I am NOT a turkey!

This time of year is tough for turkeys, so our class decided to give them disguises! In the speech bubbles, our turkeys explain all the reasons why they are actually NOT turkeys!

Happy Thanksgiving to all our family and friends!

Recent Projects

We have been up to a lot in our classroom!  Fortunately, many of you were able to see some of these projects in person at Open House but, in case you couldn't make it, here's an overview of some of our recent projects.

We read this poem by George Ella Lyon and talked about how she used unique items and memories from her life to build an extremely descriptive poem.

We then wrote our own "I Am From" poems using the original as a template.

After decorating them with tissue paper, glue and water, the final products look great!

As a team-building activity, each child received a notecard with the name of one of their classmates.  They wrote a word that they thought described that person, then passed the notecard to their neighbor.  By the end, each student had a notecard filled with positive words that describe them.

We then used these words to create word splashes, using the website "tagul".

We then laminated each one and put them together, making a word splash "quilt"!

During WIN, some of use explored using mandalas as a way to understand symmetry.

The class did a very careful job with these and they came out beautifully!

Stay tuned for more of our projects!

Geography Gameshow

On Thursday, we were lucky enough to be visited by Neal Nichols, an artist, traveler and Cape Cod native.  Neal has created a program called "Geography Gameshow" in which he introduces 4th graders to US history and geography while he draws a map of the entire United States by memory.

Asha answering questions about the years states received statehood.

The final map!

Thank you to TESPO for sponsoring this event!

Owl Pellets

This week, our class had the opportunity to dissect owl pellets in CLIC.  We had a blast pulling apart the pellets and seeing what kinds of bones were inside.  We then took the bones and recreated the skeletons of mice and other rodents!

Animal Adaptations and Birds of Prey

This week, our class was lucky enough to experience two enrichment activities relating to Science.  The first was a visit from Mrs. Condon, the CLIC teacher, who led us through an activity about the adaptations of beavers.  We learned a lot of interesting things about beavers, including that they can use their tail as a chair!

Mrs. Condon pointing out some adaptations of beavers.

Stephanie was a very good sport and modeled the adaptations of a beaver, including clear eyelids (the goggles), two layers of fat for insulation (the foam) and webbed feet (the flippers)!

Thanks, Stephanie!

On Thursday, we had a visit from Mr. Parks who runs a program called "Wingmasters".  Mr. Parks has spent years rescuing and rehabilitation injured birds of prey.  He brought in some of these birds, including a Peregrine Falcon (the fastest animal on earth), a Barred Owl, an American Kestrel (the only type of falcon that lives in Topsfield) and the very cute Northern Saw-Whet Owl.  We were amazed by these incredible birds of prey!

Thank you to TESPO for funding this wonderful program!