Letters to our Colonial Friends

This past week we wrote letters to the main characters from our colonial novels: Maria's Story (1773) and John's Story (1775). As we read our novels, we notice that life for children over 200 years ago carried far more responsibilities. For instance, Maria is expected to care for her younger brothers, cook meals and keep up with the housework. Going to school is not an option for her and she is intent on teaching herself to read and write so she can assist in the family business of operating the printing of the Virginia Gazette. John, on the other hand, is part of the elite gentry class and lives with many privileges including household servants. John is struggling internally with the decision to fight against the British along with his older brother, or to try a more diplomatic approach to solving problems, as his father suggests. Both John and Maria are close in age to our fourth graders.
In our letters, we asked questions about games they play, hobbies, clothing, and friendships. We also drew pictures of John and Maria based on what we have read out in our novels and other sources regarding colonial attire.

Canine Surprise With Our Book Buddies

Book Buddies with Mrs. Nelson's first grade class is something we always look forward to. This week we were invited for a special time of learning about Titan, a very special German Shepherd who sniffs out bombs and catches criminals for the Oklahoma City Police Force. Titan belongs to Mr. Reedy who is Taryn's dad in first grade. Titan came from Slovenia and is trained to respond to German commands. We watched Titan sniff out a "pretend" bomb in the classroom and when it was located, he showed he had found it by immediately sitting down. Titan is a very friendly dog when not "on the job" and Mrs. Nelson and Mrs. Anderson both had a turn as he practiced his "attack mode" on them. He is definitely a strong puppy!

A Colonial Concert

Despite the dreary weather today, our three fourth grade classes boarded the bus and headed to the Oklahoma History Center for a special concert with Dr. David Hildebrand, one of our country's top musical historians. Dressed in period costume, Dr. Hildebrand taught us about various instruments and songs from the colonial period, especially those favored by our first president, George Washington. We enjoyed hearing the harpsichord and learned the difference between a piano and harpsichord as well as learning about drums, flutes, and stringed intruments similar to guitars. Some tunes played were familiar to us and we learned how old tunes have sometimes taken on new words or rhythms over the years.
We definitely feel better prepared to learn our minuet now in preparation for our Feast Day on November 18th! Best of all, we purchased some CD's of Dr. Hildebrand so we can enjoy him all throughout our colonial unit.

Grandparents Day

Hannah has a green thumb.

Plant displays. Great job, Amanda!


Alyssa and Brandon enjoying their grandparents.

What fun we had getting ready for Grandparents Day. We made drawings of how we thought we would look as grandparents someday as well as writing our thoughts on what kind of grandparents we hope to be. An acrostic about our grandparents also was added to our desk display and we had an list of questions we planned to use when we interviewed our grandparents about the "good old days". We also gave tours of our room showing our grandparents things like where we hang our backpacks, our cubbies, the job chart, our calendar, class photo album, and other things that are unique to our classroom.

In addition, we were proud to show our plant unit experiments with growing seeds in the dark and the light. Each student made a display that showed their observations over a two week period as well as the cycle of a seed as it germinates and forms into a mature plant.

Fun, Frenzy, and God's Protection

With great anticipation, our class set out to celebrate our fund raiser feats with a bowling/pizza party. We savored our thick crust cheese pizza and pitchers of Pepsi and 7Up to start us off followed by a hunt for just the right bowling ball and shoes. With four lanes assigned to us, we divided up into boy and girl teams and participated in several games of fun. There was plenty of laughter, cheering, and delightful conversation as we enjoyed one another's company. Even our wonderful parents took time to sample some yummy pizza.
Satisfied with our fantastic event, we packed up and got ready to depart. As the first group of girls left with Mrs. Rice, a surge of powerful wind flew across the parking lot, blowing the glass doors of the bowling alley, inward and outward along with debris blowing hither and yonder in the entrance. I watched in disbelief as the wind picked up speed and literally sucked Bailey backwards like a gigantic vacuum cleaner. It picked her up off the ground and she did several backward flips MID-AIR prior to landing upright on her twisted foot. The adrenalinedefinitely had kicked in for me and I took off through the damaged doors to retrieve my precious students. All were directed back to the bowling alley where we calmed one another, called the school, and waited until Mrs. Leadford gave us the clear to exit the building following her up-to-the-minute weather findings! No, it was not a tornado, but it was definitely some powerful display of force!!!! We are so thankful that all of us were safe, especially Bailey. God was DEFINITELY watching out for our class. We offered a prayer of thanksgiving as a class, and decided that we could write some pretty creative stories about our day at the bowling alley. Wow! Not one of us could go home that day without being filled with gratitude

Grow Seeds, Grow!

Science is definitely hands on in our classroom. We recently planted some lima bean seeds. Those seeds were soaked in water for 24 hours first, placed in dirt in a clear cup, watered and place in two very different environments---darkness and light. We wrote our hypotheses regarding how light and absence of light would effect our plants. We are now recording our observations and will make a display for Grandparents Day.

Wildlife Expo Field Trip

Well, I told our class this would be wonderfully fun field trip, but by their expressions after arriving at the Lazy E Arena in Guthrie, they realized just how FANTASTIC it was going to be. We divided into groups , got our free wildlife bracelets to wear, and off we went. Most of us did the kayaking first and then did the booths inside the arena. There were crazy looking bugs, alligators, enormous fish, games, and wild game food to try. Pretty tasty stuff! That was just a FEW of the indoor things to do. Outside was archery, bird watching, arrowhead and basket making, wall climbing, ATV fun, shooting, fishing and enjoying tasting food made at a VERY AUTHENTIC cowboy site complete with an original chuck wagon from the late 1800's. Mrs. Troester, Mrs. Frankfurt and I really enjoyed talking to the owner about that piece of history!!!!! Way cool.










Jessica is great at throwing a tomahawk!

authentic chuckwagon from the late 1800's Josh and Ben are proud of their turkey calls

There was so much to see and do on the 40 acres and we were happy but plenty tired when we boarded the bus after 5 delightful hours of fun and learning. Back at school, we wrote in our journals about what we had seen and experienced that day. We also had fun free memorabilia from the day to show. It sounded like several students were hoping to take their families back to the Wildlife Expo over the weekend again. And, why not, with the beautiful weather and great FREE fun for the entire family.

Explorer Presentations

We are taking some time to learn about the early explorers. Dividing into groups allowed us to learn about several famous people including Cabot, Cartier, Drake, Cortes, Hudson, and Columbus. We did research to find out about their country of origin, family background, regions explored, and countries that hired them to do explorations. We also located the routes they took and destinations. The artist of each group drew a picture of the explorer and our Cabot group even made "hardtack" which was similar to a biscuit made from flour, salt, water, and baking powder. This was a staple for sailors on the high seas. One brave gentleman, Christian Van Curen, did a great job of putting together a costume to resemble Cartier. Unfortunately, the Cabot group pictures didn't turn out. Regardless, we definitely learned many facts about the explorers and enjoyed the process.

Reading Challenge Winner

Congratulations to Hannah for being the winner in our classroom for the recent "Masterpiece" Media Center reading challenge. She will enjoy a visit to the Oklahoma City Art Museum followed by lunch as a reward for her dedication to reading. Well done, Hannah!

Bug Fair

What fourth grader doesn't enjoy a Bug Fair? We displayed our amazing bug collections from the wilds of Oklahoma as well as imaginary bugs created earlier in our unit. We discovered that there are some pretty incredible displays of God's creativity right in our own backyards. Such beautiful colors and shapes, not to mention interesting odors!!! We proudly shared our findings with Mrs. Leadford as she visited our bug fair too.