The Whipping Boy Projects

Today, I assigned the students their reading projects for The Whipping Boy. They have a choice of three projects: making a castle, a poster about rats, or a simile book. If they are researching castles, below are some links that may be helpful:

Castles for Kids
National Geographic: Ghosts in the Castle

The projects will be due the Wednesday after break. I'll have resources in my classroom for the students to use next week, to help them get started.

Christmas concert

Our school's annual Christmas concert was this past Sunday. Almost the entire class came, and they looked wonderful in their Christmas outfits. In music class, the fourth grade had been learning to play the bells, and they used the bells to provide music for the songs "Deck the Halls" and "Joy to the World." Afterwards, we enjoyed a delicious potluck dinner.

In science, we are learning about the weather. For the past week, students have been measuring the temperature, wind speed, wind direction, and air pressure using instruments they made like a barometer, anemometer, and wind vane. They'll conclude this unit by giving a weather report and becoming meteorologists. We've also been learning about what causes wind, different temperatures, and changing air pressure.

The class has been reading The Whipping Boy, a Newbery Medal book. It's an exciting book that involves kings and princes, outlaws, dancing bears, and runaways. While reading, the students have also been learning about plot maps and cause and effect.

This Friday, we will have a spelling test on words from the book. Each student has their own list of ten words. We will have tests next week in science and social studies, and next Wednesday is our field trip to see The Nutcracker on horseback.

Elixir of Love

On November 11, grades 3-8 went to see The Elixir of Love, presented by Lyric Opera of Chicago's Opera in the Neighborhood program. The students were very excited, and what follows is a review written by Clarissa.

"The Elixir of Love" was an amazing opera. I thought when the actors all sang without microphones it was surprising. It surprised me because when Adina had to sing those high pitches, it was so incredible. When the pianist played, he was so amazing, playing the piano for the orchestra. The costumes were so beautiful! The costume I liked best was Adina's. Adina walked in it and danced in it. The setting was very nice because the people who drew the picture painted it nicely. I thought the best part was when Adina kissed Nemorino because Nemorino wanted to fall in love with Adina so I think that he was waiting for his true love. The play a lot of fun because they sang well, and tried to make all the kids laugh at some of the parts, like when the doctor said, "Hit that funky music."

Last week, the class finished the unit on How to Eat Fried Worms. Above, you can see pictures of the students acting out important scenes from the book, eating gummy worms and "dirt" that I made for the class, and some of the brave students trying real fried worms. This week, we're going to begin looking at how to read non-fiction and some of the important features of non-fiction text.

We are also almost done with our unit on nouns. The test will be next Tuesday, and I will be sending home a study guide towards the end of this week. I will be spending a lot of time in class on the difference between plural and possessive nouns. This would also be a good area to make sure your student reviews as they study for the class, as in the past this has been a hard concept for students to grasp.

In art, we have been looking at the artist Georges Seurat and his style of pointillism. The students created their own pointillistic drawing on the computer, and on Thursday, we will be painting in this style. I need one or two parents to come in Thursday to help with this project, so if you are available, please let me know.

Church Bulletin Article

Our class will be featured in the church's bulletin this Sunday. Here is what the article will say:

"Day of the Dead at St. Sylvester School

People often think of skeletons as scary and death as only a mournful time, but as the fourth graders at St. Sylvester School have recently learned, the Mexican celebration of Day of the Dead remembers the lives of those who have died with joy, decorating skeletons and creating ofrendas in memory of the deceased. To learn more about this holiday, the class has visited the National Museum of Mexican Art to tour their Day of the Dead exhibit, read books, and created skeleton masks with their younger buddies.

The centerpiece of the unit allowed the students to honor a relative who has died. Each student selected one person in their family that had passed away and conducted interviews to learn more about this person. While there were many grandparents who were remembered, there were also children and parents who were honored, giving students a chance to both learn more about their ancestors and remember people they loved who are no longer with us. They then took these interviews and wrote paragraphs about their relatives. The students learned about the hardships others faced: moving to a new country, taking care of their family from a young age, or not being able to get an education, but they also learned about the love their relatives showed to their families and the simple things they did that their parents, aunts, and uncles now remember. The students brought in shoe boxes to create altars in celebration of this person's life. Inside the altars, they placed mementos, photographs, candles, flowers, and sugar skulls. After they were done, they shared these altars with their classmates, parents, and other students in the school.

