Tales Of A 4-5 Something

4-5 went on a field trip to the Fore River salt marsh to have a closing ceremony and to give the land an acknowledgement because we want people to know about how the native people had the land first and how the Europeans took the land that was rightfully theirs. We also wanted to share how the habitat is important to us and to animals. We went around the trails and collected a lot of trash. Then we collected things that caught our eye that were part of nature and put them in a stick circle. We imagined how long the installation would last through the winter. Then we had apple cider and popcorn as a treat to end our experience at the marsh for 2022. It was fun learning about the marsh this year! It was the last day at the salt marsh until spring. We had to do a little cleanup and so we set off in search of trash, we found a bunch of garbage including tennis balls, bottles, foam and some rags. Then we each found a piece of nature and then we put our pieces of nature in a circle before e...

Before Thanksgiving the Lower School went to Sills Hall to watch a robotics club present their robots. There are teams all over the country and every year there is a challenge that the robots have to complete. This year it was throwing balls in hoops. Here is a video from another place . There are 2 robots that they made, one of them was named Charlie or Chuck. They showed us their skills and let us talk about them. It takes a lot of work to build the robots and then to code them. It doesn't get done in one day and teams have to keep working on it for a long time.  Hudson and Abraham The robot display was incredible! The coolest thing was watching the robots shoot hoops! The ball was sucked up from the robot's side and projected into the hoop. It took a few tries but it eventually made it! It was amazing to see the ball be flung across the court. The other robot could shoot hoops as well, but it could do more! This robot’s name was Sebastian, and it was smaller but faster! I...

Today was a great day! There was a haunted path in Sills which is one of our gyms. Everything was decorated for Halloween and we had lots of stations. On the Haunted Path there was a haunted tunnel, a bounce house, bowling, eyeball toss, and more! My favorite thing was the haunted tunnel that you would ride through on scooters. The whole Lower School got to do it. Thank you to our pe teachers and some parents for setting it up! -Copper and Maggie-

In Spanish class we are making Calaveras. First we started with sugar and water and put the mixture into molds of skulls. Then we put them on a tray and placed them in the oven. After a few days we got them back from Señora Megan and we got to decorate them! Calaveras are a symbol of Dia de los Muertos. This day is a Spanish holiday to celebrate the deceased ones.  -Grover and Elizabeth   

On Wednesday, October 12, we took a trip to the Fore River Campus and the salt water marsh that is there. We started our visit with Kathryn and Tim reading the book A Day In The Salt Marsh. We learned that a marsh is a nursery for animals and a home for many more. This means the marsh can also be a food web. We went on a nature walk through the woods and to the marsh. We saw a green crab, a gray egret, a squirrel, crows, and an osprey. The tide was low and some of us could see a small turtle coming up on the bank. We went to the marsh because we are starting a new unit focused on the marsh and it will be nine weeks long! We will go to the marsh many times in the next two months and we will learn a lot! Charlotte and Isaac

 4-5 Teacher Nancy taught all of us how to felt rocks and it was very interesting. We each brought in a rock from home and some of us wrote worries, hopes, or memories on the rock. Then we took colorful wool and covered our rock with it. Then we put it in a mesh sac and dipped it in warm soapy water. We had to pat it like a snowball and bring it back in the water over and over again until the wool got tight around the rock. The rocks were put aside to dry and some people even got to add embellishments. Doris and Abe 

On Wednesday, we met our buddies for the first time. I was very excited to match our stickers. When it was time for the K-1ers to come everyone was eager to meet their special buddy. Each K-1er had a card with their name on it and a sticker. We all had our cards with our names and a sticker. I was trying to find my buddy through the crowd by matching our stickers. The younger kids looked a little nervous and when I saw my adorable buddy across the room my heart leaped from my chest. I was super excited to learn her name and was super excited to have her as my bud. We went to a quiet corner and she sat next to me and I could see that everyone felt that they had just won the lottery. Together, we read Its A Fair Day Amber Brown . As we finished the book I asked if she wanted another story and we read A Spider's Diary from Tim's Halloween collection. Everyone was reading and it looked like everyone was having an awesome time like I did. Soon our buddies had to go and we waved goo...

EC does a lot of music with Bob. They even write their own songs and share them at Pachanga. There is a famous EC song about Spring flowers and Summer jumping in a pool.  On Thursday, Bob's group walked into 4-5 to share their new song about walking to school. It was fun to take a break from Spanish to sing with them. 

