Time Has Flown By!

Wow, has the school year started to fly! We are almost moving into November and I have yet to post a single picture from this school year. Here is a little sneaky peak at some of the fun we've had so far this year.

This Week's Spelling Test

This week we got a little crazy with our spelling test. What better way to show what you know than by using shaving cream! The kiddos had a blast, and I remembered why I only do this activity once a year :) To check out more photos, see "Fourth Graden Happenings."

St. Augustine, E-Books, Field Day, Musicals.... Oh My!

Well, time has one again escaped me. As the year swiftly comes to a close, there are so many memories to fill you in on! Towards the end of April, we headed over to the old city of St. Augustine. We spent the day touring the historic city and getting a first hand look at all of the places we had studied.

Sure, we're already published authors, but we wanted to stretch the limit even further. So, naturally, we decided to write an E-book. This book (which will soon be available on a Kindle near you) will serve as a preparation guide for the upcoming third graders. We tackled many things you need to know about fourth grade such as what to expect in class, things to help make your year successful, and even how to take care of our dearly beloved Oreo. More details will follow.

Last Friday, we hit the field and celebrated in a wonderful, fun-filled field day. The overall consensus was that "tip the pin" was the class favorite for all of the kiddos. My favorite part of the day, well, that would have to be when the Cupid Shuffle played over the loud speakers. All of the students stopped their relay races to bust-a-move. Not to worry... yours truly captured it on film. If you ever need a giggle, you know where to turn :)

Tonight, we kicked off the last month of school with Rock-N-Roll Forever, our fourth grade musical. We heard from Elvis, the Beach Boys, Little Richard, and even the Marvelettes. The kids looked the part and did a phenomenal job.

To see some of these highlights, be sure to look under the photos section of the blog!

Field Trip to Mission San Luis

YAT 5K

This was a big weekend! Mr. Howard and I were able to run along two of our kiddos in the Young Actor's Theater  Break-a-Leg 5K. Mr. Howard and Alex kept a look out in the front while Keirsten and I brought up the rear. We all reached the finish line in one piece!

The "Goggles of Criticism"

It's always hard to get the students to reread their stories and revise them. One day we came up the metaphor of putting on the "Goggles of Criticism." When we wear these imaginary goggles of criticism, we are able to edit our work as if we have never seen it. Well, thanks to the handy-dandy dollar store, these goggles have come to life! I think the kids seem to like using them too!

WBLS Morning News

Well, our first cast and crew of WBLS has come to an end. Here is a news team photo of the crew. Excellent job kiddos!

The Epic Flop

After many hours of planning, no one could have guessed the great down fall to our QR Codes... it wasn't that the wrong addresses were linked, or that the QR Codes were laminated... it was that ever-protective school firewall! As the students anxiously scanned their first code, we realized we had a problem. While the WiFi would not allow for the students to access the test questions, the students who had access to a 4G network were able to get to work. We were very fortunate that in each class two students had devices with 4G. We quickly broke into two groups and got cracking! Lesson learned... test out the firewall before trying to reinvent the wheel!

BYOD Week

This week we had a great time incorporating back-channeling with our reading. During reading class, the kids questioned/inferenced/summarized/etc our story through back-channeling. Essentially, the kids typed their thoughts as they populated on the board behind us. Here are the transcripts from the week. This was a wonderful activity because it allowed the students to take charge of their learning. They each became the teacher and worked together to share with one another. Here are the transcripts from both classes. The further you scroll down, the more everything seemed to "click."
 
Howard's Class:    http://todaysmeet.com/wagon/transcript  
Adams' Class:      http://todaysmeet.com/wagon2/transcript  
  
 

BYOT Day

 Last week we had the kids BYOT (bring your own technology) for a reading lesson. During this day of fun, the kids worked with a partner to use their device to attempt to locate different text features of reading. As part of their scavenger hunt, the kids had to take pictures of the listed items and record the picture numbers with the corresponding item. The hunt was on! The kiddos dove into the books trying to identify these "hidden" features. All in all, the students had a blast and really enjoyed learning reading outside of a textbook. Click the "Fourth Grade Happenings" tab to see more photos. 

Text feature scavenger hunt... look kids, a picture with a caption!

Oreo's New Friend

Oreo was very lucky to be able to spend his Christmas with Miss Keirsten! Little did Oreo know that there would be another bunny present :)

Norbert the Elf Strikes Again... Dun Dun Dun

Norbert has been at it again! At first he was a bad little elf, but over time he must have picked up on some of our class rules and learned how to be sweet. Apparently he isn't that great of a speller and sometimes spells his words backwards. We hoped that over time he might learn a few things from writing class :)

Day 2: Norbert was found sitting on top of the board with a note reading "pull" hanging from the old screen. When we pulled it down, we found a secret note written in Christmas colors. In addition to leaving a note, he also decided to TP the lights in the classroom!

Norbert looking so innocent.

Day 3: Norbert made himself comfy and read a few AR books.

Day 4: Norbert the Elf just wanted to "hang" with us.

Day 5: Norbert is keeping tabs on the time.

Day 6: Norbert took over Oreo's cage... maybe he was hoping to go home with someone over the break.

Day 7: Norbert set up a command center with different Santa tracking websites.