work. It also shows that my story was interesting to them.

Overall, I enjoy writing celebration time and I am very eager to finish the next unit so we can celebrate all of our good work again!

 This is a comment about your writing.

 This is a reflection that you do for your writing.

This is what a writing piece looks like.

The photos above were taken and captioned by Evan.

Pyramid Solitaire by Patrick

I play Pyramid Solitaire when I finished all my math. In the game you try to find two cards that equal ten. The game can sometimes be quick. Usually the game will take long. In this video I will show you how to play Pyramid Solitaire. Hopefully you will learn how to play the game after this video. After watching the video you may see that Pyramid Solitaire is not easy. It is a good way to entertain yourself if you are alone.

 

Polygon Pair Up by Ryan

In room 101 we play many math games. My personal favorite is Polygon Pair Up. Polygon Pair Up is a geometrical game that has to do with shapes and their properties. I think it is fun because it gives a good brain test or challenge. It also is also almost a social activity because you are playing with one of your classmates. The point of Polygon Pair Up is to get as many matches as you can.There are yellow cards and blue cards.On the yellow cards are shapes and on the blue, properties. You will have to find out the rest and how to play in the video below!!

 

Reading Celebration by Serafina

Our teacher, Mrs.Mills, decided we do a Reading Celebration by acting out a part we read in our partner reading book. When Mrs. Mills said acting I thought of all the funny things in my book. Everybody loves reading in our class. Some of the things people acted out were funny but everybody thought the coolest and funniest one was Dylan’s. It was fun acting out parts in our books and most partners had a lesson to learn from the part they acted, like to never give up. Everybody's story was different and had all different lessons. Also, for every partnership that finished acting, everybody else gave them a nice round of applause. Some of the partnerships didn’t just act like people, as in Stone Fox they were dogs. Acting out parts in our books was fun, scary, and exciting and also fun to watch. Our class did very well on our acting celebration.

Knollwood Voice Magazine by Georgia

Kids are starting on the first Knollwood Voice magazine. Kids are joining faster than you can count! It is a lot of fun and an amazing way to spend your recess.  You could go as an artist for the cover or inside of the magazine. You could also write stories or be an editor. Almost anything you can think of they have it! And it's kind of like free time in kindergarten. If you have an idea, go for it! I think Knollwood Voice is amazing and it just started.You should join Knollwood Voice!

Last year's Knollwood Voice

Learning about Rising Stars of Inferences Post-Its by Lauren

When you're reading your just right book, you should put post-its in your book to have deeper thinking about your reading. Post-its are meant for you to stop and jot down what you are thinking. When you have longer thoughts, you write thoughts down in your reader's notebook. For example, you can do an EEG or you can stop and sketch or write long off of a idea. But when you do post-its those are for you to stop and jot your ideas, you should have evidence from the text or evidence from the book. 

If your goal is to write a 1 star post, it states an idea about the characters or it says an idea. In the book Sheila Rae's Peppermint Stick, for example, I could write “Sheila is rude” or “Sheila loves her peppermint stick”. If you’re ever stuck on how to start, you can use "I think…" or "________ is feeling…" or "______ is the kind of person who...."

If your goal is to write a 2 star post-it in your book, you should support the idea with evidence of words and actions like “Sheila got a chair and then she got 4 huge big books and then climbed up on it and stood on her tippy toes." To get started you can use "I think this because...and a part of the text that shows this is..."" and also… and…."

If your goal  is a 3 star post-it you should support ideas with more than one piece of evidence of words and actions. For example if my goal was to write a 3 star post-it, I would write “Sheila is rude because she keeps teasing her little sister. For example, she said "I will give you some if you can guess how many stripes it has," and she would not give her the peppermint stick." 

If my goal is to  write a 4 star post-it, I would write ideas about characters relationships using specific evidence in the text. For example I could write “Sheila Rae LOVES her peppermint stick. I know this because in the text it says Sheila Rae had a peppermint stick it was long shiny and had stripes she loved it and she did not want give some to her sister. I know this because she made obstacles for her sister to have some. Sheila Rae loves her peppermint stick because in the text it says, "Sheila Rae held the peppermint stick close to her body."" To get started you can use: "__________ and _________ are similar/different because...also..." or "__________ is ibn the story because.../____________ is in the story to show..."

 Rising Stars of Inference Poster

 An example of writing about our reading

Reader's notebook where you can sort your post-its and do other writing about your reading

(The photos above were taken and captioned by Lauren for her blog post.)

first published pieces are up around town!