Throughout the project, students not only had the opportunity to learn about a holiday that others celebrate, but they also found ways to celebrate their own families and backgrounds. Completing the interviews, paragraphs, and altars allowed them to both learn more about their loved ones and to keep their memories alive."

We have a social studies test this Wednesday. Students will not have a spelling test the next two weeks since we are completing a review unit. Conference times will be sent home tomorrow, and conferences will be held on Sunday.

National Museum of Mexican Art

The third and fourth grade classes took a field trip today to the National Museum of Mexican Art. While there, we learned about the ofrendas that had been created by different artists, authors, community members, and even a third grade class. We also saw a demonstration of how sugar skulls are made, a very popular treat. The students were able to get many great ideas for the creation of their own ofrendas, which we will make in class at the end of the month. The first set of interviews the students conducted to learn more about a relative who died that they wish to honor on Day of the Dead were very successful, and many students shared facts that they had learned so far.

In the past few days, we've also gotten to spend some time with our preschool buddies, creating cards welcoming people to a celebration of St. Sylvester Parish's 125th year. We played a game in science called seed-mouse-fox, about what causes populations within a food chain to fluctuate, and students shared the books they created starring a character that could fit into the world of Beverly Cleary. The books looked great, and you can see a picture of the covers above. They will be in our classroom library for the next few weeks so all the students can read and enjoy them.

We have an English test on Wednesday and a science test on Thursday. Next week, we will have a spelling test on Friday. Also next week, you will be receiving information and a permission slip for our field trip to the opera on November 5th.

September 21

The class enjoyed celebrating Talk Like a Pirate Day last Friday. In honor of this day, during center time, the students looked through pirate books to find sentences and identify subjects and predicates, and they rewrote nursery rhymes to make them more pirate-y. Several of the students read the rewritten rhymes afterwards in excellent pirate voices.

We also have had the privilege of a police officer coming to talk to the class about how to avoid gangs and bullying and what to do if you see anything violent happening. The program is called GREAT, and he will be coming every Monday.

We will have our social studies test tomorrow (Tuesday), as well as a science test on Thursday, covering classification, vertebrates, invertebrates, fish, mammals, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and instincts. Because of the tests this week, we will not have a spelling unit.

Several students have been rushing through bellwork and not finding all the mistakes, but I want to recognize the students who got a hundred percent this past week: Wilfredo, Mason, and Mia. Good work!

September 14, 2009

On September 11, we had a special activity to commemorate the events that happened 8 years ago. The class read a non-fiction book about a fireboat that was used to fight the fires, then we discussed the events together. Afterwards, the students glued a star onto a blue piece of paper and wrote a prayer on it. These papers will be combined with prayers from grades 3 through 8 to create an American flag in the hallway that shows our reflections on the terrorist attacks.

This week, students will continue to use their classifying skills in science as we discuss characteristics of the different animal groups. They will learn about QAR, or question-answer relationships, which looks at whether a person needs to look in the book or use thier own knowledge to answer a question, and can help students find the answer. They are also going to finish working on their first paragraphs that have been through all five steps of the writing process, and they will begin looking at sentence structure and the different types of sentences.

We have a spelling test this Friday. There will also be a social studies test next week on the history of the US through the American Revolution. I will pass out a study guide for the test on Thursday and show the students how to study using the study guide. Right now, I have the test planned for Tuesday, September 22, but that date may be pushed back depending on how long our review activities take.

New School Year

Welcome to the new year at St. Sylvester's! You can see in the pictures above the students working on their covers for their writers' notebooks, which they have been adding entries to ranging from challenges they faced to what they think about their name. There are also pictures of an experiment done in the first week of school. Students needed to manipulate variables to change the distance a "car" made out of index paper went, and at the end, the challenge was to make it go exactly the distance I gave the class.

In reading and writing, we've been studying why author's write, reading selections from picture books and non-fiction books. We'll begin reading Henry and Ribsy soon, while looking at predictions,connections, and questioning skills, while in writing, we'll take a paragraph through the five stages of the writing process. In science, the students are learning how to classify everything from alien slugs to shark teeth, then they'll be classifying animals into vertebrates, invertebrates, mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians. Social studies is focusing on the history of the US and sequencing skills, while in religion we're learning about the covenant and the first three commandments.

