Life in Early Arizona

We recently finished our study of cultures in prehistoric Arizona. We focused on the Mogollon, Ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi), and Hohokam cultures. As our final project, students wrote first-person narratives from the perspective of a child in one of those cultures. They created foldables that included interesting facts about their culture, a narrative about a day-in-the-life of a child in that culture, a diagram of their home based on research, and a self-portrait that included cultural elements. They turned out great! Here are a few of my favorites!

Where in the World?

For the past several years, I've noticed that my students truly lack a sense of geography. They have a hard time differentiating between cities, states, countries, and continents. They have no idea if they live closer to Canada or China! This summer, I ran into a friend from high school and found out that she teaches in China. She asked for my school address and started sending my students postcards about her experiences there! Then, we mysteriously started receiving other postcards from all over the world! It turns out that Hana had sent our school address to her friends and family who have pretty much adopted our classroom. Almost every week, we receive a postcard from somewhere in the world. After we read it, we post it on our map. We also find the locations of events (real or imaginary) as we read and we mark those on our map too. This simple 5 minute weekly activity is helping my students expand their worldview beyond their own neighborhood. We feel like we're taking a trip around the world!

The Election!

Our class participated in the presidential election in November. We first studied the electoral college and calculated the fewest number of states a candidate would need to win the necessary votes. Then we studied the candidates and their views on popular isses. After we decided which candidate we most agreed with, we took a vote. Each row was given a certain number of electoral votes based on the number of students who sit in that row. The popular vote in each row decided the winner of that row's electoral votes. Scroll to the bottom of this post to see which candidate won our class election!

According to our electoral college, a candidate needed 18 electoral votes to win. Obama narrowly won our class election with 19 electoral votes!

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. 

Welcome Back!

Miss Barber's class is in full swing after a wonderful summer vacation! Look for some summer pictures coming soon!

I wanted to share two awesome things that we've been working on already in fourth grade! First is our mission statement and social contract. These two documents were student created and they direct everything we do in our classroom. I'm so proud of their wonderful ideas!

Secondly, we've been studying plant structures and pollination. One of my brilliant students - "L" - created this pollination diagram with our blocks during free choice time today! Notice the bee at the bottom flower. The bee then leaves with pollen (green triangle) on it's back and visits another flower. Then the pollen creates a seed which is released from the flower and becomes a new plant! So amazing! Great job, L! :)

8th Grade Holocaust Museum

Our class recently finished reading Number the Stars. Now we are reading Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes in order to compare and contrast Annemarie Johansen's WWII experience with Sadako Sasaki's post-WWII experience. Coincidentally, the 8th graders in Ms. Clark's class just finished studying the Holocaust and created a Holocaust Museum for our school to tour. We visited the museum and got to ask the 8th grade tour guides lots of questions about the Holocaust. At the end of the tour, we all filled out a reflection where we wrote a wish for the world or a reflection about what the Holocaust can teach us today. Thanks for bringing our learning to life, Ms. Clark's Class!

Talking to a 8th Grade Tour Guide 

Reflections

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!

World War I

This week we're studying the causes, effects, and chronology of America's involvement in World War I.

For more information on World War I, click here. At this site you can read and listen to stories from actual World War I survivors, explore a World War I timeline, and read articles and poetry about "The Great War."

Happy Birthday Arizona - Let the Celebration Begin!

We've been learning about Arizona statehood and are getting ready to celebrate Arizona's 100th Birthday on February 14th. These are our biographies of important Arizonans who helped our state transition from a territory to a state in 1912. As the month goes on, this bulletin board will continue to be Arizona-themed as we display our Centennial Celebration work. For more information about Arizona's 100th Birthday click here. 

Kit Carson Visits Miss Barber's Class

We have been studying about the Civil War, Navajo Long Walk, and Territorial Arizona. Today we had a surprise visitor - Kit Carson himself! Kit Carson was a guide and scout who explored the uncharted Western territories in the 1800s. He became a colonel in the United States Army and fought in several wars including the Civil War. For more information on Kit Carson, click here!