Our New Science Unit

Our new science unit is about electric circuits and how they work.  For our first lesson, we made a list of what we already know about electric circuits, and then we made a list of what we wanted to find out.  The next lesson we did was figuring out how to get a light bulb to work using only one battery, one wire, and a light bulb.  Some people got it to work pretty quickly, other people took longer to discover how it worked.  By the end of class, everyone was able to light their bulb.  We got it to work by touching a wire to both ends (positive and negative) of the battery, and the light bulb needed to touch either the top or bottom of the battery and a part of the wire.  The picture below is of someone lighting their bulb using one wire, one battery, and a light bulb.

Reminders:

Cassie's Mittens - We are collecting stuff for Cassie's Mittens where you can donate winter clothing accessories, like mittens, hats, gloves, scarves, boots, and earmuffs.  Thursday, December 19 is the final day to bring your donations.

Warm Clothes - Bring warm clothes because it is getting very cold outside.  We need to wear warm clothes when we are outside to prevent getting frostbite and to keep warm during recess.

P.E. Shoes - Bring snow boots for outside, but remember to bring tennis shoes on P.E. days.  Our P.E. days are Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

Sincerely,
Mrs. Johnson's 3rd and 4th Graders

Specials (PE, Art, Media, and Music)

P.E.

This year in P.E. we've been very busy.  We studied football, basketball, exercise and health, volleyball, and fire safety.  Everyday we start P.E. by jogging around the gym when Mr. F turns on the music, then jumping jacks, arm circles, arm twists, toe touches, butterfly stretch, hurdle stretch, and pike stretch.

Art

This year in Art we have studied lots of things.  We studied Starry Night (we created our own versions of Starry Night) and elements of art.  In art we are currently working on fish pictures.  The outline is a simple fish, but then you have a bunch of shapes in it.  You can customize your fish.  Some have spikes, disco eyes, symmetry, horns, rainbow colored scales, and evil eyes.

Media

In Media this year, we have been studying authors.  We watched trailers for the Lemonade Wars, learned about The Boy Who Drew Birds, and today we played some games online.  We have been doing a lot of work in the computer lab.  We have learned about different reliable websites that we can go to learn stuff.  We have been going to the computer lab to practice Type to Learn, also.

Music

Yesterday, Mrs. L got the keyboards out.  Last week we did some practice on our recorders.  When we practice on the keyboards, we practice songs that we played on the recorders.  We've been practicing "Do, Re, Mi..." with a snake activity.  We have also been learning notes on the staff, how to read music, and we sometimes play on the xylophones, altos, and bass.  Sometimes we add the interments to the songs we are singing.

Reminders:

Sports Day is tomorrow!  Wear your favorite team's jersey, clothes, accessories (like necklaces or hats), or colors.

Bring coins or bills for our classroom jar.  We are raising money to help the Philippines because of the typhoon.

Reminders for November

This November is a busy month.  We have lots of exciting things going on, so our blog today is a list of reminders for everyone.

Conferences:

Everyone in our class has been working really hard this year.  The teacher will show the parents what we've been working on so far.  Conferences are tonight, next Thursday, and Thursday, November 21.

Gum and Candy Day:

If you wish, bring one or two pieces of candy or gum on Friday.  This is a celebration that we chose because our PAW jar was full.

P.E.:

Bring your tennis shoes this Friday.  We usually don't have P.E. on Friday, but this week on Tuesday, Mr. F. (our P.E. teacher) was not here, so we are making up that time with him this Friday.

Book Fair:

The Book Fair is a fun time when we can shop for books in our school library.  The dates and times of the Book Fair are: Tuesday, Nov. 12 after school, Wednesday and Friday (Nov. 13 & 15) before and after school, Thursday, Nov. 14 8:00-4:00.

Field Trip:

We are going to City High next Wednesday, Nov. 13 for an orchestra concert.  Be sure to bring a cold lunch with a drink because we won't be back to school until after our normal lunch time ends.

No School:

Due to conferences, we won't have school because they are during the day on Thursday, November 14.

Thanksgiving Break is Wednesday, November 27 to Friday, November 29.  School will resume on Monday, December 2.

Warm Clothes:

Wear warm clothes because winter is closing in on us and it is cold outside.  You can wear gloves, hats, earmuffs, mittens, coats, pants(no shorts), long sleeved shirts, and warm socks.  When it starts to snow, be sure to bring a heavy coat, snow pants, and boots, too.

The picture below is of our busy calendar this month.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Johnson's 3rd and 4th Graders

Halloween

Every Halloween, our school and parents gather together to have a parade.  Every year, our teachers dress up as our school theme.  This year the teachers were farmers, vegetables, and fruits because our school theme this year is Healthy Habits, Happy Hearts.  Yesterday we were disappointed because it was the first time in ten years the parade had to be inside due to rain.  Instead of parading around the neighborhood, we paraded through the halls and around the school and gym.  After that, we went back to our rooms to watch the remainder of the parade.  Following the parade, we had a party.  We ate apples, drank juice, and played Hangman with Halloween words.

