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POETRY

We had to do our Coffee House Poetry on Thursday this week because of Play Day (a.k.a. Field Day) on Friday.

The poet our class chose this week was Johnay.

I Wish....

I wish I was a fish in the sea.

I wish I could see what you mean.

I wish I could be free.

I wish I could see me.

I wish I can be me.

I wish we can be friends 'til the end.

I wish we could be ourselves and not have to worry about what anyone says, does, or sees because it only comes down to you and to me.

Poetry by Tamara and Ebony

This week we started our poetry unit in Mrs. Braymer's class. On Friday, we made hot chocolate and shared our poetry on the Elmo document camera. We chose two of our favorite poets.

Sammyian 

by Tamara

A Sammyian lives in a sunny super separate spa.

A Sammyian eats sloppy joes with spices, little sisters, and salapenos.

A Sammyian likes shocking people, driving ships, shattering windows, and hates to share toys.

My Sammyian shaved my head for screaming in the shabby shack.

Girls and Boys

by Ebony

Girls are red

Boys are blue

Girls are hot

And boys are rude.

Earth Day

Even though Earth Day was on Wednesday April 22nd, our class celebrated with activities all week long. Everyone was encouraged to bring paper from home to recycle at school. First, on Monday we went outside and picked up trash around the parking lots at school. We were pleased to find so little trash. Next, Mrs. Carpenter asked us to all wear green on Wednesday. Later that day we watched the Green Team plant a tree and release a giant earth balloon. Then, on Thursday, Mrs. Braymer read The Lorax by Dr. Suess. This book taught us about pollution and the horrible things it can do to the environment. Finally, we worked on an Earth Day packet that had activities in it. 

These are some of the things we learned this week during Earth Day.

1. What it means to Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

2. How to avoid polluting 

3. How to dispose of trash properly

GO GREEN!

How to Steal a Dog

Do you think it is okay to steal something even if it will help someone else out?

That is what happened to Georgina in the book How to Steal a Dog. Georgina's dad left her and her mom and little brother Toby with no money, and they had to live in their car. Georgina came up with a plan to steal a dog and use the reward money to help her mom get a new apartment. She got made fun of because she was dirty and smelly. She lost all of her friends and life was really bad. You'll have to read the book and find out how Georgina stole a dog. Do you think she will get the reward money?

We would recommend that everyone read this book because we all learned a valuable life lesson. Plus the book had suspense, humor, and lots of interesting details!

Planetarium

Drip! Drip! Drip! The Friday before Spring Break, we loaded a yellow school bus with Mrs. Chandler's and Mrs. Nelson's classes. We were on our way to the Planetarium, but this was turning out to be a miserable ride. First of all, we were very crowded. Secondly, the bus windows were leaking,  and it was raining outside. When we arrived at the Planetarium, half of the class looked like they wet their pants on the way! It was really just water.

Previously that week, we watched a video of the Magic School Bus where Ms. Frizzle took her class to the Planetarium as well. On the way, their bus turned into a rocket and blasted to space. We wished our bus could turn into a rocket too, but it didn't. 

At the Planetarium we watched a video of how astronauts prepare for space travel. Some parts of the video were pretty funny. We also learned that stars make patterns called constellations, March 20th has 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness, the sun doesn't really go up and down in the sky, the earth rotates around the sun to give us day and night, and the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. The man who taught our class made up a rap about the solar system.

Even though our trip wasn't as exciting as the Magic School Bus, we still had a good time. 

The Pep Rally

Wow! Look at those cheerleaders! Last Friday at school we had a pep rally to pump us up for the TAKS tests. Some cheerleaders from Wilkinson came and did some cheers and stunts. Next, the kindergarten  teachers and some students did a few cheers. After that, some teachers sang songs like P-R-A-Y (to the tune of "YMCA") and Stop & Slow Down on TAKS (to the tune of "Stop in the Name of Love"). We thought it was really neat to see teachers dressed up and doing something other than teaching. Then a group of girls from our class did a dance.  Our Tisinger Spirit Team (TST) also did a routine. Some of our favorite parts were Dr. Slejko's sagging pants and Ms. Denman rapping. We had a lot of fun at the pep rally.

Good Boy, Fergus!

