Observing Our Plants

Our plants are growing!  We picked up our quad trays and took them to our desks to make observations (as scientists do).

We took notes on an observation sheet, and some of us measured the height of our plants. 

We are so excited to see our plants growing!  We wonder how tall they will grow!

We Love the Book Fair!

This week the Scholastic Book Fair is at our school. We love it because we love books!  Mrs. Drawbaugh introduced the books to us during our library time.
There are so many interesting books this year. 

Some of the students in our class want to read The Medusa Plot (the new 39 Clues Series), while others can't wait to get
Darth Paper Strikes Back. 

We made our wish list on Friday, and Mrs. Alaniz filled up TWO baskets with her classroom wish books.  She had trouble sticking to one. Thankfully, Mrs. Drawbaugh had another basket for her!  We can hardly wait to read all the books Mrs. Alaniz picked out.   

Make sure you visit the Scholastic Book Fair before it closes on Friday! 

Close to 1,000 Game

This week in class we played the Close to 1,000 Game.
In this game, each player drew 6 digit cards that might look like this:

Then we formed two 3-digit numbers and recorded them on our game sheet. We added the numbers and figured out how far away the number was from 1,000 (the difference).  This became our score.  We played 5 rounds and added up our score.  The winner was the person with the LOWEST score.  This game made us think and plan new strategies.  We loved this game!  

Saturday

This Saturday, I spent the morning at a local education conference.  The conference was for college students studying to be teachers.  I was honored to present at one of the sessions! I spoke about QR Codes and using iTouches in the classroom.
While I was at the conference, I was excited to meet a famous author and poet.  Her name is George Ella Lyon. 

This is one of her books:

from barnesandnoble.com

It's called All the Water in the World, and it is all about the water cycle.  It is excellent! 
I love meeting authors of children's books, and I especially love hearing them read their work. 

We don't have this book in our library yet!  But I am sure our wonderful librarian will help with that!

I loved sharing with future teachers, and I loved meeting Mrs. Lyon.  It was a great way for a teacher to spend the Saturday! 

Which children's author would you like to meet? Why?

---Mrs. Alaniz

How We Made Memory Bracelets

Yesterday in class we made memory bracelets to remember the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001.
We honored the victims of that day by remembering their bravery and courage.




Mrs. Alaniz and Ms. Bere (our student teacher) showed us how to make the bracelets.
We were all eager to make them and wear them!
First, our teacher gave us the red, white, and blue yarn.  The pieces were 2 feet long (24 inches) long.
The first step was to get a partner and make a knot at one end.


Then, we twisted it until we got to the end. 

Then we tied a knot at the end and folded it. It turned into a twisted pattern and it looked like a braid.

Then we tied it around our wrists with the help of a partner.

When we were done, we felt proud to wear our bracelets and honor our country on this important day. 

Reading Life

This poster greets readers to 4A's classroom library.  Are you "falling" into a good book? 

In 4A, we are talking about our reading life.
We are learning as readers that we are in charge of our reading. 
We sketched pictures of ourselves reading at home.

Some of us read in nice, comfortable chairs with big cushions.
Some of us read in bed at night before we go to sleep.

Some of us read in the car while we're traveling somewhere.

Mrs. Alaniz asked us this question:
"When does reading work for you?"

Here were some of our answers:

• when I have nothing planned
• when it is quiet and peaceful
• when I read "just-right" books
• when it's quiet and the book is good
• when I go in my room away from my brother!
• when there are no distractions

In 4A, we are learning what good readers do. 
(One important thing: they always have lots of "just-right" books available so they never run out!)

When does reading work for you? 

Soaking Seeds!

This week in science we are learning about seeds and plants.
We are using our science notebooks, too. Scientists keep careful records, and we are scientists!


First we learned how to use a hand lense to make observations. You can either move the hand lense and keep the object still, or move the object and keep the hand lense still.

We first observed a lima bean.  We used our five senses to observe the seed and record the seed's:

ODOR
COLOR
SIZE
TEXTURE
SHAPE

We recorded the observation on a chart. Then we traced and measured the seed.

Next we put our seeds in a contianer of water.  What would happen to the seeds after they were left soaking overnight? We made predictions in our notebooks. 

The next day we saw that the seeds had changed color, had grown in size, and we were even able to pry them open.  We learned about the parts of the seed (like the seed coat), and marked the observations in our notebook.  

We loved being scientists today!

Next week we will plant some seeds!