Our first published pieces have been hung around town! You can find our published personal narratives at Tavolo, Fairwinds, and River Road Books. We're so lucky to have places in town that value our writing and allow us to hang it to share with others!

Personal narratives are true stories from our lives. In this unit, we worked hard to write in the moment, rather than a summary, using details like tiny actions, dialogue, setting, and inner thought. We set goals for our writing at the beginning of the unit, choosing one of the three goals: writing a strong lead, using a storytelling voice, or elaborating (stretching out) the heart of our story. Comparing the personal narrative on demand that we wrote on the first day of school with our published piece and on demand at the end of the unit, one month later, showed so much growth for us already as writers!

Here's a break down of whose pieces are where:

Tavolo - Emma, Antonio, Vivian, Jackson, Georgia, Annie, Matt, Megan, Ben, Alex, Dylan, and Patrick
Fairwinds - Evan, Eva, Caroline, Serafina, and RJ
River Road Books* - Ryan, Scarlett, Will, and Lauren

*pieces at River Road Books will be up by the end of next week. They're doing some renovations on Monday and thought it would be best for us to wait to hang them so that our pieces aren't damaged.

We hope you're able to visit the place hosting your piece, but also make it to the other places to read our classmates' pieces.

Mining Songs by Caroline

There have been many things going on during social studies. We have lately been doing a lot of fun projects. I am going to tell you about one of them. It's called mining songs.

So first, we picked a tune to go along with our song. For example, my group picked Fancy. Next, Mrs. Mills (our teacher) gave us a text all about the miners and their lives and our group read the text together. After that, the groups made up a song that had words that matched what the text said so the song told about the miners and their life. Finally, we rehearsed our songs until they felt comfortable. The last step was to add a little actions to the song and show them to the class.

 

Precepts by Sal

Precepts are important because it's like a motto. It's a ground rule. It's something you live by.

They're also important because they tell you what to do. Not in a bossy way like your hockey coach, but a rule to follow. And I basically just said the same thing twice, didn't I?

And that's why precepts are important. Stay classy Jersey Shore.

The video below is of our class precepts.

  The video above includes posters of student-written precepts being read aloud by the student author. The class precepts were inspired by one of our favorite books this year, Wonder by RJ Palaccio. We've also just finished reading the companion to Wonder, The Julian Chapter. We highly recommend it for children and adults. It's a story you'll never forget. 

Journalism Celebration by Lucas

As the Tuesday rolls on, the Journalism celebration will take air at 9:30. When the celebration starts, all of the students are going to share all of the checklists and strategies to help us over the journalism unit. The students will send out a letter to invite their parents to see if they would go. Now that everybody is coming, it will be a great party. After they show their videos, the students will give the parents a good-bye and the students will get back to work.

The videos below are from the celebration. We are telling about a certain piece. Mine was about a 3 year old kid that had a sick dribble and an awesome bike. He also could slide down the slides at exhilarating speeds.

Author Posters by Marcus

Our author posters are important because they teach us what techniques the authors like to use. For example, an author I was studying used a lot of comparison & surprising fact or statistics.

The authors also teach by using goals. Goals are goals for the techniques. For example, help the reader grasp an abstract the idea (or describe/ show the scale/ parts of something).

Here are some pics of the author posters that we did in reading in fourth grade:

The photos in the video above were taken by Marcus during our nonfiction author study celebration. Each book club made a chart to teach the class about techniques commonly used by the author they studied and the goals for each of the techniques. Marcus compiled the photos into the video.

Fourth Grade Recess By Megan

Every day at lunch and recess time everyone likes to go outside and play games. Most of the kids at recess like to play 4-square. 4-square is a very fun game to play. For some people, it gets tempting to play when you get out or when you get someone else out.

Sometimes when people get really competitive and throw ''cherry bombs," it usually goes over the fence - and goes under cars!

Ralph Fletcher Visits Knollwood School By James

Ralph Fletcher came to Fair Haven Knollwood School in NJ.  He taught everybody in the school his writing strategies and how useless things can turn into great ideas.  For example, when he was a kid he wrote down the things he was scared of and he could write a poem out of each one of them.

He mostly talked about his childhood and how he had 8 siblings.  One of them died in a car crash.

As Mr. Fletcher spoke kids wrote down what he said and what he did as a writer.  Most people are looking forward to using these strategies.

 kids writing down Ralph's strategies

 

Ralph showing the kids some of his books

Knollwood Times by Braiden

A few weeks ago we started a journalism unit. I can see most of our class loves this unit.

