Meet Nicole!

Have you been wondering why we have had so many visits on our blog from Canada? Well, I am so excited to tell you why! A college class from the University of Regina in Canada is  studying our blog. They are going to college to learn how to become awesome teachers. The class that they are taking is teaching them how to use technology to teach and communicate with students. We should feel really special that some of the college students chose our blog to study for their college project. Nicole is one of  those students!  We will see her commenting and asking questions so that she can learn from our blog. Here is a short video to introduce Nicole to you. Have a question about Nicole? about college?about Canada? ask away. Leave your question in the comment section and she will reply to you there. 

Love,

Ms.Launey

P.S. I'm sorry I have been out so long. I'm still sick! I will be back to see all of you next week. I miss you!!!

It's All Greek to Me!

Congratulations to all of our students for winning "Best Overall" in the category for the intermediate grades for our literary pumpkin display!

A special thank you to Ms. Lopez-Sinclair, Ms. Launey, and Ms. Gattoni for all of their hard work and efforts in organizing this huge endeavour.



Another special thank you to ALL of our wonderful parents and guardians for their gifts of materials, ideas, and volunteer time in helping to put this huge project together!

What a HUGE success!

Four Corners Weekly Wrap Up

Enjoy our Weekly Review News Show. We are very proud of our anchors and reporters!

This week in Math Workshop we have been using our understanding of 100 to build on larger numbers that are multiples of 100. In addition to relating these landmark numbers, we are also concentrating on how well we communicate our mathematical understanding to others. Below are responses from two of our students that were discussed during our Closing Meeting this past Monday with our morning class. The students in this class analyzed the work of these two students and many students either asked clarifying questions or connected this work in some way with their own work.

Ryan’s Work:

20 as a factor of 100:
In 100, there are 5 groups of 20.
In 200, there are 10 groups of 20.
In 300, there are 15 groups of 20.
In 400, there are 20 groups of 20.
and so on……….

After completing a table which reflects the information shown above, Ryan made the following statement regarding the number of groups of 20 in 300. He determined that there are 15 groups of 20 in 300.

“I know there are 15 groups of 20 in 300 because there are 5 groups of 20 in 100 so 300 ÷ 20 = 15. Because 100 ÷ 20 = 5 and 5 x 3 = 15. The 3 represents 300 and the five represents the groups of 20 in 100.”

We can make a connection to Ryan's written work by relating what he is saying back to our earlier work with multiplication clusters.

5 x 20 = 100
5 x 20 = 100
+ 5 x 20 = 100
15 x 20 = 300
(15 "groups of 20" is 300.)

Min’s Work:

10 as a factor of 100:
In 100, there are 10 groups of 10.
In 200, there are 20 groups of 10.
In 300, there are 30 groups of 10.
In 400, there are 40 groups of 10.
and so on……….

After completing a table which reflects the information shown above, he made the following statement regarding the number of groups of 10 in 300. He determined that there are 30 groups of 10 in 300.

“I know there are 30 groups of 10 in 300 because I know that 10 10’s are equal to 100 so you do 10 x 3 which equals 30 because 300 is the triple of 100 so to find how many 10’s are in 300 is to multiply 10 x 3.”

We can also make a connection to Min's written work by relating what he is saying back to our earlier work with multiplication clusters.

10 x 10 = 100
10 x 10 = 100
+10 x 10 = 100
30 x 10 = 300
(30 "groups of 10" is 300.)

Min and Ryan did a very nice job in communicating their mathematical understanding using words, numbers, and symbols. We will continue to focus on how well we communicate our mathematical understanding to others as the year progresses.

Grace for President!

Today we read our book of the month, "Grace for President" by Kelly Dipucchio. This book was a fun way to start a discussion about what we know (and want to know) about the presidential election. I know you still have many more questions after todays read aloud. Have no fear! I found the perfect site to fill you in on more about this very important topic. 

Brain POP Election Site

Watch the fun videos and come back and share what you learned! 

Ms.Launey and Mrs.Lopez

3-D Florida Map Project

Florida's Geography: A 3-D Map Project

Here is an updated post on this project as two of our proactive students have turned in their project already, which is over one week early! Way to go, Andy and Jake, for producing fabulous projects and providing us with additional examples to benefit from!

Jake creatively used cardboard to create his Florida elevation. (His project is shown above on the right.) The Florida Uplands are distinguished from the East Gulf Coast and Atlantic Coastal Plains by being given a higher elevation (more cardboard). He also added paint and marker. Dental floss was used to create the latitudinal and longitudinal lines.

Andy made his Florida elevation with clay and then added his detail with paint, computer images text, and glitter to make the ocean and gulf sparkle. (His project is shown above on the left.)Andy even thought to include Alabama Crimson Tide and Georgia Bulldog labels. Andy, you forgot to add the Florida Gator logo and location though! I am sure that was just an oversight! :-)

Our students were assigned this three-dimensional map project on Monday of last week. Guidelines and a rubric for this project are in each student's Passport. We hope that all of our students enjoy this opportunity to think creatively and artistically about the geography of the beautiful and unique state we live in, as a way of culminating our six week study of Florida Geography! Projects are due in class by Tuesday, October 21st!

Here is another example of a clay created project from a former 4th grade student who is now in 5th grade.

The 4 Corners Weekly News Broadcast

Stay tuned each week for an in-depth look at what is going on in our classroom. We welcome any parent comments and questions in the comment section!

Goodbye to Greece, Hello to Germany!

Our E.L.A. classes did a wonderful job studying Greece. We learned so much about the country of Greece through our "video vacations" with Samantha Brown, the Adventures in Ancient Greece book study, and our group research projects (displayed outside of Ms.Launey's and Mrs.Lopez's classrooms). We even met a Greek girl named Amarandi, who taught us many things about her country through her website. We were super excited when she came and visited us on our blog! We will remember everything we experienced as we pack our bags and begin our journey through Germany. 

Our first German activity is a web field trip over to the Germany for Kids site. There you will meet a cool cartoon character named Philipp. His site has lots of information about cities, the Berlin Wall, food, music, school, and lots of other fun stuff about Germany. 

Your bonus assignment this week is to travel to the site and learn all you can about Germany. Then come back here and comment about what you learned. (Give at least 2 facts that you learned to earn a Behavior Buck.) Have a great trip!

Ms.Launey and Mrs.Lopez