The Big Show

On Wednesday November 22, fourth grade students performed their concert for their families.

Lining up for our rehearsal:

Our rehearsal sounded amazing!

Trying to angle the camera to include ALL 140+ students.

Some of our favorite speakers ...

Show time:

Entering for our big debut:

The dance:

Ms. Leom's view

Congratulations to ALL the fourth graders and their music teachers! It is so much fun to see our talents shared!

Pioneer Day

On Tuesday November 22, we had Pioneer Day. We've been reading about the historical fiction genre, and pioneer days are one setting for historical fiction stories.

First, we practice our next spelling words on our "slates". Next, we played some pioneer games: Hide the Button, Drop the Handkerchief, and Cupid's Coming. Then, we read informational nonfiction texts about the pioneer times and historical fiction with a pioneer focus. Our informational nonfiction had articles about the bison on the American prairie, the African-American Pioneers, and several books about Indian-Americans that lived on the plains prior to the settlers arrival. Students were invited to take notes about what they were learning. We also made butter. We poured some heavy whipping cream into a glass jar, and we took turns shaking it. We had the butter we made on fresh buns from the kitchen.

The big "adventure", in Ms. Leom's class, the jar broke when we were making butter. The students were so careful. It was even a mason jar. I can't imagine what cause the jar to break. It just fell in a clump on the floor. Luckily, Ms. Sherry was on the job, she cleaned up the mess completely, while we kept with our learning. We had to throw all the butter we had made, to be sure there were no pieces. We were able to talk about, sometimes our best intentions don't work out, we might feel frustrated, and there can even be a mess. It is our individual job to figure out how we can move forward in those situations. Just like the pioneers had to do ... they had to find solutions.