I like: 1. we publish every day, 2. it's fun, 3. it's just...GREAT!

We have learned the four 4'ws - who, what, where, and when. We have learned to eliminate the I-voice (the I-voice is speaking in 1st person) and use 3rd person, we have also learned so much more.

We all have written great stories and our first story Mrs. Mills used as an example was awesome.

This is the best unit and I think we are writing amazing stories.

Oh, and my signature way to end my stories...

Stay classy, New Jersey.

This is the journalist checklist. We try to use all the things on the checklist in our stories.

This chart shows phrases and words that we should try to use in the news stories we write.

These are some of the amazing news stories kids wrote and chose as their piece for the celebration.

Angle Tangle Game by Lily

The Angle Tangle math game is when you and your opponent draw a random angle without measuring and your opponent quickly measures your angle. Then you measure the angle to make sure your opponent's answer is right, if your opponent's answer is not correct tell your opponent the right answer and tell her/him how you got the correct answer. You & the opponent switch turns. The object of the game is to get one degree off or completely right, that counts as right.

Glee Club by Sophie

In Glee Club, we prepare songs. To do this, we get into groups (altos and sopranos). Mr. Mottern helps each section with their part of the song.

After we get used to our part, the altos and sopranos sing together.

After all of these ups and downs, singing with each other, we all feel like we all feel like a wonderful, big family.

In the concert, every girl (and one boy) sing their hearts out (not really that would hurt), feeling like on the stage, singing, is the place where we belong.

The links below will let you listen to the last concert we had.

http://audioboo.fm/boos/2189083-all-of-me

http://audioboo.fm/boos/2189085-simple-gifts

http://audioboo.fm/boos/2189100-wonderwall

http://audioboo.fm/boos/2189114-best-of-2012-mash-up

http://audioboo.fm/boos/2189147-when-you-believe

Sing the Song from Home on the Range by Quinn

While we visited the Midwest region in social studies, we learned about cowboys. We did the song to show how it was back in the cowboy days. We did it to the tune of Home on the Range. The cowboys back in the day herded cows. In the song we included what the cowboys see, hear, smell, and feel. It was a lot of fun!(To me)!

The videos below were taken by Quinn during some of the class performances of their songs about being a cowboy to the tune of "Home on the Range."

 

Book Fair by Jack M.

In the Knollwood library, there was a Book Fair from March 31st to April 4th. There was a family even on Tuesday night. People visited the Art Show, then they walked to the Book Fair. The library was full of families.

Did you know that the Book Fair is a fundraiser? Our school gets to keep some of the money from the Book Fair. Did you also know that you could get books for your teachers?

The Book Fair at Knollwood didn't have as many books as the one at Sickles, but there were plenty of good ones. One of the books I chose was Hunted, about four kids with these magic animals. Some books were so popular that they sold out, like World's Worst Monsters and Villains, and Jackpot. The Book Fair was a great event, if you didn't make it, you can come next year.

The photos in the video below were taken by Jack at the Book Fair.

Room 101's Invention Convention by Maia

This blog post is about room 101's Invention Convention. It's where all the kids in our class think of a real life problem. Then, they have to make an invention to solve that problem. It's really fun and cool to make your own invention because it solves your own problem and, it's just fun to make!

Your invention could not only help you, but it can help other people who have the same problem as you! Most of all, it's awesome to display your invention for the parents! Maybe, you could make your own invention too!

Invention Convention by Christina

Invention Convention is filled with fun and science. Invention Convention is when everyone's family comes in to see your invention. The kids have made things that they can use if they have a problem and maybe other people have the same problem. The kids have to make a speech to explain their invention.

Published Fantasy Pieces Around Fair Haven

Room 101's published fantasy pieces are hanging around town! Thanks to Jack M., Caroline, Harris, and their families for helping to hang these pieces! As always, we're so appreciative of Fair Haven businesses that are supportive of our writing work.

When you check out our fantasy pieces, be sure to scan the QR code hanging in front of each piece to hear the writer read aloud his or her "about the author." You may also want to take our pieces out (they're our most elaborated pieces so far this year) so that you can read the entire story, including the character cards or setting maps we included at the back of our pieces (most of our fantasy books had these, and we wanted to include them, too!).

Here's where you can find our pieces:

Tavolo - Ellie, Connor, Cameron, Jack S., Maia, Marcus, Megan, Harris, Lily, Lucas, Christina, Maisy, Braiden, Quinn, and James

Fairwinds - Harry, Patrick, and Caroline

River Road Books - Sophie, Jack M., Sal, and Maddie

Vocab Raps by Jack S.

