Disney Day

Today Howe-Manning 4th graders got to experience one magical day! In honor of Mickey Mouse's 90th 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.

While visiting Tomorrowland with Mickey Mouse (aka Mr. Husson) students designed a Disney ride of the future. Using their science knowledge especially everything they have been learning about energy students used lego kits to motorize and build their ride. 

With Belle (aka Mrs. Deeley) in Fantasyland students completed STEAM challenges. Using a variety of supplies, students created a book holder for Belle and her beloved books. They also worked together to create a rose holder to protect the enchanted rose. 

When Sleeping Beauty (aka Miss Klipfel) wasn't sleeping, she was working with students to complete a shared writing activity. The whole 4th grade used digital tools to collaborate and create five different fairy tale stories. The first class wrote the expositions, second class the rising actions with the climax, and the third wrote the falling actions along with the resolutions. Afterward, the final two classes completed the illustrations, editing, and recordings. Finished products coming soon! 

Cinderella (aka Mrs. Weeks) exposed students to the many frontiers she has encountered in her books from all around the world. Students compared and contrasted these stories from different cultures. 

With bravery on their minds and in their hearts, students visited Merida (aka Mrs. Church) to complete a variety of math adventures. Students worked on their multiplication and division fluency while revealing different Disney characters.

Until tomorrow 4th graders, we might not be at Disney but it is sure to be magical. Also, make sure to check back for the next post with our published writing.

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

-Walt Disney

Focus Standards:

Tomorrowland: Energy-Apply scientific ideas to design, test, and refine a device that converts energy from one form to another.
Fantasyland: Engineering Design-Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
Magic Kingdom: W 4.6 With some guidance and support from adults, use technology to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others.
Fronteirland: RL 4.9 Compare and contrast the treatment of similar themes and topics (e.g., opposition of good and evil) and patterns of events (e.g., the quest) in stories from different cultures.
Adventureland: NBT B. 6 Find whole-number quotients and remainders with up to four-digit dividends and one-digit divisors, using strategies based on place value, the properties of operations, and/or the relationship between multiplication and division.

Spy Lab

4th graders arrived at school today to discover some shocking news...Mango, Morty (Mrs. Deeley's mascot), and Monday (Mrs. Weeks mascot) were missing! We met at headquarters to get our briefing from Agent Sforz and get caught up to speed. Check it out here:

Quickly, 4th graders were transformed into spies and ready to use their fictional story element knowledge in order to gather clues and uncover the secret information. We started in the setting spy lab in order to determine WHERE our mascots went. Spies were given clues, which required the use of a magnifying glass, to find different settings. Once spies discovered the hidden black light numbers they were able to crack the code and open the confidential briefcase to discover that our suspect took Mango and friends to the playground. In the afternoon the suspect caught onto us and we found our friends in a secret back corridor.  

Next, we headed to the character trait spy lab. Agents needed to read passages and answer questions to crack the secret number code. Once they determined the correct numbers they headed to Agent Deeley to get their next clue. With a seemingly blank card in hand, secret agents were able to use their spy black lights to learn that the suspect is kind, a Celtics lover, clean, and neat. 

Finally, we put all our knowledge of the suspect's character traits and the setting together in our final plot spy lab room. With three QR codes in hand, agents scanned to reveal different Pixar shorts. Once they watched the shorts they determined the exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. Correctly filled in plot diagrams granted them access to a number. With three numbers in hand students unscrambled them to open the briefcase and discover the confidential information. They learned the suspect is very lonely while working at Howe-Manning school and decided to hide our friend to keep for themselves. 

It didn't take long for spies to put all the pieces together and learn that Mr. Vinnie had stolen our mascots and hid them so he would no longer have to work alone at night. To read the full plot click here. 

Secret agents safely rescued our beloved friends. Just another day in the life of a 4th-grade spy. 

Case closed!

Pen Pals

A very special part of being in our 4th grade literacy classroom is having a penpal! This school year, Mrs. Kelleher's 4th graders in Topsfield, MA, and my homeroom class will get to know each other through letters. Mrs. Highgas and Mrs. Maxwell's 4th graders will be pen pals with my afternoon literacy class (Mr. Husson's homeroom). Topsfield teachers and I are excited to bring penpal letters to our classrooms as a way to connect our Tri-Town schools. In a few years these groups of 4th graders will be at MASCO together. We were the first to send off letters introducing ourselves to our penpals.

Our letters were finally signed, sealed and ready to deliver today. We walked them down to the mailboxes and off they went.

We will be anxiously checking the mail and waiting to hear back. There is still something to be said about the good old fashioned snail mail.