The River Runs Wild by Faiz & Mrs. Greazel

                                                             RIVER EXPERIMENT

Mrs. Greazel:  Since we're studying rivers in Science, we decided to make our own rivers. This enabled us to observe the characteristics of a river, as it flows.  Last week 5 groups of students created and tested models of rivers. 

Faiz: This week we tried changing different variables in our rivers to see how these changes would impact the shape of the river. The different variables that we changed were the riverbed (rocks,sand, dirt and pebbles together instead of just sand),slope (different degrees of steepness and no slope), the riverbank (a rock border vs. aluminum sides) , obstructions, and different water presure/level.

Mrs. Greazel:  We behaved as scientists do by creating hypotheses, testing them by only changing 1 variable at a time, observing the results, and recording the results.  I asked questions to get the kids thinking during the 1st trial, and the kids quickly took over asking questions to help each other make detailed observations.

Jameson did an excellent job recording our trials.  Take a look at the videos and ask your child what observations they made. Ask them how the different variables changed the flow of the river, and what they noticed about erosion ad deposition during the trials.

Trial 1- less water

Trial 1 part 2 -more water

Trial 2- obstructions

Trial 3- slope- 1 block

Trial 3-slope-2 blocks

Trial 3- no slope

Trial 4-riverbank

Trial 5- riverbed

Math games by Nate

   This Friday, because our class did so well on our math test, we had math game day! We played math bingo, as well as double digit Top it. We also played a game where we rolled a dice 9 times and then tried to make the biggest number. We had to read numbers that reached into the 10 millions! Everyone had tons of fun playing math games! 

Landscape & Landform murals by Nico & Mrs. Greazel

Nico: We   are working on  landforms  and landscapes in Science. All of us are  super excited that we are working on landforms. We  worked in groups to make landscapes. We all made landforms like canyons,volcanic mountains,mountains,sand dunes,and rivers out of paper.

Mrs. Greazel: Once our landscapes were created, we labeled each landform. I took pictures of the kids outside on the playground and then the kids put pictures of themselves  in the landscapes zip- lining, climbing mountains and rock formations, hanging from cliffs and even bungee jumping!

We didn't stop there! We incorporated our study of prepositions into speech bubbles that explained what the kids were doing. Anzhelo exclaimed, "I'm back flipping above the cliff!"   Maeve proclaimed, "I'm zip-lining through the canyon!"

 Jakub, Amina, Nickolai, & Nate are all mountain climbing.  Check out Nico on the glacier.

Be careful, Connor, Anzhelo, and Owen!

Check out Maeve, Katie, Natalia & Mia zip-lining through the canyon, while Diana is scaling the side of the canyon.

The kids then looked at their picture and wrote about the small moment they were experiencing in the landscape.  Owen's story about hanging on the side of the cliff is a definite cliff hanger (pun intended)!  We focused on the small details that we would experience through our senses (wind hitting our face, hands burning from gripping the side of the cliff or rock formation, heart racing).  We also attempted to add juicy 4th grade words and dialogue to help our readers connect to our experience.

Faiz summed it up when he said, "We just did Science, grammar, and writing all at the same time!"

It was so exciting to see the kids synthesize all they have been learning into this fun, creative project that captured their imaginations.  They were so engrossed in the writing of these stories that they didn't want to stop.  When I announced it was time for recess, the class exclaimed "Awww, do we have to stop writing?"  That made my day!

On Friday, we shared our stories with a partner and worked on giving each other specific, helpful, respectful, and encouraging feedback to help improve each other's stories.

Nico: We are super happy that we are working on these. Our class is sailing through a lot this year about landforms.

Spreading goodness on 9/11

 The Smart Swagalicious Sailors of Awesomeness were inspired to share their love (and awesomeness) with others this Patriot Day by performing good deeds.  We decided, as a class, that Patriot Day was the perfect day to say thank you to the police and firefighters of Arlington Heights. We thought thanking the men & women of our hometown,was a great way to pay tribute to all the police and firefighters of New York that served so valiantly on 9/11.  

 The kids poured a lot of TLC into crafting these special cards to the police and firefighters of Arlington Heights.

9/11 good deeds youtube clip -This is the inspiration for how we celebrated Patriot Day.  Mrs. Sessler & Mrs. Beane provided everyone at Dryden with red yarn to tie around our fingers after our good deed was done. 

We're proudly wearing our red reminder yarn to show off that we remembered to do a good deed today.

After school, my kids and I delivered the thank you cards along with bags of Lifesavers to the AHPD & the Arlington Heights firefighters on Sigwalt.  They were all so appreciative that our class took the time to write them thank you notes.  They were so touched by the kindness these heartfelt notes shared with them and  expressed that this simple gesture meant a lot. 

Mrs. Sessler read to us today! by Diana, Nickolai, & Nate

Mrs. Sessler came into our class today and read us the book Taking a Bath With the Dog and Other Things That Make Me Happy by Scott Menchin.  It was an interesting book because it helps you think about what makes other people happy and it can give you ideas about how to cheer yourself up.  It made us feel happy to hear what brings other people joy.  Some of the ideas were silly.  For example, taking a bath with the dog was one character's idea!  Also, some of the ideas were unusual, like when a character said that stripes made him happy.  No matter how you make yourself happy, you should always be able to use your imagination and find what you like.

Afterwards, during our writing time, we wrote about what makes us happy.  Ask us about it when we get home tonight!

Curriculum Night

It was wonderful seeing all of you at Curriculum Night on Wednesday!  For those of you who were not able to make it, here is a link to the presentation.  It will be here for your reference all year.  I'm looking forward to a great year with you and your children!

Curriculum Night Presentation