Good Boy, Fergus! Today in Mrs. Braymer's class we read this book by David Shannon. (He also wrote the No, David! and Alice the Fairy books.) In this book, Fergus does bad things, but his owner still says, "Good boy, Fergus!" The dog begs for spaghetti and meatballs, pees on cars and fire hydrants, destroys a plant in a pot, and doesn't come when his owner calls. Every time, the owner always replies, "Good boy, Fergus!"

While we were reading the book, Mrs. Braymer compared her dog Albert with Fergus. They both like to ride with their heads out of the truck window. Fergus likes to eat fluffy whip cream on the top of his food, and Mr. Braymer hides Albert's allergy pills in whip cream. Both dogs try to hide when it's bath time, and they like to chase cats and motorcycles.

We thought this book was hilarious! Anyone who has a dog should read it.

Tacky the Penguin

Have you ever felt like you didn't belong in a group? That's how it was with Tacky the penguin. Tacky didn't fit in with his penguin companions. He did "splashy cannonballs" instead of graceful dives, didn't march in time, couldn't sing on key, and wore a wild Hawaiian shirt. One day some hunters came to catch some pretty penguins. Instead, they met Tacky. Because he didn't act like all the other penguins, the hunters were scared away. In the end, Tacky saved his penguin companions from being captured by the hunters. 

After we read this story, Mrs. Braymer taught us about point of view. Each group had to write about Tacky from a different perspective: Tacky's, the Penguin Companion's, or the Hunter's. We found out that not everyone in the story looks at it the same way.  

Texas Independence

"Remember the Alamo!" That's what the soldiers cried out during the war when Texas was fighting for their independence. Back in March of 1836 the Mexican Army attacked an old mission called the Alamo. The Texans lost the battle because they only had about 200 men, and the Mexicans had about 5,000. One woman, Susanna Dickinson fled the Alamo after Santa Anna told her to tell Sam Houston what had happened.  Houston was the commander of the Texas army. He organized the Texas soldiers, gave them better training, and headed to Harrisburg to fight Santa Anna and the Mexican army. Later, at the Battle of San Jacinto, the Texans completed a surprise attack on the Mexican army. Eventually, Santa Anna surrendered and signed a treaty allowing Texas to have their independence. The Texas army was able to continue fighting because they wanted to remember their friends and family who had died at the Alamo for their freedom. "Remember the Alamo!" was the battle cry that led them to victory over Santa Anna and the Mexicans.  

Writing Wednesdays

   Yeah! On Wednesdays we get to do writing rotations. This is where we go to different classes for thirty minutes to help us become better writers. We made some treasure chest folders that we carry to each class in order to keep up with all of our papers. All of the fourth grade teachers teach us about writing. Each week we focus on a different writing trait for the TAKS test. 

   The first week, we learned about main ideas. Mrs. Brown taught us about staying on topic. Mrs. Nelson told us to narrow the topic down. We really liked when Mr. Simmons imitated the dragon falling to the ground, and he really collapsed. 

   

   The second week, we learned about organization. When we were in Mrs. Chandler's class we practiced using transition words like: first, next, then, after, and finally. Mrs. Braymer taught us about putting things in chronological order, which means to put things in time or number order. 

   We like writing rotations because it makes the day go by faster. We think all of the schools should do rotations. Our class is looking forward to learning about the next four writing traits.

Millipedes

"They're tickling me," shouted Adrian. In Mrs. Braymer's class today, each person was given the choice to put on gloves and pick up the millipedes. Some students in the class were scared to hold the millipedes because they were frightened the critters might squirt them or crawl up their arm. While observing the millipedes we discovered that the antennae are longer than their legs, some will coil up like a rolly polly, they have exoskeletons (which means they are hard on the outside), and they hide under the moss and soil. We really enjoyed holding our millipedes. Check out our pictures, and you'll see our excitement!

Shape Monster

Wow! Look at all of those different monsters! On Monday, Mrs. Braymer's class reviewed all of the two dimensional shapes, angles, and lines that we've learned this year. First, in our JAM (Journal About Math) Journal, we drew all of the shapes, lines, and angles that we could use to create our shape monster.  Next,  each one of us sketched our own monster, but we didn't show it to our friends. Then we wrote a story about our creature with descriptions of how they looked. After that, we got with a partner and took turns reading our stories. While we read, our partner had to draw our shape monster. Finally, we compared our original drawing with our partner's drawing. We were able to see if our story had good or bad details based on our drawings. 

Mrs. Braymer's class would like to thank Ms. Bontrager for this idea!