Tales Of A 4-5 Something

This past week the 4-5 Program began an excited new theme study. Students will be exploring the historical and scientific concepts connected to Immigration and Industrial Revolution. Students will enjoy time in each of the four classrooms exploring topics in depth and will celebrate the learning at an Ellis Island simulation in December. Here is a brief snapshot of what students will experience: The Irish Potato Famine of (1845-51) : an historical example for emigration from one’s country into another country. Students will explore the push/pull factors for emigration/immigration through conversations, videos and readings. Students will also explore hunger both in the past and present, worldwide and here in Maine. Students will enjoy an “Adopt a Family” partner project. Students will become an immigrant Irish family and will be asked to find housing and jobs in Boston. Students will discover the challenges and joys of moving to a new land and will share their experiences with a lett...

This week we are starting a new Lit book. We are studying about Immigration and the Industrial Revolution in themes so our teachers thought it would be good to read books about that idea. Every homestation had a choice of three or four books. Then each one of us could pick the book we wanted to read. Cole chose Maggie's Door but he was the only one that chose it so he will be reading Inside Out And Back Again. Henry H chose Honeysuckle House. He wanted to read it because it sounded interesting. Charlie chose Inside Out and Back Again. Alex wanted to read Esperanza Rising and she chose this because she likes the rags to riches stories. Charlie D., Alex, Cole and Henry H. Here are the books that are being read for Lit: Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan Honeysuckle House by Andrea Cheng Drita My Homegirl by Jenny Lombard A Jar Of Dream by Yoshiko Uchida    

In 4-5 we have a lot of different types of lunch. In Monday we have Homestation Lunch. On Tuesday we have Random Lunch. On Thursday it is Teachers' Choice and on Friday it is Choice Lunch. For Random Lunch a person in each homestation figures out how to split the other kids up. Sometimes it can be picking a name out of a hat or maybe rolling dice. And at lunch they go to the homestation that they got. I asked some people what they thought.  HenryM. :I like the way the tables are arranged.  Tobias.   :It's fun to sit with friends and sometimes new people.  Me.        :It's not like 2-3.                                       by Cole

The weather is changing. It is getting cold and windy. All of the leaves are falling and today the rain is making puddles on the ground. The mud is getting everywhere from our shoes after recess. It definitely doesn't feel like summer anymore. -Maeve

For the Salt Marsh Genius Hour we study a lot of different subjects. We each got to pick and idea we wanted to know more about. We each had a class with our teachers and then we got to decide on our own what we wanted to do. Some examples are that Olivia studied animals of the marsh and Isabelle studied white tailed deer. Alex studied animals and plants of the salt marsh and Iris made a marsh landscape with scientific labels on Minecraft. We learned that the scientific name for a Mummichog (a fish from the Low Marsh) is Fundulus heteroclitus. We also learned that White Tail Deer can swim. Jaden showed us a food chain in Minecraft and we learned that the Snowy Egret eats Mummichog. Isabella took the facts she learned and turned it into a board game. Some people even made candles with Bayberry! When we went to the FRC to do field study we learned that Cattail can grow longer than the human body. Lots of 4-5 students learned how they can use and eat the plants in the marsh.   ...

We are almost finished with our detailed marsh writing pieces. We started a long time ago when we visited the marsh for themes. We took a lot of pictures. When we were in class we talked about the 5 senses, synonyms, and similes. We have word clouds all over the room to help us think about new words for colors, taste, smell, sound, and touch. Each of us picked a picture and we have been writing about it. Nancy and Tim have helped us think about opening sentences and paragraphs. We work with our teachers, we work with each other, and we write by ourselves. When we our done we will put our writing with our pictures and put them on the wall. You should come see them. Here are some notes that our group made that we use in class. Notes for Paragraph Writing A paragraph is… “part of a page” “a clump of words” “it holds a bunch of sentences” Little to Big letters - 26 words - needs a vowel sentences - needs a verb paragraph - needs a topic, supporting, concluding sent...

All of the students in 4-5 are visiting Laurel in the library. She is telling us about the MSBA books. MSBA stands for Maine Student Book Award. The award is given out to the best book of the year and the best part is that the students get to vote! It is not just the kids at Waynflete but kids from all over Maine. The only rule is that you have to read three of the books and there are lots to pick from. Laurel has a site you can visit if you want. sites.google.com/a/waynflete.org/msba-site/ Henry W., Violet, Jaden, and Alex want to read Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library . Eli wants to read Boy on the Porch and Olivia wants to read Duke . What will you read? Violet, Eli, and Henry W.