Happy Halloween!

We had a blast today!

We started the day off with a partner Halloween picture guessing game, which made us really think of ways we could describe some of these traditional Halloween symbols without actually using their names.

Later, we Trick-or-Treated with multiplication math facts.  The questions were placed around the room, and required the 4th graders to search for them.  After they successfully answered three questions they were able to go Trick-or-Treating, and then continued on to solve 3 more.

We wrapped up our extravaganza by making witches brew with dry ice! It was awesome to see it bubble and smoke! Later we did some fun dry ice experiments!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

From, 

Mrs. Becker's Class

Writing Celebration!

Today we had a writing celebration to celebrate the awesome writing we have been doing in 4th grade! We are 3/4 of the way through our Realistic Fiction/Short Story unit.  The 4th graders had the opportunity to write, rewrite, revise, edit and publish a short story.  We worked through the process with various lessons to teach: idea generation, story arc, character development, setting, writing good leads, writing good endings, revising and rewriting, and editing.  We published our best story so far.  At the celebration we were able to collaborate with other members of our class,  we decided what we did best at while writing, we read our stories to our table, and we gave each other compliments.  We also shared juice and cookies!  Next, we will use what we have learned to write the best short story we can, but this time quicker and with self direction.  We cannot wait to compare our stories to see how we will improve!

Take a look at pictures from our writing celebration!!

Yahoo, I Finished a Book!

I wanted to give our 4th graders a way to showcase what they have read with the class, you at home, and even the world!  After students finish a book, they will be able to pick a way to promote, showcase, or inform an audience about what they have just read.  Some choices require a shorter time commitment where others are much more involved.  Much of the work will be done in class, but students can choose to work from home as well.  Take a look at some of the options below!  We have been discussing and using many of these options already in class, ask your child what some of them are!  Coming Soon: a new way for us to showcase these projects with you and the world!

Bagels and Books

Bagels and Books!

November 8th, 2013

Join us for our first annual Bagels & Books in our classroom on November 8th from 8:30-10:00am! We invite parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles or any other special person to join us in our classroom for a morning of sharing favorite books while having a bite to eat.  Please consider joining us for whatever amount of time you have available, do not feel like you need to join us for the entire event.  

We also need a few donations for our event.  If your family is able to send in any one of the following items it would be greatly appreciated.

• Small Package of Bagels
• Tubs of Cream Cheese
• Small Paper Plates
• Small Cups
• Milk or Orange Juice

Classroom Party Committees

2013-2014 Holiday Party Committees

Over the course of  4th grade we will celebrate a few holidays or seasonal times together.  The celebrations will include: Halloween, Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa, Valentine’s Day, and the End of the Year Celebration.

To help celebrate I ask that every student help participate in a party committee.  The party committee's responsibilities will be to bring in a treat the day of the party, and will also have the opportunity to help plan some activities.

Please look below to see which committee your child will be apart of this year! :)

Halloween	Xmas	Valentine’s Day	End of  Year
Izzy	Ashley	Colby	Dontay
Kamren	Bryce	Trevor	Gissel
Alaina	McKenzie	Silvia	Vicky
James	Kasey	Diego	Daysha
Ahmed	Canon	Marcelo	Azael
	Faith	Craig	Tyra

Thank you for helping make celebrations in our classroom a success!

(We have 23 students in our classroom)

Happy Holidays!

Mrs. Becker and the 4th grade bunch

Link to Handout

Take A Look

Take a look at our science! Science! Science! post from a few weeks ago! The post has been updated with new pictures with the end of our Electricity Exploration and the beginning of our Magnetism Exploration!

Happy Monday!

Hello all!

Just a few updates for the start of this short week.

The 4th graders are super excited to have earned their behavior/ homework completion award!  They have voted on a pajama day and we will also watch a movie for part of our afternoon!  Way to go kiddos!

In reading we continue to work on character development and have also been working on sharing our ideas with partners.  Strategy groups will also start with me this week, where a small group may work on a task with me, or they may work on a specific reading strategy!  We are also completely engrossed in our Global Read Aloud: Out of my Mind! Our minds sure are on fire as we read!

In writing we are working to revise our stories.  Many of us are realizing that good writers re-write and revise until our stories are perfect! It is alot of work, but sure worth it in the end!  We also talked about how JK Rowling started writing Harry Potter on napkins, and threw them away as she revised, talk about a lot of napkins!!

In Math we are working on strategies and methods to add and then later subtract big numbers.  Ask your child how ballpark estimating helps us when we add and subtract!

In science we are continuing our study of how energy transfers to make things work, and will discover this process through magnetism! We have a bunch of fun experiments to try!  If you havn't checked out the electricity webquest on the right side of our blog under links for learning, try it!  We had a great time exploring the site and working with the activities and mini quizzes.

Just a reminder that this is a short week and we don't have school Thursday and Friday.  Also, look for a note to come home about Holiday Parties, and the party committee for Halloween.

Have a great week!

Ball Park Estimates: Showing What We Know!

Today we learned about rounding, and how useful a ballpark estimate can be when we are adding. 

Take a look at what we know!

Ballpark Estimating with McKenzie!

Ballpark Estimates with Diego!

Ballpark estimate with Kasey!

Ballpark Estimates with Marcelo!

Ballpark Estimates with Canon!

Ballpark Estimating with James!

Ballpark Estimating with Craig

Ballpark Estimating with Trevor!

Ballpark estimating with Bryce!

Parent Teacher Conferences

Just a reminder that Tuesday and Thursday of this week Marshall Elementary will be holding parent teacher conferences.  If you are unsure of what time or what day your conference has been scheduled please feel free to email me at cbecker@marshallschools.org or call me at (608) 655-4403 ex 1222 :)

Looking forward to seeing all our rm 222 4th grade families!

Out Of My Mind Word Cloud

Recently one of our connections for the global read aloud tasked us with creating word clouds about Melody and the book Out of My Mind.  Take a look at the word clouds we created!

Comfy?

Take a look at this cutie making himself comfortable for writing :)