Happy Holidays!

Our class had a wonderful day together on the Friday before winter vacation. First, we were surprised by a group of "carolers" - some of our school's advanced band students! We were quietly working in our classroom when we heard music coming from outside our door! Miss Barber peeked outside and saw the ensemble with our band director, Mr. Graca. We all went outside and enjoyed our mini-concert with all of the other fourth and fifth grade classes in this wing of our school. What a wonderful surprise!

We also completed some elf projects. My students are so creative! We had teacher elves, security elves, reindeer elves, toy-making elves, ASU elves, and so much more! We also wrote notes to our Secret Santas - the student who we watched all week in order to catch them doing something kind, generous, caring, respectful, responsible, etc. It was so fun to read the kind words that our friends had to say about us and to find out who had been secretly watching us all week!

Crazy Miss Barber

Miss Barber got a pie in the face at our last school assembly!

Miss Barber and one of her former students at the Girls on the Run 5k race! Beware, olympians. This girl (not Miss Barber) is a rocket!!

Look at these awesome PJ pants Miss Barber got from her Secret Santa, who turned out to be Dr. Kim!

Field Day!

It's that time again - time for one of Miss Barber's favorite days of the year - 

FIELD DAY! 

Our class had an awesome time this year. We even won 2nd place in the 4th grade Tug-of-War competition! Check out some our pictures below. Thank you to all the parents who came out to help!

Red Ribbon Week

This week, our school participated in Red Ribbon Week, a national anti-drug week that takes place in schools across America. Each class designed a persuasive poster about being drug-free. Here's our poster and some of our smiling faces posing with it in the cafeteria! Each handprint represents one student and the reasons they commit to be drug free. 

Awesome Animal Adaptations!

This week, Mr. Barber visited our classroom to teach us about animal adaptations. He showed us some incredible stuff like huge elk antlers, bear and javelina skulls, pheasant feathers, an Arizona black tail rattlesnake skin, and a badger fur. He taught us about how different animals adapt to their environment in different ways. Right now we're writing informational books and reports about animals and their adaptations so we had a lot of background knowledge to connect our new learning to. Thanks for visiting us, Mr. Barber! If you want to learn more about animal adaptations through a fun game, click here!

We're also reading a new book titled Where the Red Fern Grows - one of Miss Barber's favorite books! Mr. Barber showed us how Billy sets traps for raccoons in the river bottoms with one of his own steel hunting traps.  Then we set it off on Miss Barber's wooden pointer! Ouch!

And finally, this week was Family Night at Peter Piper Pizza. Here's a picture of Miss Grace and I making pizzas for the Mensendick families! We had a blast!

A. Caught a Fly!

We know that this has nothing to do with what we're learning about in class (unless you count the fact that we just learned about invertebrates and how the fly's eyes are a special type of adaptation that helps it stay alive). But today, in the middle of class, A. caught a fly with his BARE HANDS! We thought it was dead, but it was just stunned and it actually woke up and tried to fly away while A. was still holding it! We had a pretty exciting morning!

Door Decorating Contest

Every year for Read Across America week we do a door decorating contest at our school. This year the doors were judged on "creativity, theme, and Dr. Seussiness." Here's the evolution of our door - definitely a team effort. I was so proud of the way my kids worked together on this project!

D.E.A.R.

D.E.A.R. stands for Drop Everything And Read! This week is Read-Across-America Week in honor of Dr. Seuss's birthday. Our school is doing many things to celebrate, including D.E.A.R. time every day when the whole school drops everything and just READS! Here are some pictures of us enjoying our 20 minutes of simply reading. :)

Rubik's Cube Tournament!

Today our school Rubik's Cube team competed in the state tournament! I thought I would just go check it out for an hour or so but I ended up staying all day because it was so exciting! Our team won FOURTH PLACE in our division! I am so proud of these awesome kids! And I'm so glad I got to spend the day with them at ASU West. They are so in love with "college life." Mission accomplished!

On a side note - Miss Barber officially solved the Rubik's Cube by herself today!!!!!

Arizona's 100th Birthday!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

And most importantly...

Happy 100th Birthday Arizona!!!

Today we celebrated by having a big birthday party with the 4th graders. 

We had cake, sang "Happy Birthday," and signed a "We Love AZ" banner with reasons we are thankful that we live in Arizona. What a blast! This was an awesome year to be a fourth grader in Arizona!

Rubix Cube (Almost)

Every week our school Rubix Cube team meets in Mr. Lane's class to practice for the upcoming state tournament! These kids are LIGHTNING FAST!! Miss Barber is determined to solve the rubix cube before the year is over. Today I got one white face and almost made it to having the middle row solved. A big shout out to L.P. for helping me get this far! Stay tuned for more progress!