Greek Myths

Written by guest blogger: Makenna & Addison G.

Just like Hercules, we had to complete 12 labors. Working in Greek Myth teams our first labor was to make a sail together based on what Greek God or Goddess would guide us. We figured out which god we got in the god quiz and then learned so much about them. We even learned the Greek Goddess Athena has a city named after her! Artemis’s symbol is a bow and arrow and Athena’s is owls and snakes. We took and drew these symbols about our god on our sails. Check some of them out below.

 

After that, we did labors 2-11. We had to read different versions of myths and answer questions about them or solve puzzles. We learned about the Greek gods along the way and the themes you find in myths! I loved labor number 6. It was the one about Persephone and Hades. Deciding whether it was a nature myth or a lesson myth was no Herculean Task! It was a nature myth because it talks about Persephone eating 4 pomegranate seeds in the underworld. (That's supposed to be why there are four months of winter.) We learned about so many other myths too like King Midas, the Trojan Horse, and Pandora’s box. Myths are so much fun to read and talk about.


Every myth that we learned about had some type of cool character. Like Zeus is the king of the gods! Hades is the god of the underworld and Poseidon is the god of the water. They are all brothers. But not every myth has a good guy. In some myths there are monsters! They stop everyone from doing stuff which is why some myths are lessons. Some monsters we learned about were Sirens, Scylla, and Cybous. Some are beasts, like Cerberus

On the 12th labor, we had a project choice board to pick from and it had a bunch of project options. My group and I chose the Wanted poster about Medusa. We said she was wanted because she stole The Statue Of Liberty. Another group made a WANTED poster for Hades, while others made Newspapers and one group even made a Kahoot to test our Myth knowledge. Myths were really fun to learn about, and we both had a lot of fun writing this blog post!

Touching Space

Our class did something out of this world—literally! Dr. Stifler let us borrow something truly extraordinary, pieces of the Moon and Mars from the Maine Mineral and Gem Museum. We couldn’t believe it—real rocks from outer space, right here in our hands! First, we learned how these incredible pieces made their way to Earth. Meteorites, which are rocks from space, travel through the atmosphere and land on our planet. The ones we held were fragments of larger meteorites that scientists know came from the Moon and Mars because of their unique composition. It felt amazing to touch something billions of years old!

It was hard to believe that these tiny pieces of rock could tell us so much about the Moon, Mars, and beyond. We all agreed that it was one of the coolest days ever. Thank you Dr. Stifler for sharing these treasures with us and letting us experience a little piece of space! Who knows—maybe one day, one of us will discover a new meteorite, or even walk on the Moon or Mars ourselves. 🌕🚀🌌

🦃November Read Alouds

One is a Feast For Mouse: A Thanksgiving Tale by Judy Cox read aloud by Miss Klipfel's Homeroom

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie by Alison Jackson. Read aloud by Mrs. Weeks' Homeroom

Disney Day

On Monday, Howe-Manning 4th graders got to experience one magical day! In honor of Mickey Mouse's 96th birthday, we all headed to Disney (Disney Middleton that is). Students traveled around Disney's magical lands, meeting different characters and reviewing skills across the subject areas. Check out our Disney Map and click on each land to see what we were up to.

We started our day in Frontierland to practice our geography skills. For Mickey's birthday, Minnie Mouse planned a spectacular trip around the Northeast Region of the United States. Students used iPads to scan QR codes which led them to letters from Minnie and clues about where she was taking Mickey on their trip.

We headed off to Fantasyland for reading (after a quick spin on the teacups). We practiced the different parts of speech with a digital hunt.

In the afternoon we headed to Adventureland (aka Math) with Mrs. Weeks, we had so much fun spending $200 to buy Mickey's birthday presents. We had to round, add, and even multiply to get as close to spending all $200 as we could. We also visited Tomorrowland and Toontown for more Disney fun! 

Until tomorrow 4th graders, we might not be at Disney but it is sure to be magical.

All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.

-Walt Disney