Book Clubs On the 4th Grade Hall

CHOICE 

When starting book clubs this is the question we pondered on, do we give the students a choice of what to read or just assign books to certain groups? We decided that if we wanted the students to have a love for reading we must first give them the choice of what they want to read, what interests them, what makes them WANT to go home every night and pick up the book to read and then tell
their friends about.
We started out with each teacher picking around 10 books for the class to choose from and then after reading the book jacket for each book the group would decide on which one they wanted to read. We never expected the students to be SO excited about reading a book! Students were also given 5 jobs to pick from in each group that they wanted pursue for a certain time period, everyone worked very well sorting out the jobs and deciding who would be the best at what. When students got their jobs they immediately took action and started doing what they could to make sure they did their best to provide for their group.

These are the different jobs students could choose from: 

Stellar Summarizer

Word Wizard

Artful Artist 

Literary Luminary

Director 

I won't explain the jobs just yet, I will let the students blog about their jobs because they really are important to them and they are doing wonderful taking responsibility for the things their job requires.



Here are the books the students chose and some pictures from our first week doing Book Clubs. Each Friday one student volunteers to bring snacks for his/her group and they have a group discussion on the papers they filled out on their book and what they thought was interesting about the book so far.
At first we were a little worried about discussions going on other than book club discussions but that has definitely not been the case! Students are so engaged and eager to share with their peers and they can't wait to discuss what they have learned or what questions they still have. Stay tuned for the students to blog about their books in the upcoming weeks.

Here are a few pictures of the students and their first week with book clubs! 

MAP Incentive Spa and Sports Day

To reward students for their work on the MAP reading assessment, students had the choice of going to a Spa day or Sport day. Our class did an outstanding job on the MAP reading assessment and had 100% growth so everyone got their choice of what they wanted to do! I was in the room with the SPA picks so here are a few pictures.

The spa day consisted of soaking the hands with warm water, lotion hand massage from teacher, and nails painted by a friend or teacher. 

Great job everyone!!! 

Culminating Assessment

 At the end of researching students for our Around the World in 40 Days PBL students were required to create their own magazine, travel brochure, or children's book to display what they have learned while traveling. 
 Here are a few pictures of the going through the brainstorming process: 

Students are working really hard create their final products. I will post pictures of the final products soon. 

Abigail's book on the Polar Region 

Breanna's book on the Swamp Region

Harley's book on the Polar Region 

Celebrating Pi Day

We celebrated PI day by measuring the book Sir Cumference and the First Round Table  and finding out the circumference, radius, and diameter of circles. At lunch students enjoyed rice krispy pie made by Mrs. Blackburn! Here are a few videos and pictures to help you remember Pi.

Around the World in 40 Days Update!

Around the World in 40 Days! 

The Question: How can my experiences, knowledge, and research help me to be informed and inform other about animals and their environment? 

The Launch:  Skyping with a zoo keeper from Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo......
http://www.omahazoo.com 
This is the site that we researched on Thursday so students could formulate questions to ask the zoo keeper. Students if you think of any other questions to ask the zoo keeper write them down and bring them to school tomorrow. 

Each 4th grade classroom will be transformed into a distinct environment, (polar region, rivers and streams, desert, swamp, and rainforest) students will be researching what their specific region is and then decorating the classroom to match what they have learned.Parents don't forget we would love your help on Monday and Wednesday after school! 
After all regions are decorated students will be traveling to each room over the course of 20 days to research and be informed about the plants, animals, and characteristics of each environment. A field guide will be in the hands of each student so they can take notes on their findings and work on their final product.
Decorating in progress 

Our class visiting the stations in our own environment 

Finished Product and touring other environments 

Students learning about the desert environment in Mr. Carroll's classroom. 

Mrs. Johnson's class visiting our Polar Region. 

Kellan testing to see which hand was warmer, the one with blubber or the one without. 

Our igloo thanks to Mrs. Blackburn! 

Visiting Mrs. Gidaro's room in the River and Streams environment. 

Visiting the Rainforest 

Mr. Carroll's boys visited the Polar Region 

Our class visiting Mrs. Johnson in the Swamp Region 

Mrs. Hyder's first graders came to visit the Polar and Swamp Regions last week, we showed them around and answered questions they had about the different regions. 

Culminating Assessment: At the end of researching students will create their own magazine, travel brochure, or children's book to display what they have learned while traveling. No matter what the students decide to create, they will understand how to use text features while writing, summarize multi paragraph texts using key details to support central ideas, draw logical conclusions from relationships and patterns discovered during the inquiry process and much more!