Once every two Fridays, we have Vocab Raps. We get lanyards that have vocab words like grit and pessimistic. So at Lit Skills, we do raps (or songs) that have our vocab words in it and at the end, we perform them in front of the class. Hope you enjoy the videos!

The videos below include some of the vocab raps performed by our class. The first video includes footage shot by Jack S.

Book Fair by Maisy

Are you looking for a book? Have an extra 10 bucks to spare? Looking for a book and don't know where to find it? The Book Fair is the place. It's where you can find bestsellers. You can even buy books for your teachers.

The video above includes photos taken by Maisy at the Book Fair. 

Vocabulary Work

Every other week or so, we've introduced 3-5 new vocabulary words to the class. These words have been tied to our class work somehow; they may have appeared in a read aloud, been used to describe traits as learners that we're working to adopt, or are more sophisticated words to use in our writing and speaking.

When introducing new vocabulary words, we teach the definition, synonyms, and antonyms words explicitly and the students copy them in their vocabulary notebooks along with a sentence and picture for each word. Additionally, we have physical actions that we do as we say each word that help us recall the meaning of the words. We post our vocabulary word cards (pictured below) around our room. They're color-coded to show what part of speech each word is and have the synonyms in the right-hand corners and antonyms in the left-hand corners.

We've recently begun wearing a vocabulary word on Friday. Each student is given a word on a lanyard as he or she arrives Friday morning, we greet each other with our vocabulary names, and then do our best to use the words throughout the day. Our goal is that we begin to use these words more automatically in our speaking and writing and that we recognize them in our reading. 

During Lit Skills, we've spent some time working on getting to know these words more thoroughly. We've written and performed vocabulary raps, taken turns leading the class in mimicking the motion to our word, and, most recently, created short skits that show the meaning of the words.

The videos below show our most recent work with the skits inspired by tingoed.com. We used the video for "chide" on Tingo Ed for inspiration (you can watch that video here: http://www.tingoed.com/vocab-videos---chide.html). The videos show our work towards growing more comfortable with the words.

Research Celebration! by Maddie

I like to research animals because you learn more about the animal you choose. I chose frogs.

I got to learn more about frogs, like that some frogs eat other frogs! Some frogs also eat other insects or rodents.

My classmates chose a topic and for a couple weeks, we gathered ideas, facts, and things we didn't know about that topic.

My video will show my classmates' projects. Everyone included one idea from their notebook and added facts using a paragraph or boxes and bullets.

The video above includes photos and video that Maddie took during our nonfiction research celebration, during which each student shared a slide they created in a class slideshow on Google Drive. Each classmate has access to our class slideshow, and so can share it with their families at home through their Google Drive account.

Jamestown Survival by Harris

So to play the game Jamestown Survival, you need a dice and some game chips. So there is a board with a lot of captions that say either good stuff or bad stuff. If you roll a 4, you move up 4. If the square says you either got sick, died, or you are fine. If you are sick, you are fine. If you die, you have to go back, and if you go around the whole board you WIN.

How to Play Beat the Calculator by Cameron

For Beat the Calculator, you get a sheet and pick two cards. There are three players: the Caller, the Brain, and the Calculator. 

The caller calls out a problem using the cards. The player with the calculator has to beat the Brain and the Brain has to beat the Calculator. Then, if the Brain or the Calculator gets the answer correct, they win. And for the Calculator, you can't use your brain, you have to use the calculator. And the Brain can't use the calculator.

Play it, it's fun!!!

Multiplication Baseball by Connor

Multiplication Baseball is fun and competitive. The competition when you get to bat and you try to get on base. It is also when you're pitching, to try to never get easy an multiplication fact. And when you get up to bat, you always want to get a lucky fact.

It is fun when you are trying to get on base. When you are with your friends it makes it more fun. In conclusion, Multiplication Baseball is fun.

In the video above, Connor and Lucas demonstrate an inning of Multiplication Baseball. 

Published Book Reviews

Room 101 has recently published book reviews on our class book review blog, Room 101's Must Reads. You can read our book reviews here: http://fourthgrade101bookreviews.blogspot.com.

We chose to review books that we have strong opinions about and knew well (i.e. in addition to having read all of the book we chose, we also had some writing about our reading in our reader's notebook that we used to begin to gather our ideas about the book). During this unit, we studied mentor texts (published book reviews), paying particular attention to the structure and language used in the book reviews. We learned that, in addition to the reviewer's general opinion, book reviews often include a partial summary, thoughts on the author's craft, quotes from the book, and a recommendation for the type of reader who will enjoy the book. 

