Gingerbread Decorating!

On Friday, we decorated gingerbread houses together.  Each student created a house with a milk carton base, covered it with graham crackers and used lots of icing and yummy sweets to embellish the outside.  Macy's mom came in to help and offered some decorating tips.  As you can see from the pictures, we had a ton of fun and enjoyed being creative with the candies...and sneaking a few leftovers!

Hope you are all enjoying the break!  See you in 2012!
love,
Ms. Rippe & Mrs. Vanegas

Happy Holidays!

This afternoon, we had a publishing share and holiday celebration.  Our parents joined us to read our personal essays and also brought some really tasty treats!  Thank you so much for coming and making our celebration so special.

Enjoying peppermint hot chocolate...yum!

Enjoying the marshmallows too!

Drama Extended Day Performance

Three students from Class 4-309 participated in the Ms. Blackwell's extended day program this fall.  On Friday, December 9, they performed "King Midas' Touch", the ancient Greek myth about a king who turns everything he touches into gold.  Milo did a great job as the King's page, and Sheilaya was terrific as King Midas' daughter.  Sophia was the stage manager and kept everything running smoothly.  Bravo!

choice time blogger weekly update!

Today is December 16th 2011. Soon we will make a Gingerbread house. The boys will bring graham
crackers  and the girls will bring candy. I am very excited to be building the house with my favorite class.
In writing, we all just finished our persuasive essay and now we are on a debate about chocolate milk in public schools.  In our read aloud, we are reading " The Invention of Hugo Cabret ".----- Abigail-----

Ballroom Extravaganza

Lined up and ready for our entrance!

Our teaching artist, Ms. Mary, welcomes the audience.

Our Merengue Performance

Reading the history of the Merengue

Look how elegant we are dancing the Foxtrot!

Reading the history of the Foxtrot

All 4th graders performing the Stomp at the end

Good luck to our competition team!

Choice Time Blogger Update

          In December we have some upcoming events to be excited about!
 Next week, we have our ballroom dancing performance. We spent 10 weeks (20 classes) learning 6 different dances from around the world. All are going to be performed!

Rehearsing on stage

          In reading we started a new unit on nonfiction books. We've been
put into groups read about different topics. We rotate topics every 4 or 5 days. We use the glossary and index to look up more specific topics and what meanings of new words mean. We are always learning new things about our topics.

       We have started to learn about the European explorers and their ups and downs on their trips around the world and how they found the Native Americans.  We can't wait to start on our projects about them.
  
   -Sophia




    In math we are working on decimals, and how to add and subtract with money.

     We have been working on persuasive essays in writing. All of the kids have been expressing their opinions and writing what is very important to them. Some people have been writing about why you shouldn’t take drugs, why homework is helpful, why kids should have music in school and why it’s important to be yourself.

--Zane

Native American Share Fair & Thanksgiving Celebration

In social studies, we have been learning all about the Native Americans who lived in New York.  For the last few weeks, students worked in groups to research more about the Iroquois and Algonquin tribes.  In addition to our written reports, each group also made a diorama to display a typical scene of the tribe.   We shared our dioramas today with our classmates and parents.  Check out our detailed displays!

After each group presented, we got to enjoy some traditional foods, like popcorn, chestnuts and cornbread.  (We also had some modern treats too!)  Thank you to all the parents and visitors who helped celebrate our hard work!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Love,
Ms. Rippe & Mrs. Vanegas

Old Stone House

Our trip to the Old Stone House on Friday was really fun and informative! We learned about how the Lenape used the Gowanus to help them survive. Each group presented what they had learned about the wildlife which lived on the Gowanus Creek. Here are some pictures from our trip!

The Authors of Class 4-309

Finishing up our final drafts...

For the last several weeks, we have been working hard on our realistic fiction stories.  Each writer created a character and brainstormed problems that they might face.  We spent some time planning and rehearsing our stories, thinking of all the different ways they could go.  As we drafted our pieces, we worked hard to stretch out the problem and build tension.  Then in the revision stage, we challenged ourselves to use more descriptive vocabulary, and added setting and character details.  Our published pieces turned out great, and we can't wait to share them with our visitors during Open School Week!

We read each others' stories during an in-class publishing party.

Meet Our Newest Class Members...

After weeks of hard work earning compliments, we finally got our FISH!  Mrs. Vanegas set up the tank last week and bought our catfish and tetras.  The fish monitor is in charge of feeding the fish each day before we go to lunch.  We are making a suggestion box for names--although it is hard to tell them apart!

We love the 80s!

Last Thursday, we had a dress up day to help the 5th graders raise money for their class activities. We dressed in our finest '80s apparel...lots of neon, side ponytails & cool glasses!  We can't wait for next month's dress up day--holiday sweaters!

Snapshots from the Storybook Character Parade

Choice Time Bloggers Weekly Update

Today,we had a party and we all dressed up  as a person in a book.  We walked a couple of blocks then we took a picture in our costumes!!!!--- Kira reporting from class 4-309.

In writing this month, we are working on our realistic fiction stories.  We drafted on yellow paper. Bring them home on the weekend of 10/28 if you didn't finish. ---Abby reporting from class 4-309. Hi mom!:]

In ballroom dancing we been learning a lot of different things like merengue, fox trot, and now we are leaning the swing.  We watched a video with Ms. Danielle this week to help us think about the final performance.  ---Samantha 4-309

Storybook Character Parade and more!

Halloween is here!!!!!!!!!! This year we are doing a storybook parade!!! The parade is Friday, October 28, and afterward, we will have a party in our classroom.  Parents are invited to watch the parade as we walk through Carroll Gardens and then join us in the classroom for the celebration.  We can't wait to see your costumes---don't forget you should dress up as a favorite character from a book.  Can you guess what Ms. Rippe, Mrs. Vanegas & Ms. Juliette are going to wear??

After school on Friday, the PTA will be hosting a costume party in the school yard.  Stop by for lots of fun and games!

----from Abby:] (and Ms. Rippe)

Choice Time Blogger Weekly Update

Today in Music, Ms. Rippe took a video of us playing our Chello’s, basses, viola’s and violin’s. We hope you will enjoy it! 

Today in Social Studies, we learned that Native Americans came here around 700.BC. We answered some questions about the Native Americans. Did you know that European explorers bought the island of Manhattan for $24? 

This week in reading, we have stepped into our characters' shoes. We practiced acting out what has been going on in our books. 

In writing, we started our realistic fiction stories.  We are writing about things that we should know about from the life of a fourth grader. ---Abby:]

updates from choice time bloggers

In math, we have done work with raisins. We were counting how many raisins are in one mini box. We found the mode, the minimum, the maximum. Today we took a math multiplication test. We only had three minutes so you can do your best.--- Abby :] . reporting from class 4-309 

                     

In Social Studies, we made timelines about when our families came to America. We also put post-its on it and wrote about what our parents remember from New York history. We hope you like them. Rosalie reporting from class 4-309.

Hope you all enjoy your three-day weekend!