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!

Growth, Growth, Growth!!

Miss Barber's students were SO excited about their growth on their timed fluency quizzes that they couldn't even stay in their seats! During our last round of testing, EVERY SINGLE STUDENT IMPROVED their score! In these pictures, we are holding up our graphs that show our growth. We are so proud!!

The Pumpkin Patch

This idea came from a colleague last year who did a "Secret Santa" activity with her students each year. I adapted it and started doing it every month to encourage positive behaviors. We love it! At the end of every month, my students receive a special mission. They are given the name of one student to watch and observe all week. This is a top-secret assignment. No one knows who is watching them! The goal is to spot that person doing one or two kind, friendly, generous, respectful, responsible things during the week. Then, at the end of the week, each student decorates a pumpkin, turkey, snowflake, heart, clover, rainbow, etc. (depending on the month) for their top-secret person. On the back, they write about the great things they saw that person doing. Then Miss Barber collects them and posts them on the board. At the end of the day, each student receives the item with their name on it and gets to read about the positive things they were spotted doing that week. It's such a fun surprise!

On the last day, we all are dying in suspense because we see our name on the board but we still don't know who was spying on us all week! Even Miss Barber participates in the fun and watches a students all week (and has a student watching her all week). Many of the students keep their pumpkins in their pencil boxes as reminders of the ways that other students appreciate them and their good behavior. What an encouragement!

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. 

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!

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! :)

Electromagnets: Exploring the Connection Between Electricity and Magnetism

Michael Faraday discovered the relationship between electricity and magnetism. Using this discovery, he invented the electromagnet which uses an electric current to create a magnetic field. Using our materials from SRP, we made electromagnets today and conducted an inquiry experiment in which we answered the question "How can we make an electromagnet stronger?" We learned that an electromagnet with no power source doesn't work. Also, an electromagnet with 50 coils of wire is stronger than an electromagnet with only 30 coils of wire.



One group's electromagnet

The electromagnet at work!



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

Seeing the Lightbulbs Turn On!

Thanks to a wonderful professional development provided by SRP, Miss Barber's class received some amazing materials to help us investigate electricity! We learned that the flow of electrons is called an electric current and that's the type of electricity that batteries produce. To demonstrate, we set up a battery on the floor with tape. Then the students stood on the wires in pairs of protons and electrons (+ and - stress balls) with a group of protons on the + side of the battery and a group of electrons on the - side of the battery. Finally we modeled the flow of electrons and showed how a battery "goes dead."

The next day, we created simple circuits, series circuits, and parallel circuits in groups. Thanks for helping us experience electricity, SRP!

Which circuit is a parallel circuit? Which is a series circuit?

The Water Cycle

Our newest science unit is studying Earth's Water!

Listen to this video and see if you can summarize the steps of the water cycle.
Get the lyrics here!

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!

Benchmark Assembly Homeroom Competition

C represented our class during the Benchmark Assembly this afternoon! One student from every homeroom had to find 5 skittles in a pan of whipped cream. He was so close to winning! 

Way to go, C!