For Halloween, we dressed up in the following costumes:

Mrs. Johnson - Banana

Nicholas - English Navy Admiral

Emily - Fairy vampire

Iain - Yoda

Lohman - Freaky guy with no face

Jenny - Scientist

Vince - Steve from Minecraft

Aharon - Mario

Kyle - Hawkeye from Avengers

Heidi - 50s girl (poodle skirt)

Caroline - The Grudge girl

Seamus - Zombie jester

Darya - Ancient Egyptian goddess

Owen - Slenderman with a fedora

Bill - Grim reaper

Lydia - Jester

Alaina - Clown

Sam R. - Skin suit ninja

Sam T. - Surfer who got bitten by a shark

Madison - Tiger

Sean - Hot dog

Rebekah - 50s girl (poodle skirt)

Ms. Kerri - Farmer

Our photo below is a picture of our class dressed up in our costumes for the parade.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Johnson's 3rd and 4th Graders

The Highlights of Our Week

Field Trip

This week, on Wednesday, we took a field trip to Shimek Elementary to see a visiting author.  Her name is Jacqueline Davies.  She is the author of the Lemonade War series, as well as many other books.  We learned about her very first book that she wrote in second grade.  When she grew up she went to a great college, called Brown University, but she lost her confidence because there were so many other great writers at her college.  After college, she moved to Greece, then Paris.  She worked many jobs in Europe, including a library clerk.  She eventually came back to the US and began working on children's books.  She received lots of rejection letters for six straight years before she got her first book published.  Currently, she is working on the next book in her series The Lemonade Wars.  We thought she was very interesting and it was fun to see her and meet an author.

Mrs. Johnson's Birthday

On October 23, 2013 Mrs. Johnson had her birthday.  We gave her a card, a book about Snoopy, and a Snoopy stuffed animal.  She gave us the best cupcakes ever.  They had Mike & Ikes, white chocolate chips, M&Ms, and mini chocolate chips on them, and purple frosting.  They looked like vampires, or Count Dracula, for Halloween.

Pink Friday

On Friday, we are having Pink Friday for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  It is this Friday, October 25.  We are supposed to wear pink, but it is optional.  The student council is giving us pink ribbons.

Below are pictures from our field trip and of the cupcakes we loved.

Sincerely,
Mrs. Johnson's 3rd and 4th Graders

Iowa Assessments

This week during Language Arts, the 3rd and 4th graders have been working on Iowa Assessments.  The Iowa Assessments are taken by many different school districts.  Iowa Assessments were testing our skills in certain subjects.  We took the test everyday for one school week.  These are the subjects that our tests covered: Reading, Science, Punctuation, Spelling, Math, Social Studies, Computation, Vocabulary, Written Expression, and Capitalization.  Today we finished our testing.  We celebrated being done by having some GORP and apple juice.  GORP is a mix of dried snack foods, sort of like a trail mix.  Our GORP included: popcorn, M&Ms, Goldfish, raisins, and Cheerios.

Third Graders' Thoughts About the Iowa Assessments:

"It really wasn't that fun." -Sam
"On Monday it was sort of nerve racking, but after a while we got used to it." -Iain
"For me, some parts were fun and some parts were really bad." -Owen
"It took some time to get used to it." -Lydia

Fourth Graders' Thoughts About the Iowa Assessments:

"In my opinion, I loved the tests and I always look forward to them." -Heidi
"It was awesome/hard." -Lohman
"When the tests are coming up, I always want it to come.  Later, I sometimes get bored doing them over and over, but am glad we don't have to do our regular spelling tests." -Darya

The picture below is of a group of students taking the Iowa Assessments.

Sincerely,
Mrs. Johnson's 3rd and 4th Graders

This Week in Math and Language Arts

During math and language arts time, we are split up by grade level.  The 3rd and 4th graders are doing different things.  We will describe them below.

Fourth Grade:

Math - This week we are learning about basic multiplication and division facts (0-10 facts).  We are practicing out basic facts using fact triangles.  We all took a multiplication timed test (basic facts).  Everyone is improving.  We learned some strategies for how to solve basic facts quickly.  We learned how to solve the nines facts using our fingers. When you multiply nine by any number, the product's digits should add up to nine.  Example: 9x3=27, so 2+7=9.  We also did in and out, or "What's My Rule" tables.  In a What's My Rule table, there is a rule that you have to follow.  A number goes into the chart a different number comes out based on what the rule is.  In: 1,000  Rule: -900  Out: 100

Language Arts - This week we are learning about fictional narratives and writing our own.  We are also practicing Venn diagrams.  We read a story called "Once Upon a Cool Motorcycle Dude."  In this story, there was a princess who's ponies were stolen by a giant, and then a guy on a motorcycle helped her save them.  The story was silly because it kept going back and forth between who was telling the story (a boy and a girl).  This year we have new language arts books called Practice Books.  We work on spelling and grammar in them.  They are a part of our Journeys materials so the Practice Book pages align with the stories we are reading each week.

