Jeff Kinney Webcast

On November 15 many lower school classes got together to hear Jeff Kinney, the author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid book series. Jeff was amazing! He talked about how he got started, how long it took him to get recognized, and how he got the ideas for his books. We even got to see his sketch books and the covers of the books from around the world! The event is archived for anyone who would like to see it at https://event.on24.com/eventRegistration/EventLobbyServlet?target=registration.jsp&eventid=377205&sessionid=1&key=77692BEA8333A4BC71116EA2FE276270&sourcepage=register

For more information and fun, check out the website for the series: http://www.wimpykid.com/

Halloween Fun

Here are pictures from our Halloween Parade!

Pre-K Pumpkin Projects

We got to help the pre-k class with their pumpkin projects! The students helped their pre-k partners measure their pumpkins and create a pumpkin report. So adorable!!

Connecting with Skype

This week we enjoyed a Skype visit on Tuesday with Mrs. Ripp's class in Wisconsin to talk about Tuck Everlasting. Mrs. Ripp's 5th graders came up with some great questions about the book, and we shared ideas and predictions for the last chapters of the story.

It's been a busy Skype week as we visited with Mrs. Bergeron's class for a Mystery Skype session! After hearing their clues about the Dust Bowl, Gates of Time Memorial, Native American population and more, we pulled out our netbooks and figured out that they were calling from Oklahoma! We gave them some great clues about our state, including our great historic sites, memorials, climate, and attractions from our Virginia research.

Finally on Friday, we got a chance to meet Nat and Alex Wolff, who were the stars of Nickelodeon's "Naked Brothers Band" show from 2007-2009. They are skyping with classes around the country to talk about bullying for anti-bullying month. After sharing their experiences and answering some questions, the guys played a couple of songs for us from the album they are releasing on Tuesday! A number of other classes joined us for the visit.

We're looking forward to a wonderful long weekend for Columbus Day!

Fun in 4th...

Recent pictures of my fourth graders enjoying their new netbooks and participating in Wacky Tacky Day during spirit week! Can't help but smile... I'm reminded every day how fortunate I am to have a job I love so much.

A Wonderful Week!

It's been a busy and wonderful week... Every now and then I look up at my group, and think - I am one lucky teacher... My students are kind, respectful, and insightful. I love our discussions!

This week we took a peek at the book we will be reading as part of the Global Read Aloud Project, Tuck Everlasting. The read aloud begins Monday, so we made some predictions this week. The book has to do with living forever. We talked about the pros and cons, and found out that the main character in the book finds out about a family who is drinking from a special spring that gives them eternal life. Does she drink from the spring? Does she keep their secret? We can't wait to start reading! On Thursday afternoon, we Skyped with a great class from St. Mary's Visitation in Wisconsin who shared their predictions with us. We are looking forward to having book talks with them, as well as participating in the Edmodo discussion group.

We also visited the library this week, and since my 4th graders are so mature, I've decided to let them use the main library in addition to the lower school room. The library is open and light, and everyone loved the freedom to explore the stacks and curl up with a good book. Today the librarian came to our room and showed us how to use the online library search to find books! We bookmarked the library catalog search and the AR Bookfinder on our Diigo so we can look up books at any time! Very cool.

Finally (I told you it was a great week), we got into the lab today to look at some REAL plant and animal cells. We looked at onion cells, and at the cells I scraped from the inside of my cheek!! We were able to see the difference in the cell shape/structure, and could even see the nucleus of many of the cells!

Our school motto is "Think, Explore, Discover". I feel like we did service to each of these this week, and most importantly, had so much fun!

We're Bloggers!

We posted our first blogs today, about our passions. It was great to think about what we have an interest in, or would like to learn more about! We made an image using Tagxedo (http://www.tagxedo.com/), and learned how to upload it to the blog. We also learned about hamburger paragraphs - beginning with a topic sentence, providing supporting details, and using good vocabulary to add excitement. We wrapped up the paragraph with a sentence to summarize or ask a question so that our readers will want to further the discussion! I tweeted out our blogging, and within 10 minutes, we had several comments. So exciting!! I love having the netbooks so handy. Want to comment on our blogs? Check them out at http://kidblog.org/mrsgraysonsclass!