Having just finished our Touch Typing class, we took the opportunity to type our published pieces for the first time this year. The class worked in the computer lab for one writing workshop period, typing in a document through their Google Drive accounts. Typing in Google Drive allowed students to finish publishing at home. 

We hope our reviews help you find your next book!

Published Personal Essays Around Fair Haven

We're excited to share that our personal essays have been hung around town! Thanks to Sal, Ellie, Maddie, and their families for helping to hang these pieces.

Each hanging piece also has a QR code in front of it. The QR codes are the black and white images that can be scanned with a smartphone (there are free apps to scan them). Once the QR code is scanned, you'll be sent to a link that will allow you to listen to the class read our six word essays.

Here's a breakdown of whose pieces are where:

Tavolo - Patrick, Harry, Sophie, Jack M., Sal, Megan, Harris, Lily, Lucas, Christina M., Maisy, Braiden, Quinn, Chrisina U., and James

Fairwinds - Ellie, Caroline, and Connor

River Road Books - Maddie, Jack S., Maia, and Marcus

We're so thankful to these Fair Haven businesses for allowing us the space to share our writing!

How to Do Traditional and Extended Multiplication by Caroline

Why traditional and extended multiplication are important

Traditional and extended multiplication are important because you need to do them at random times. So for example, when you're at a grocery store and maybe you need to multiply the prices. It would be weird just standing at the register and not knowing what traditional and extended multiplication are. So for example: 5 bananas in each bag and you're getting 30 bags, so: 30 * 5 = 150.

Another example is if you have a job, you also need to know it at random times. So for example, if you wanted to know how many workers there would be in 2 days and there were 15 workers each day, you would have to know 15 * 2 = 30.

Traditional and extended multiplication are important.

In the videos below, Caroline demonstrates how to use the traditional algorithm to multiply by one and two digit multipliers.

Hershey Mass Production

We're currently studying the Northeast region in social studies. One of our essential questions is, "Why did our nation's first factories start here?" We learned that the water and people in the Northeast region influenced factories being built here. Many factories were built near rivers and used the water to power their factories. In addition, the Northeast's population provided people power for the factories.

We "stopped" at the Hershey Factory to learn about mass production. Students worked in groups of three and specialized in one job: wrap cutter, candy placer, or candy wrapper. For three minutes, students worked in an assembly line to (re)wrap Hershey Kisses. Groups wrapped between 8 and 15 pieces of candy during this time.

After the activity, we thought a little about what it would be like to work in a factory, specializing in one job, for a 40 hour work week. Many students recognized it may not be as exciting to do the same job for eight hours a day as it was to do it for three minutes in class.

The video below includes some photos and video of our mass production.

Hershey Mass Production from kate mills on Vimeo.

Six Word Essays

We recently published our personal essays. As part of our publishing, we wrote six word essays, inspired by Ernest Hemingway's six word memoir. Though six words may not sound difficult to write, this work required writers to synthesize weeks of essay work.

Please enjoy the video of our class reading our six word essays.

Assemblies by Sal

Lately we've had some really cool assemblies. One was where someone told us about fire safety, and one was where this guy came in and did something really cool!! Basically, he came in and took four chairs from the audience and four people and put the chairs so they faced north, south, east, and west. The kids sat down in the chairs, then he took away the chairs!

One of them was where a policeman came in and told us about bike safety, which I guess was cool...

So, yeah. We've had a whole bunch of other ones, too! So I hope you liked this!

Room 101's Math Class by Braiden

Lately in math we have been learning how to multiply 2 digit multipliers and 1 digit multipliers. We have practiced doing them with the traditional algorithm.

We have done something called hot calls. What we do is Mrs. Mills or Mrs. Barnett write a rounded fact and everyone does it in their head. Then Mrs. Mills or Mrs. Barnett calls on anybody (you don't raise your hand). Then, the person answers it. Next, the class agrees or disagrees. Finally, we do the next problem. Hot calls are normally in the mini-lesson.

A mini-lesson is what we do every day in math after our math message. In the mini-lesson we learn about what we will practice. After that we do a sheet or math journal page to practice what we learned. And that is room 101's math!

 Doing the math message before the mini-lesson.

 Doing partner work in the mini-lesson.

Doing a sheet after the mini-lesson.

The photos above were taken and captioned by Braiden.