Earth Day

The class has been involved in many Earth Day activities this week. The third, fourth and fifth grade led a school wide prayer service on Tuesday, planted flowers and cleaned the yard around the school with our buddies on Wednesday, and watched Disney's Earth movie on Thursday. We've also been talking in class about habitat destruction, what animals have to do to survive with the changes brought on by global warming, and ways we can help the planet. We'll be going to the Nature Museum on Wednesday to look at some more ideas of ways we can help the planet.

In class, we're almost done with our literature circles. Students are creating posters now to "advertise" their book. They also had to write down the theme for the book, and they came up with some amazing ideas-"you can create whatever you want if you really focus," "magic may or may not exist," "life is not always easy, you should appreciate life and not think negatively."

We're also writing adverb poems, using adverbs to describe a sport or game. We already wrote one as a class, and created a list of our favorite adverbs which includes disgustedly, fiercely, curiously, and extremely. Hopefully students will use these more in class.

In social studies, we are beginning to look at the Midwest-our home! Next week, we will have the first states test for this region. Students will bring home a study guide on Monday that has the states and capitols that they need to know labeled.

Museum of Science and Industry

We had a great field trip to the Museum of Science and Industry on March 25. With the 5th grade, we got a tour of the U-505 submarine, captured from Germany during World War II. Afterwards, we learned how submarines rise and sink then made our own periscopes.

Please make sure that the permission slips and money for our trip to watch Disney's new movie on the Earth are turned in before break. We also have a test next week on the Southeast.

Week of March 24

In social studies, we have been learning about the Southeast. Students were asked today to bring in a product from the Southeast, such as something made from cotton or peanuts, or oranges or rice. Look around your house for these items and others, like pecans and peaches, to show students how items from their home come from the Southeast. Since the Southeast also has coal and oil, explain how these resources are used to provide electricity and heat our homes. While studying the Southeast, the students have needed to memorize the location of the states and the names of the capitals. They have a test each week on five or six of the states. From looking at the test grades, one can see the difference between those who studied and those who did not. The easiest way to study would be to have your child learn one or two states each night, then put them all together at the end of the week.

We are also getting ready for our science fair, to be held on April 3. The entire school is participating. Please help your child to gather the materials necessary for his or her group's experiment. The students will be given time to complete the experiments in class.

Above are pictures from our trial about the book Shiloh. Students divided into two sides: those saying that Judd deserved to have the dog Shiloh, and those saying that Marty should keep him. Students then had to call up witnesses, question and cross-examine them, and were then allowed to give closing statements.

Five paragraph essays

The class is learning how to write an essay that is multiple paragraphs. We began today by taking an introductory paragraph that was provided, deciding what each paragraph following it should be about, then breaking into pairs to each write a paragraph. This is a composite of some of the paragraphs students wrote, following the introduction provided.


At the beginning of the school year, none of us thought we would become the close-knit group that we are. Now we work really well together on project and put whole- team effort into everything we do. We encourage one another and treat each other the way we want others to treat us. We even come up with terrific new ideas for our whole school to try. There’s no better team anywhere!

Today, our class puts a lot of effort into everything we do. We worked together to put an electromagnet together and saw how an electromagnet works. We have fun in everything we do instead of fighting and not getting any work done. Our class did stations of chemical changes and physical changes. We work really well together on big projects and our class work. We worked on the Stations of the Cross. We put north, south, east, and west around the room.

We help people and treat them the way we want to be treated. We help people so they could help us, and we treat them nice so they could treat us nice. We also help people so we can be peaceful people. We help moms do chores and we help Ms. Galecki by cleaning after some people, so Ms. Galecki doesn’t have to clean it up. I help my friend read and with her homework. We all treat everyone nice. We help them learn. We help them around the school.

Our class tries to come up with new ideas for our whole school. Once, our class went outside to clean the front of the school and went to plant plants. The school helps with St. Jude’s hospital and classes give money to St. Jude. Our teacher is happy for us that we come up with ideas to try for the fourth grade. If you have ten or more beads, you get to do activities. One of the bead activities we have done is the roller coaster, another activity is painting with our buddies.

