Widlife Expo Field Trip

Our first field trip this year was to the Wildlife Expo at the Lazy E Arena in Guthrie. We were very thankful that Mrs. Kincaid, OCS Spanish teacher and Andrew's mom, is licensed to drive our bus. She did an amazing job of safely transporting 66 students and 3 teachers. Our entire day was spent doing hands-on science exploration and just having fun with the outdoor activities. For instance, we kayaked, mountain biked, fished, did archery, sampled wild game such as buffalo, deer, etc. and marveled at the food made in dutch ovens on an open fire. We learned about arrowheads, falcons, eagles, and safety when camping. We were amazed at the extensive insect collections, and animal skeleton displays. There were opportunities to make baskets, birdhouses, and jewelry from animal bone. Some of us were planning to return this weekend with our families. The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation is the primary organizers for this yearly event. They do a wonderful job and, believe it or not, admission is FREE. Great 4th grade memories, for sure!

laptops

Whoa! We now have a set of laptops in the elementary building to use in our classroom occasionally. This first time we are doing some research on the following explorers: Hudson, Cortez, Cartier, Cabot, Drake and Columbus. The class was divided into 6 groups for the project. Each child had a specific task including: background of the explorer, important discoveries made and how they affect us today, mapping of the routes taken by the explorer, and a pencil drawing of the explorer. We are looking forward to the group presentations tomorrow.

Book Buddies

We met our first grade book buddies for the first time this past week. We are pairing up with Mrs. Nelson's class AND Mrs. Martin's class. That means more first graders to read with and that is always fun. This fall, we will get together about every two weeks and read to our book buddies. Later in the year , the first graders will have progressed enough to be reading aloud to us. We love this time together and it is a great opportunity for us to set the example as the older students.

Paper People and Fall Football

What do paper people and fall football have in common? Our class would answer that enthusiastically "ALOT"! We have adopted three OCS football player and cheerleader for the fall football season. Their names are Sklyer Sikes, Kyle Lovelace, Stephen Wood, and Hannah Wallis. We made these paper people and they were displayed at the Friday football game. A few weeks ago we wrote letters to them and they were displayed on their lockers. We are proud of these OCS high schoolers and look forward to praying for them and encouraging them in other ways this fall.

GO SAINTS!

Bug Fair

Today was our fourth grade Bug Fair. Each student displayed their bug collection on their desk. The collection consisted of at least 6 insects that had been caught by the student, preserved in a freezer, and then placed in an egg carton or segmented container and labeled. We had plenty of variety from our 66 fourth graders AND plenty of interesting odors from decaying bugs!!!!! We took turns rotating from room to room to view all the collections and get close ups with our magnifying glasses. The kids loved it. I must admit, I never tire seeing the enthusiasm of fourth graders for God's incredible six-legged creatures.

We're Going Buggy!

Our new unit in science has us finding out facts about insects. Using what we had learned thus far about these marvelous creatures, we designed our own creatu. Each insect had to have a head, thorax and abdomen along with eyes, antenna, and legs.

You will notice that some of our critters look pretty scary, while others are cute as a bug in a rug! Regardless, they are all very original and now sit happily on our desks.

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Extra Recess/ Howdy Day

The class earned an extra recess recently. They had their choice of board games, working on a puzzle, drawing, or playing Oregon Trail on a very antiquated laptop that once belonged to Mr. Anderson. The smiles and laughter in the room let me know that these classmates enjoy the company of one another and know how to have FUN!!!

As you can see by the photos, some of us wore western attire on this day too in honor of an OCS elementary day known as "Howdy Day". Each year at the start of school, we choose a Friday to welcome our new students at an assembly where we sing western songs and say a big "HOWDY". Traditions are a treasured part of OCS.

Zoe and Ashlee

Chad putting together a puzzle