Wemberly's Ice-cream Star by Megan

I made an iMovie about the book Wemberly's Ice-cream Star. The reason I chose this book was because I liked the cover.

When I was reading the book, I had to think about not going too fast or too slow. I practiced reading the book until I thought it was perfect. I liked recording the book in iMovie. I hope you enjoy it.

Nonfiction Celebration

For the past month, we've been reading nonfiction texts and learning how to move from thinking about topics to thinking about main ideas that are supported with facts and details (i.e. evidence) from the text.

To celebrate this hard work, students chose a page of notes from their reader's notebook that they were particularly proud of and created a visual that taught an idea from the text with evidence. They added color to show meaning and may have included visuals. The work on each student's poster came from their notes on their nonfiction reading.

Before our celebration, students practiced teaching their reading partner and gave and received feedback to improve their presentation. They presented their posters to a group of three classmates. We ended the celebration with a gallery walk to share our notes and posters with the whole class.

The video below includes photos of the posters created as well as a few moments of the teaching happening.

Artists by Jack M.

This month during Art, we are learning about Van Gogh. Van Gogh sold a few paintings, but after he died, some of his paintings became priceless! Van Gogh lived 37 years and started painting when he was 27 that means he only painted for 10 years. In 1888, Vincent left Paris and went to a French town called Arles. The reason we are learning about Van Gogh is because every month we learn about a new artist so we can learn about different styles of art.

Realistic Fiction Pieces Around Fair Haven

We're excited to share that our realistic fiction pieces have been hung around town! Thanks to Caroline, Lucas, James, 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 writer read golden lines from his or her piece. Hearing the lines read aloud by the writer really brings the writing to life!

Golden lines were chosen, practiced, and recorded by the writer. The lines reflect the writing goals of each writer during this unit. Some of our goals were to use a variety of details (e.g. action, thought, dialogue, setting...) and to include sensory details and figurative language. (Some writers had the goal of add paragraphs more consistently throughout their piece, which won't be reflected in their recording.)

Here's a breakdown of whose pieces are where:

Tavolo - Jack S., Maia, Marcus, Harry, Patrick, Sophie, Jack M., Sal, Maddie, Megan, Harris, Lily, Lucas, Christina M., Maisy, and Braiden

Fairwinds - Quinn, Christina U., and James

River Road Books - Ellie, Caroline, Connor, and Cameron

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

Thankful List Poem

During the month of November, writers in room 101 kept a list of things we're thankful for, adding to the list gradually throughout the month.

Today, we read some list poems from the poetry anthology Falling Down the Page and we each chose items from our personal thankful lists that we wanted to include in our class list poem.

Our published list poem hanging outside room 101.

Room 101 has so much to be grateful for.

Friction Vehicles by Quinn

Vehicles move because they have force, a push, but if you have too much of it, it will never stop.

That's why you need friction. Friction is important because it makes everything stop or slow down. It is like your rug or couch. It is very rough.

The propeller activity was very simple. You just took a vehicle, made sure that it can move, and then add a propeller, wrap it to store energy, and let it go. But sometimes it could get a little hard because you have to work with your group to find a way it can store energy and let it go. Energy is a very interesting topic.

The video above includes images taken by Quinn during an activity involving building and testing propeller-driven vehicles. Quinn also compiled the images to make the video.

Liberty Science Center by James

Field Trip

On October 11, 2013, Knollwood's 4th grade took a field trip to the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City. The whole grade needed 3 buses. Wow! The buses had TVs and a bathroom.

Hurricane Generator

My favorite thing at the Liberty Science Center was the hurricane generator. A hurricane generator is where you're in a small room and a machine generates 100 mile an hour winds and shoots water at you. You have to wear a rain jacket and goggles for safety reasons.

 In the hurricane generator.

Science

Everybody learned something new at the Liberty Science Center. The most interesting thing I learned was that a windshield can block 100 mile an hour winds. Now tall buildings have window shields to help people inside.