Author Alert!!

In October, An Unlikely Story Bookstore in Plainville will be hosting several authors that are BELOVED by 4th graders and the events are FREE!  Typically, the authors give a presentation, answer questions and sign books.  All events require preregistration. More information about these events can be found at the bookstore's event page here.  Mrs. Ann Williams will be at the CeCe Bell event and she hopes to see as many current and former students there as possible; maybe everyone can  get a picture with CeC Bell.  Mrs. Ann Williams and Mrs. Merten will be at the Nick Bruel event.  Wouldn't it be great to get a picture with the Bad Kitty author?  We think so! We hope to see as many of you there as possible, it is sure to be a great time!

Patrick McDonnell-10/5



CeCe Bell (author of El Deafo!!!) and Tom Angleberger (her husband!) 10/15-Mrs. AW is going too!



Nick Bruel-10/18-Mrs. AW AND and Mrs. Merten are going to this one!

Fourth Grade News

Fourth Graders enjoyed a very busy week!  We began our week with our Community Meeting, where our mantra was "Always Stick Together". This mantra was very important as we continued to work together to create our Puff Mobiles. Our race will take place sometime in the next few weeks.

On Thursday we had the privilege of Skyping with author Amy Nielander, author of The Ladybug Race.  We learned so much about the process of writing a book and trying to get it published.  We loved hearing her message of kindness and sticking together!  We are thankful to the Kennedy PCC for funding this awesome event!  If your child would like to purchase a copy of The Ladybug Race, please send in your order form (which was sent home with your child). Books will be ordered and picked up at An Unlikely Story in Plainville and sent home with your child.

Our fourth graders also worked this week to help stop hunger.  This month, Midas participated in a program to "Drive Out Hunger".  For each "meal" drawn on a plate and tweeted, Midas will donate a meal to Feeding America.  Here are a few of our "meals".

If you would like to participate, view and share this video, and Midas will donate another meal!

As always, we wrapped up our week with Dance Party Friday.  This week's song:  Celebration by Kool and the Gang!  We certainly did celebrate!

Fourth Grade News

JFK Fourth Graders had another awesome week!  On Monday, we had our Community Meeting, and learned that our mantra was "Be an Engineer!".  We had a visit from our new Engineers in Residence, Mr. Andrew Leenhouts and Mr. Peter Gill.  Both of our engineers are graduates of Franklin High School, and Peter even had Mrs. A. Williams at JFK!  Our engineers shared a lot about their jobs as civil engineers, and then talked with the students about the design process.

After we learned about the design process, we went to our individual classes to brainstorm some designs for our "Puff Mobiles".  We worked on these throughout the week, and had a dedicated time to create our vehicles with Mrs. E. Williams during Creative Arts Friday.  Ask your child to share more about this!


During Poetry Workshop this week, we were able to publish our Biopoems, and during Technology Workshop we continued our work with organizing our files and beginning to create our digital portfolios.  It was a great week!

Fourth Grade News

This week we had many events as a whole grade!

On Monday, we began our week with our 4th Grade Community Meeting.  Our mantra this week was "We the People".  We chose this mantra to coincide with Constitution Day which is September 17th.

On Wednesday we celebrated our summer reading with story teller Len Cabral. He was amazing!  He told stories to the group, and shared his inspiration for his stories...READING!  Thank you to the Kennedy PCC for funding this.

Friday we enjoyed our second Creative Arts Friday!  During Poetry Workshop we continued to write bio poems.  We are enjoying sharing about ourselves.  During Technology Workshop we discussed Internet safety, and what is/is not acceptable to share on the Internet.  This would be a great conversation to continue with your child.  We also started to set up our digital portfolios. Stay tuned for more information about this!  During Project Based Learning (PBL) time, we continued to practice our cooperation/collaboration skills by working together to complete a task. There was a lot of discussion!  We are also working on having specific jobs during our class time, so that we all have a role in the outcome of our project.

Later on Friday, we gathered to talk about the US Constitution.  Tomorrow is the 224th anniversary of its signing.

Next week we welcome our Engineers in Residence!

Fourth Grade News

This week we had many events as a whole grade!

On Monday, we began our week with our 4th Grade Community Meeting.  Our mantra this week was "We the People".  We chose this mantra to coincide with Constitution Day which is September 17th.

On Tuesday we celebrated our summer reading with story teller Len Cabral. He was amazing!  He told stories to the group, and shared his inspiration for his stories...READING!  Thank you to the Kennedy PCC for funding this.

Friday we enjoyed our second Creative Arts Friday!  During Poetry Workshop we continued to write bio poems.  We are enjoying sharing about ourselves.  During Technology Workshop we discussed Internet safety, and what is/is not acceptable to share on the Internet.  This would be a great conversation to continue with your child.  We also started to set up our digital portfolios. Stay tuned for more information about this!  During Project Based Learning (PBL) time, we continued to practice our cooperation/collaboration skills by working together to complete a task. There was a lot of discussion!  We are also working on having specific jobs during our class time, so that we all have a role in the outcome of our project.

Later on Friday, we gathered to talk about the US Constitution.  Tomorrow is the 224th anniversary of its signing.

Next week we welcome our Engineers in Residence!

Creative Arts Friday

Today students participated in their first Creative Arts Friday. In room 21 students learned about working in a team to complete a task. As an introduction to cooperative learning, students were presented with the task of building a structure out of spaghetti, tape, string, and a marshmallow. The structure is measured from the table top to the top of the marshmallow. After working in groups to complete a structure students reflected on what went well in their group and what didn't go well. These reflections will be something that students look back to often when working on team projects during future Creative Arts Fridays.

Fourth Grade News

Our mantra this week was "Getting to Know You!".  We spent time as a fourth grade team getting to know each other through~

• A shared community meeting on Tuesday
• An instrument demonstration on Tuesday
• Dance Party Friday
• Participating in Creative Arts Workshops

Students learned about speakers in poems and began writing a biopoem, organized files in Google Drive, and participated in a cooperative learning activity with marshmallows and dry spaghetti.

Fourth grade is off to a great start!