School is fun because we work together and do cool projects. Our teacher is nice because she lets us meditate and use our imagination.


The students did an excellent job staying on topic and providing supporting details for the introduction!

Two important dates are coming up. First, we have a science test on electricity and magnetism on Tuesday, March 17th. Students received the study guide for this today. We also have a field trip to the Museum of Science and Industry on March 25th. Permission slips and money are due on Friday.

TerraNova

Beginning next Monday, we will be taking the TerraNova tests in school. The last day of our testing will be March 10. During this time, there will be no homework assigned to make sure that students are well-rested and ready to answer the questions to the best of their ability. We have spent the past few weeks reviewing the material, and we will continue to review it this coming week; however, there are several things you can do to help your child prepare. Please make sure that your child:

1. Has at least three sharpened #2 pencils.

2. Goes to sleep early and eats a good breakfast.

3. Brings a healthy snack to school, such as apples, pretzels, or half a sandwich.

4. Arrives at school on time.

Thank you for all your help!

Week of February 9-13

This week in class, students enjoyed an apple tasting presented by the Chicago Tribune. They got a chance to taste four different varieties of apples (Cameo, Fuji, Golden Delicious, and Granny Smith), compare their sweetness, tartness, and firmness, then vote on their favorite. All the students enjoyed this activity and loved eating their apples, a healthy treat. They also received a coupon for $3.00 towards apples. Students have also learned about our new President Barack Obama and wrote an essay comparing him to either Langston Hughes, a famous poet we read about, or Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable, the founder of Chicago.

We're at the halfway point of the third quarter! Progress reports will be sent home next Friday. Any work that has not been turned in as of Tuesday will count as a zero. Missing assignments have been noted on responsibility reports. This includes reading logs. Please make sure your child's work has been turned in.

There is no school on Monday in honor of President's Day. There will be an English test on adjectives next week on Friday, and a social studies test on the Northeast towareds the end of the last week of February.

Catholic Schools Week

Catholic Schools Week was a great time for our school to come together. We had opportunities to play games with our buddies and compete in the Olympics with the rest of the school. We celebrated an all school Mass at the end of the week and a prayer service and pep rally in the beginning. Students wore pajamas to school and dressed like twins, and had extra reading time with blankets and pillows. We even several people from our class honored: Javier won the award for most effort, Jessica for being the classroom peacemaker, and Alicia for a schoolwide poster contest. Congratulations!

This past week allowed us to have some fun as a class, and it hopefully marks a turning point for the rest of the year. Very few people got to participate in the bead activity last Friday, due to lack of attention, people being unprepared for class, and work not getting completed. Mr. Bennett came into the room today to talk to students about how we have high expectations for them and do not give them any work we do not think they can complete, and we expect to see them put in the effort to meet (and hopefully exceed) our expectations. Their only homework from me for this past weekend was to study for science, yet only three people filled out the study guide to prepare for the test today. Only five people last week had all of their homework turned in on time last week, and only four had all the papers they needed to get signed returned to me today. I am hoping that as we continue in the third quarter, that the students' work ethic and responsibility improves.

End of the 2nd Quarter

In the above photos, you can see the students making density columns and solving the mystery of the stolen CD. We layered liquids like glycerin, rubbing alcohol, and dish soap, then added sugar, flour, and baking soda and observing how they settled or floated to determine the identify of a mystery substance. We've also been measuring a lot in science, looking at volume and mass, using graduated cylinders and balances.

In the next two weeks, we have lots of tests coming up. This week, we will most likely finish reading Sarah, Plain and Tall and take a reading comprehension test. The following week, we will have a test on verbs and a test on reading maps in social studies.

The week afterwards is Catholic Schools Week. It'll begin with parent-teacher conferences on Sunday, January 25, where you will receive the report cards from the second quarter. The slips with the times to meet will be sent home on Tuesday. Last time conferences were held, I know some people had to wait to meet. Please try to come at the time I have written down on the sheet, and if you realize you are not able to make it, let me know before Sunday so I can reschedule you. If you arrive to the meeting late, you will have to wait until there is an open time slot. The conferences should be about 10 minutes each, and if they go over 15 minutes, we will need to find a time to meet during the week. The rest of the week has several fun activities, including a pajama day, school wide Olympics, game night, and peacemaker prayer service.