Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life . . .

After watching the video above (and/or reading the book review on the class novel page on my webpage), please read the first 2 chapters of Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life. ONLY THE FIRST TWO CHAPTERS!!!! I know it might be hard to stop (I did not want to either)

What do you think is in the box Jeremy received? If a mysterious box was suddenly delivered to you, what would it look like and who would it be from? You can be as creative as you want . . .

Mr. Pilson needs our help!

At Mr. Pilson's blog, he needs our help writing a song about animals from different continents. Can you help him write some lyrics? He needs a short poem about whales, elephants, seals and penguins. Can you write a short poem about these?

Visit his blog to post your poem as a comment
http://makingmarvelousmusic.blogspot.com/

4 Squares

If you take 4 squares that are all one inch by one inch and place them side by side, you will have a figure that has an area of 4 square inches. The perimeter of this shape will be 10 inches.
How many different ways can you arrange these 4 squares if they have to be joined along an edge and not just at the corners? What is the area of each of these figures? What is the perimeter of each of these figures?

Landforms

Uploaded on authorSTREAM by Rina

Perimeter

We have done several activities on the ActivBoard and the laptops dealing with perimeter. Tell me about what you have learned and how you would teach someone else about how to find perimeter. We also talked about the difference in regular and irregular polygons.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

Since you have not read this great book that is a quick read, we are going to read, discuss, and enjoy it in the short time before our holiday break!

Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life

After watching the video above (and/or reading the book review on the class novel page on my webpage), please read the first 2 chapters of Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life. ONLY THE FIRST TWO CHAPTERS!!!! I know it might be hard to stop (I did not want to either)

What do you think is in the box Jeremy received? If a mysterious box was suddenly delivered to you, what would it look like and who would it be from? You can be as creative as you want . . .

Novel Theme Song

•Think about the mood and purpose of the theme songs of your favorite movie or TV show
•Your job is to create a theme song for the novel you are reading or have just read
•You may want to think of a familiar melody write your own words or create your own sounds too
•After you have composed your Novel Theme Song, you will need to write a paragraph explaining the relationship between the song and the novel
•When this project is due, you will perform your song for the group and we will record it!
*If you would like, you may also create an interpretive dance to go along with the theme song you created

4th grade: Esperanza Rising
3rd grade: In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson

Bridge to Terabithia

Although we are not technically doing a novel study on this book, my 3rd graders decided to both read it. So, L and L I am creating a place for you to ask questions, summarize, and share your wonderful ideas. You girls do a very good job of THINKING while you are READING and I would like for you to share some of those thoughts! :)

http://www.terabithia.com/
Here is the official site of the author of this book (Katherine Paterson). It includes an autobiography, answers to frequently asked questions about her life and writing, and summaries of her works.

Let me know if you want to do some more activities or things with this book. I am glad that as soon as you finished reading the last book, you immediately wanted to get started on a new one (and came to ask me which one I would recommend . . . well I actually think you just wanted to look in my big box of books not in the class library!)

Exploring Properties of Rectangles

Manipulate the dynamic rectangle and parallelogram on the site below by dragging the corners (vertices) and sides (edges). You can rotate or stretch the shapes, but they will retain particular features.

http://standards.nctm.org/document/eexamples/chap5/5.3/index.htm#applet

Questions to think about :

• What is alike about all the figures produced by the dynamic parallelogram?
• What common characteristics do parallelograms and rectangles share? H
• ow do rectangles differ from other parallelograms?

• Predict whether the dynamic rectangle can make each figure below, then check your prediction by trying to duplicate the shape using the dynamic rectangle.
• Predict whether the dynamic parallelogram can make each figure below, then check your prediction by trying to duplicate the shape using the dynamic parallelogram.

PowerPoint Creators

My AIG girls have gone wild over PowerPoint recently. The 3rd grade girls are creating a Math Vocabulary presentation that they will continue to add to as new information is discovered. The 4th grade girls have started creating one as a Reader Response Activity to the novel they are reading. They have discovered how to change backgrounds, add text boxes, add pictures, and add new slides. They are having fun changing fonts and pictures (too much I am afraid). We may even add some sounds and slide transitions. Lydia is even adding some animation to her creation.:) After they work on their projects a few more days, I will post them using voicethread so we all can see what they are working on.

Esperanza Rising

The 4th grade girls are going to read Esperanza Rising. They will make predictions before starting the book and at various points throughout the book. We can stop at the end of chapters and predict what is going to happen in the next one. This book is an example of the genre Historical Fiction. We will also be looking for genre characteristics as we read through this book.

Character Suitcase

The project of the month was to create a suitcase and contents carried by the main character of a book. Since we read A Year Down Yonder as a group, students created a suitcase for Mary Alice.

In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson

The 3rd grade girls are going to read In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson. They will make predictions before starting the book and at various points throughout the book. We can stop at the end of chapters and predict what is going to happen in the next one. This book is an example of the genre Historical Fiction. We will also be looking for genre characteristics as we read through this book.

A Year Down Yonder Story Maps

New Book

We recently started reading the book A Year Down Yonder. What do you think about the book so far? What happened in the chapter you read last night? Do you see any connections to anything else you have read or anything in your life?