Third Grade:

Math - At the beginning of the week, we did a lot of subtraction practice.  Some of us used base-ten blocks, some of us made posters, and some of us used an abacus.  We also have been studying number stories and strategies for how to solve them, like a Parts and Total Chart, and other diagrams.  We are also learning about ballpark estimates.  We took timed tests for basic addition and subtraction facts.  Mrs. Hill's class got to go to the computer lab today and play math games.  We did some in and out tables this week, too.  

Language Arts - We are doing a personal narrative about something that has changed our life.  For example: you got a new pet or won your first soccer game of the year.  You also could write about if you lost a family member or something sad that changed your life.  We are doing the Daily 5.  There are five choices each day: Read to someone, listen to reading, read to self, work on writing, and word work.  We also have been meeting with our book groups.  During book group, about five people at a time meet with the teacher and we read and do assignments.

Both 3rd and 4th graders took a practice test this week for Iowa Assessments.  We practiced math and reading.  We had a little booklet that had the questions in it, and then we filled in bubbles on an answer sheet.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Johnson's 3rd and 4th Graders

4th Graders with LA Journeys Books

3rd Graders with LA Journeys Books

Hawkeye Spirit Week

This week is Iowa Hawks Spirit Week to celebrate their Homecoming.  At our school, we are doing different spirit days to show our spirit for the Hawkeyes.

Our first spirit day was on Monday.  It was called Manic Monday.  We wore ties, hats, and sunglasses.

Tuesday was Tired Tuesday.  We wore pajamas and comfy clothes.  Some comfy clothes people in our class wore were long socks, robes, fluffy and warm things, slippers, sweatpants, muscle shirts, and baggy t-shirts.

Today is WaCkY wEdNeSdAy!  Today we are wearing wacky clothes, such as mismatched socks, backwards clothes, ugly clothes, weird stuff, mismatched shoes, tutus, silly hats, Afros, colored hair, inside-out shirts, underwear over pants, weird hair-dos, bracelets, sunglasses, checkerboard socks, and shoes on the wrong feet.  Our pictures below are of our wacky outfits today.

Tomorrow (Thursday) is Throwback Thursday.  We are supposed to wear clothes from a long time ago or your favorite era.  Some ideas for tomorrow include pilgrims, 1980s bright running clothes and big jewelry, poodle skirts from the 1950s, pirate outfits, tye dye from the 1960s and 1970s, old fashioned hats, or dressing like Elvis.

Friday is called Fan Gear Day.  On Friday, we can wear Iowa shirts, black and gold, jerseys, cheerleader skirts, black and gold wigs, Hawkeye sweatshirts, dye your hair black and gold, and Hawkeye hats.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Johnson's Wacky 3rd and 4th Graders

Social Studies: People of the United States

This week in social studies we are studying the people of the US.  We are trying to learn more about different cultures and how they settled in the US.  We are also studying different cultures' contributions to the United States.  There are five main groups of people we have been studying:

Latinos:
Most Latinos moved here from Mexico and went to California in search of gold and to do mining in hopes of becoming rich.  Latinos brought tacos to America, as well as rodeos, sombreros, and chili.

American Indians:
American Indians crossed a land bridge (made of ice) between Asia and North America.  American Indians brought knowledge of planting fruits and vegetables to our culture today, as well as tepees, jewelry, pottery, baskets, tomatoes, and avocados.

Asian Americans:
Asian Americans also came in search of gold, hoping to become rich.  Many of them worked on railroads.  Asian Americans have contributed noodles to our society, as well as the word "shampoo" and sushi.

African Americans:
Most African Americans came to America as slaves, but they are free now because of the Civil War.  African Americans introduced hip hop and rap to our culture, as well as jazz music.  Lots of African Americans play sports, like football, basketball, and baseball.

European Americans:
Columbus came to the US and then it was colonized by other Europeans.  Many traveled by ship for freedom and to create their own government.  Some contributions from European Americans include waffles, pizza, the word "poodle", and the word "dollar".

The photo below is a collage of all of the cultures discussed above that was made by our class.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Johnson's 3rd and 4th Graders

Science Project: Mock Rocks

This year in science we are studying geology.  Geology is the study of the earth and rocks.  This week in science we are working with mock rocks.  A mock rock is a pretend rock that was made by our teachers.  Some of the ingredients in the rock include: red and green gravel, small sea shells, sand, and some mystery ingredients which we still need to figure out.  On our first day with our mock rocks, we observed them and recorded our observations in our science journals.  Some observations that we made included diameter, circumference and depth.  We also looked at it with a hand lens.  After we observed them, we took them apart.  We wore safety goggles to protect our eyes.  We then used nails as a geologist's pick to take the rock apart.  As we took them apart, we were able to pinpoint what our rocks were made of.  We know what some of the ingredients in the rocks are, we are going to conduct more experiments to figure out what the other ingredients are.  Below are some photos of us
taking apart our mock rocks.

Sincerely,
Mrs. Johnson's 3rd and 4th Graders

Welcome!

Welcome to Mrs. Johnson's class blog!  Soon, the students will be posting weekly updates of the happenings in our room.  Enjoy :)