Merry Christmas!

Enjoy the holidays and have a wonderful Christmas break!

Christmas Brain Teaser #2

Dear Students,
Solve the puzzle by Tuesday and win a prize! :)


Julia, Conner, and Kyleigh each won a prize at the class, Christmas party. Julia gave her chocolate to Conner in exchange for her stocking. Julia then changed with Kyleigh for the book. Then Conner and Kyleigh switched prizes.

Who has the chocolate?
Who has the stocking?
Who has the book?

Crossing Our Fingers...

Sad news: Our little "sea creatures" have not yet hatched. After several days of waiting last week, we discovered that we were trying to hatch food pellets, as opposed to eggs. (Ha!--In our defense, the packaging was quite confusing). We replenished the tank on Friday and are still crossing our fingers, waiting for an egg to hatch. Even if our gift from Santa turns out to be a dud, our "sea creatures" have given me a fun Christmas gift idea for the class! :) The students will receive this gift at the Christmas Party next week!

Christmas Brain Teaser

Students,
Try to solve the problem below! Anyone who comes in to class with the answer by Friday will receive a prize!


The Peace Family is sitting at a round table ready to enjoy their Christmas dinner.

CASSIE is two along from JOSEY, who is sitting next to ALEXIS.

NICK is also sitting two along from JOSEY.

Next to NICK is TUCKER.

CASSIE has TUCKER on one side and STEPHEN on the other.

Where is everyone sitting??

Oliver Mansion

On Sunday, the fourth grade teachers visited the Oliver Mansion (in South Bend) with a handful of fourth grade students that wanted to attend. We had the opportunity to look around the museum and we were given a tour of the entire mansion. I certainly recommend taking a trip there sometime if you've never seen it!


The view from outside of the mansion (unfortunately, we could not take any photos indoors).

A Gift From Santa

When the class got to school this morning, they were surprised by a gift waiting for them under the Christmas tree! The gift consisted of a "Sea Monster" (strange, tadpole-like fish that have been around for 220 million years) kit which included a miniature fish tank, eggs, and food. We set the tank up and placed it under a light source. We are expecting to see our little "sea monsters" hatching within the next couple of days!

Snowman Decorating

The Town of North Liberty donated wooden snowmen to each classroom in grades 4-6. The classroom with the best decorated snowman will be awarded a popcorn party. The students did a great job coming up with materials to use! All of the snowmen are going to be placed up around town, so keep an eye out! :)

Amish Acres

We had a wonderful trip to Amish Acres last Tuesday! Here are a few pictures that we took on the way to see the play!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Brain Teaser #1

A farmer has 17 sheep, and all but 9 run away. How many are left?

Amish Acres

The fourth grade teachers have planned a trip to Amish Acres on Tuesday, December 1st. We are taking the students to see the play Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. The play is based off of a humorous, Judy Blume book that was read to the students during library this year. I am looking forward to a great trip with the class!

Permission slips are going to be sent home in Monday Folders this week!

Click on the link below to visit the Amish Acres website:
http://www.amishacres.com/index_02.html

WE MADE IT!

We finally filled our compliment jar! We will celebrate with a popcorn party next Wednesday, November 25th.

Well done class! :)

The Ocean, By Penelope

I am at the ocean. I hear the big waves crashing onto the sand. Birds are surrounding me as I go into the water. I smell the coconuts and hear them cracking as they fall down from the palm trees. I can taste the salty water as I swim. I can feel the cold water going up my back. I go under water and see millions of fish. It looks amazing! Angel fish, clown fish, star fish….I even see dolphins right now! Everything is so colorful and beautiful under here! I see coral, seashells, seaweed, and a big conch shell.

I keep swimming and swimming until I think I hear a shark. I get really scared. I wanted to swim away, but I was too scared that the shark would hear me. So, I held still and did not make a sound. It glanced at me and swam away. I was relieved! Then, I swam back where all of the fish were. I stopped thinking about the shark, so that my heart would stop pounding in my chest.

I explore everywhere. I can’t stop thinking about how beautiful it looks under here. Here come the sea turtles! They come up to me and swim around me. One of them has a baby on their back. It is very cute! They make me come to where they live and it’s really cool too! There are millions of sea turtles now. The sea turtles show me all of the sea. It was really fun. All of a sudden, a big wave comes and I hear a big crash. It almost blew out my eardrum. It was really loud!

Now, I’m looking all over the ocean. Out of nowhere, come two dolphins. We swim up and down the water. When I go to the top of the water, I see the beautiful sunset. When I come back down, I see the colorful sea.

Now, it’s time to go back home and say good-bye to the dolphins.

Jackie Walorski Visits NLES

Indiana State Representative, Jackie Walorski, came in to speak with the fourth grade class on Friday morning. Representative Walorski explained the responsibilities of her job, as well as the lengthy process of creating laws and passing bills. The students were asked to share their opinions about current laws and to offer ideas for new laws that they felt should be passed in Indiana. Several ideas were shared, including shortened school days, free xBoxs, and lowering the driving age requirement. Their suggestions were very creative and it goes to show you that you're never too young to have a voice in politics!

Click on the link below to learn more about Jackie Walorski:
http://www.jackiewalorski.com/

Caught Being Good: Winner #1

Congratulations to Jacob R. on winning the Caught Being Good t-shirt for the first nine-weeks! Every time a student is caught doing a good deed or is displaying excellent behavior that stands out from the rest of the class, they may earn a "Caught Being Good" ticket to place in our raffle box. At the end of every nine weeks, we will have a drawing to see who wins the t-shirt. One down, three to go!

Compliment Jar

Since the first day of school, the class has been earning tokens in their "Compliment Jar" for every compliment they receive throughout the school day. Their goal is to fill up the entire jar to earn a popcorn party! They've gotten the jar filled most of the way up, so I have a feeling our party will be in the very near future!

Descriptive Writing

In class today, we began working on our descriptive writing prompts. To give the students a prime example of descriptive writing, we started off by reading the book "Owl Moon" by Jane Yolen. Our goal for this writing activity is to use our 5 senses to describe, in detail, a busy or interesting place (i.e. a pirate ship, a football game, the beach, etc.). Once the class is finished, I will select one or two to post on the website for others to enjoy! :)

Drug Free Week!

Drug Free Week was last week! To celebrate being drug free, the students were given a different theme each day (i.e. crazy hair day, pajama day, 60's/70's/80's day, etc.) We had a lot of fun and the class came up with some pretty creative hair-dos and outfits. I couldn't wait to see what the kids came in with every morning!