DIRT stands for Daily Independent Reading Time and it is a yearlong project that we do in Tim's room. The goal of the project is to read at least seven books, one from each genre. The genres are Science Fiction/Fantasy. Historical Fiction, Animals, Friendship and Growing Up (aka Realistic Fiction), Sports, Mystery, and Adventure. We also have to meet with seven different classmates to talk about the books we read and have an Exit Interview with Tim. We also do two book chats and two book reviews. So far, Elizabeth has shared about Shadows of Sherwood and Teagan shared about The Ice Monster. The will be a lot of sharing!  Right now we are reading: The Ugly One, Percy Jackson and the Titans Curse, Alone, The Great Pet Heist, Roderick Rules, Boxcar Children, The Kid Who Only Hit Homers, Starfish, Ben Bee and the Teacher Greifer, Bear Bottom, The Witches, Van Gogh Deception, and Across The Desert.  What book are you reading? - Maggie, Abraham, Grover, and Isaac, 

On Tuesday, September 20, 4-5 went on its first field trip of the year. We went to Audubon at Gilsland Farm . We met Catherine who showed us some taxidermy and we observed them. We studied them, looked at their adaptations, and drew them. After that, we played a game where Catherine hid a bright orange pencil and we had to find it and go sit down without letting other people know we found it. We practiced using our observation skills. We also did some community building games like Spud, Link Tag, and Echo. Our class also took a walk through the woods and to the marsh and pond and saw a bunch of different creatures. The best part might have been the baby snapping turtle that they are taking care of and will release into the wild in the spring. We hope you get to go visit.  -Lucia, Anna, Alex, Maggie, Teagan, Elizabeth, Cooper, and Madeline

 A new school year has started and we are so happy to be back in school. Keep coming back to our blog to read about what we are doing this year. 

Grandparents and Friends Day is a self explanatory thing where you invite loved ones to come to school with you. You give them a tour and show them what you're learning and what things you make. On Grandparents day we showed them our animal board games that we made in the library and showed them our posters, book chats, and book reviews. We also did poetry with our grand friends and when we did the poetry it started and ended with the same line. We used The Most Important Book  by Margaret Wise Brown. The most important thing about is… here is an example:            The most important thing about grand friends is that they are kind, caring, love you and are funny.           They smile, and hug, and want to play.           The most important thing about grand friends is that they are grand friends. By Pippa and Maggie 

Our former student teacher, Emma, came back. After she left 4-5 she went to Pownal Elementary school to work with First Graders. Emma is the founder of Kudos! Kudos are compliments that you write on a note then put in a box. On Fridays we'd take the notes and read it to the person we were complimenting and stick it to their arms and legs. Kudos was fun and tt was nice seeing her again. We hope she is having fun in Pownal. Pippa and Leo

Poster by Madeline and Elizabeth For those who don't know, the DIRT project is Daily Independent Reading Time and it is a year long project and must be completed by the end of the year. We are finishing the DIRT project and are very happy to be nearly done with it. Here is a q and a with Elizabeth who has finished the DIRT Project. Q: How do you feel to have finished the DIRT project? A: There is no longer anything to do at DIRT time so it’s very boring. But I get to read books still so that is good. Q: Was it hard doing all the stuff for the DIRT project? A: Not that hard. I only had to read 7 books write 2 reviews and make 2 posters. Q: What do you do at dirt now since you don't do DIRT anymore? A: Well sometimes I will read an independent book or go to the library. I can also do peer reviews. Q: Do you recommend a particular book? A: YES! The little house series, a night divided and night gardener. Q: Did you like DIRT as a whole? A: Yes, it gave me something to do and helpe...

In 4-5, we are learning about many different cultures in North America from hundreds of years ago. Before europeans came there were rich cultures all over the continent. Our teacher put us in groups and all of the pairings were assigned to a different region. For example, the northwest, southwest, northeast, southeast, and the Great Plains. Each pair did research on the climate and the kind of shelter that was built. Then they will make a poster and talk about the culture and location they were assigned to. The posters will help teach the rest of the class. -Lucia and Oliver

We have been working on inventions in our class because we studied simple machines in Science. We thought about everyday problems and then decided to build a machine to help solve the problem. We must include at least 2 simple machines in our final build. We have to present it on Friday. The 6 inventions in our room are: Biddy Bot is a robot that will walk around, talk to you, do your homework and feed you candy when you're down. It will even do your chores! Lazy Sleeper is a small alarm clock that wakes you up peacefully. It will play music of your choice, you can choose the sound of your choice for waking up like a wolf howl, leaves rustling, birds chirping, wind, and more. Fly Car is a DIY car that can take you anywhere in almost no time at all. You can skip all traffic and even drill through mountains and take it off road. Slide On Draw Assistant is an easy small build that will move your hand around to help you draw straight and better. It’s really comfortable and is just amaz...