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  "And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it." -Roald Dahl ----------------------------------------------------- "Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you ever can." -John Wesley

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The past two days have had the fourth grade students beginning their new Core Knowledge unit: Chinese Dynasties and Chinese Culture. It is a fascinating unit of study! We began by brainstorming what we already (thought) we knew about China, and watching a very cool movie that introduced us to the idea of Chinese culture.
Today, [...]

After about 2.5 months of excuses, Mrs. Self finally paid up. She got us pizza for lunch. She owed us pizza because last fall we had a vocabulary challenge. We all mastered our vocabulary words!!!! So, she ordered three pizzas….and yes, they were delicious!
 
 
 

Today in reading, Mrs. Self started off by being her usual crazy self. (No pun intended! Haha! Self, self!). Anyway, she started off by having us watch her and take notes / observe as she randomly started throwing an inflated globe around the room. She then asked us to share with her what we thought [...]

We started off our afternoon activity with an odd request: someone was needed to do push-ups. What?! That’s right…push-ups!
How on Earth would push-ups relate to writing?
Actually, they relate more than you would think. We talked about building muscles, and how to do so you have to “exercise” and “work out.” When you write, it’s no [...]

Good readers know how to take their mind on an adventure when they read. They become the characters they read about. Today we read “Swimmer,” a story about a fish and her adventures during her lifespan. While we read, we practiced letting ourselves be one with Swimmer….and discussed ways that we could take our minds [...]

Sometimes, good readers get in a reading fog. What does that mean? It means that sometimes we read a book and get a bit lost, confused.
Yesterday we talked about what a “Reading Fog” is, and strategies readers can use to find their way back into the reading sunshine. We came up with the following: re-read, [...]

In our class, we frequently talk about how words can build our peers up. We talk about ways that we can be kind and gentle to others, helping them along in their educational and personal journeys.  Apparently this lesson resonated with them, because Gray wrote me the sweetest note. He wrote me another note last week, [...]

I was so proud of Stephanie and Gray for participating in the Clarity Spelling Bee on Saturday! They did a great job. The competition was fierce…but our kids seemed to have nerves of steel. I would have been shaking if I had to stand up on stage in front of a bunch of strangers!
Great job, [...]

On Friday, we greatly enjoyed another installment of NFF. We focused on Science texts.  This week we will focus on newspaper and current events. The kids do have a recommendation for me, though. They feel as if it should be “Fiction Friday” and “Non-Fiction Monday.” I told them they would need to put together a [...]

Here is the most recent time our class was in The Greenville Journal….a brief discussion about our intergenerational service learning project with Senior Action:
The Greenville Journal: January 8, 2010

We love our NFFs….they are so much fun! We love having the chance to dive into non-fiction, learning all about science and history as we go! We also love trying our own hand at writing non-fiction. See the pictures below to get a small glimpse into our Non-Fiction Friday world!
        

We had a wonderful presentation for our senior friends. Read more about it:
SeniorAction Newsletter
              

We were so excited today when we found out that we would have a new friend joining us for the rest of the year. Our family is expanding! We are thrilled to welcome Kendall to our class. She had lunch with us today and plans to start tomorrow. We couldn’t be any happier about our [...]

Great job, Jo’Nae! Please check out Mrs. Burns’ Blog: http://burns.palmettoprep.net for more information. We’re proud of you!

One of my favorite times as a teacher is at the beginning of a unit when I assess my students’ prior knowledge. When assessing what students “already know,” it never fails that someone is SURE about something they THINK they know. So rather than do a Know-Want to know - Learned chart throughout the unit, [...]