Change Is Simple

On Tuesday, we had another visit from Change Is Simple. We learned more about endangered animals and greatly enjoyed the habitat tents! Thanks again to GREEN Topsfield for sponsoring their visit. 

Persuasive Writing and Reading

       For the month of January, we have been studying persuasive reading and writing.  Our class has really enjoyed being able to "argue" one side of a claim!  In Reading, we have been working with Mrs. Moses examining some different ways companies try to persuade you to buy their product.  We showed the class this famous infomercial (click the picture to see the video):

       We then had a class discussion about what persuasive methods were used in this infomercial:

       Each student then wrote about whether or not the infomercial convinced them to buy a ShamWow towel:

       We then got to see a real Sham Wow in action!  Evan brought in one and we tested it out on a bowl of water.  What do you think?  We were pretty impressed!

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Change Is Simple

      This week, the 4th grade classes were visited by Change Is Simple, a group focusing on environmental education.  You can visit their website here.  Our workshop (one of four this year) focused on endangered animals and the role the environment plays in their survival.  We also learned about ways we, as humans, can prevent species from becoming extinct.  We greatly enjoyed our time with Change Is Simple and are very thankful to GREEN Topsfield for funding their visit!

Our Poetree

For the month of December, we are studying poetry in Reading and Writing.  Our class has really enjoyed exploring this genre and experimenting with different forms of poetry.  Using what we have read as inspiration, the class created color poems using descriptive and sensory words.  They then wrote their poems on paint chips to decorate our "Poetree!"

Word Splash

    This week, our class did a wonderful teamwork activity!  Each student was given a notecard with the name of another student on it.  They wrote a word that they associated with that peer.  The notecards were then passed around, so everyone go to write on all the notecards.

         We then created Word Splashes using the website Tagxedo.  The class entered in the words (once for each time it occurred on their card...this caused that word to be larger than others on the Word Splash), chose the colors, layout, etc., and ended with some beautiful artwork!

    It was really nice seeing what everyone wrote and how we all value each other for different things.  We are very lucky to have such a wonderful class!