Ms. Kreul’s Class Blog

Super Science
By: Jieun and Alec

Boom! Uh-oh! There goes our solution! Oh well, we guess our solution didn’t work; at least we followed our plan. Richards School is so fortunate to have all kinds of supplies for fun projects in class. Here are some materials, we have use in science: filters, screens, funnels, syringes, some chemicals, and more! We also use, small animals in some of our experiments. Some animals are Brine Shrimp and insects.

Recently in Science class with our super science teacher… Miss Green, we have been learning about, and experimenting with mixtures, and solutions. A mixture is 2 or more substances put together that con easily be separated. On the other hand, a solution is 2 or more substances put together and cannot easily be separated. Mixture and solutions are made up of liquids and solids. Other properties of matter are gas and plasma (what stars are made up of). A recent experiment we have done was mixing salt, gravel, and powder in water. Then trying to separate them. What we did to separate them, was using a funnel and screen to separate the gravel from the water, a funnel and filter to separate the powder because the salt had dissolved. Last of all we evaporated the water, so salt crystals would be left on the bottom of the cup.

A special science event we do at Richards is the Learning Fair. In the Learning Fair, you make a science project. You make a hypothesis (or prediction), on your project. You experiment this topic. You can do your project with a partner, or alone. You then write your process and put it on a poster board. Lots of people take pictures of their experiment as they go. After you’ve finished with your project, it is put on display in the main hall for everyone to see. We do the Learning Fair because it gives you a chance to be creative without being graded. Also, it is fun and messy!

Some experiments we have done in the past have been out of this world! One experiment was about density currents. We put a hot rock and a cold rock in a tub of water on opposite sides. We put a red liquid and a blue liquid in the water. The blue liquid sank and the red liquid stayed at the surface of the water. When the blue liquid touched the hot rock, it shot beck up to the surface and started to sink again. The other experiment we did, was making our own terrariums. We raised barley, peas, corn, radish, and clover. It was very fun watching the plants grow! So you see, science can be fun, messy, and interesting, especially at Richards School! “Go science!”

Remarkable Reading
By: Charlie and Emma

We just finished reading two breath-taking stories! The first story was Amazing Alice. In Amazing Alice a woman named Minna, describes her 4-month journey from New Jersey, to San Francisco, California, in the form of a diary. Will Alice be the first woman to drive across the country in less than 60 days? You will have to find out yourself!

The second story we wanted to talk about is John Henry. In this story a boy named John Henry hits his growth spurt in the first 5 minutes of his life! He grows to be about 8”7’ and he’s stronger than dynamite. His hammers he got, were aluminum. His handles were made of whalebone. So he thinks he can out-hammer a machine, and he can. He hammered 1 and a half miles and the machine only hammered half a mile. Sadly, at the end, John Henry’s heart bursts, and he dies. In the end of the story somebody says, “Dying ain’t important. Everybody does that. What matters is how well you do your living”!

A while ago we finished our 3rd literature circles book! We finished biographies! The biographies were: Helen Keller, Davy Crockett, Lewis and Clark, and Sitting Bull! Now we are about to start our 4th literature circles books! But this time we are doing series, of mysteries! The series will be: Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, A to Z Mysteries, Encyclopedia Brown, and History Mysteries! There are so many interesting things in mysteries. We wonder what will happen in these?

In our classroom we have a huge white chart! On the white chart we get to recommend books we just finished reading. We write what the title is, some comments about it, and 3,2,or1 stars depending how good you think the book is. For example: the BFG, a must read, and three stars. So the title is the BFG, the comment is a must read, and they gave it three stars.

During the year we do a program called, “Read 100 books for Scholastic’’ so we figured that you understand that the idea is to read 100 books for Scholastic. After we read a book we go to a chart and mark our initials on a heart and on that heart, there’s a number and which ever number you mark that’s how many books we’ve read. Once we get to 100 books that’s how many we donate to Scholastic. The other Scholastic program is ‘‘Book Fair’’, book fair is when you go to the gymnasium and look at books, but don’t check any out. But at night, after school you can come back to get a book.

Read-alouds and SSR
By; John and Emma

Do you know how to pick a just right book? Well, if you don’t, we will tell you! If you want to pick a just right book, you would have to read a couple of pages and think, did you get most of the ideas and most of the words? Well if you did that’s a just right book! If you’re reading a book that you get all the ideas and all of the words, then that book is just too easy for you!

Do you know what SSR means? We will tell you! It means sustained silent reading. When our teacher Ms. Kreul says time for SSR we get out our books and read. We read all kinds
Of books like mysteries, fiction, nonfiction, biographies, and autobiographies etc.

About every month, we check fluency with our teacher, we read her a couple pages
Of our book. But first we talk about what the book is about, what your going to
Ead next, and what your reading at home! We our always looking forward to what
We’re reading!

We have reading logs at home and at school. Reading logs are logs that you write about your book. At school when we are finished with our reading logs we share them with our classmates. At home our reading logs are due on Friday. We have to write five entries for our reading logs!

In read aloud we are reading a great book called Coast to Coast With Alice. Read alouds are when our teacher reads to us, and about every two chapters she usually will stop and ask us questions or predictions! After she’s done reading we chat with our table group about the book and what you think will happen next! We always love read alouds and SSR, that’s one of the things we are always looking forward to do each and every day!

Math
By Nathan and Susan

We are brilliant math magicians! Some things we learn about are fractions, decimals, probability, and geometry. For probability we made spinners to see the chances of the paperclip lading on a certain color. We also do algebra. In algebra we figure out problems like 14+11=n. We are also learning about measurement. We measure the length and the width of different shapes to find out their area. Our favorite thing to do is games, but the games somehow relate to math. .Besides these we do Problem Solvers every Friday. Problem Solvers are books that have different kinds of problems that we solve with our team. They’re great!

Every class needs materials for math! Whether it’s textbooks or notebooks you need them. In 4K we have toolkits where we put some of the materials we use. For an example we keep rulers, slateboards, dry erase markers, and more. Besides our toolkits we also have textbooks, journals, folders, and notebooks. In our notebooks we pratice division and the problems we might do on the test, like fractions, and decimals.

At least once a week we have a quiz. The quiz is a math box that we have already done in the past. After we’re done with a unit we have a test on what we learned in that unit. We have two parts to the test. On the first part there is only one problem, but we have to show our work and explain how we did it. The second part is just a regular unit test, where we answer questions that we have just learned.

Every day we have math homework called Study Links, or we sometimes have Math boxes. The next morning we check our homework to make sure the answers are correct. Sometimes we have to study for an upcoming test. To do this we bring home our notebooks and textbooks. If we don’t study, we might get a bad grade! 4K Math is the best math in the world!

By Chris, Davis, and Caroline

Do you want to learn about Book Club? If you like reading this is the thing for you! We read for twenty minutes, then write a few sentences about what we read.

We go in a large circle and share are comments, then usually show a picture and talk about the picture and what it’s about.

After we share our comments we give a lot of feedback. What do you like about this book. Our amazing teacher Ms. Kreul sometimes gives a little advice like, what do you think is going to happen next

We’ve noticed that the favorite genres are nonfiction according to our Book Club. We’ve also noticed that the least favorite genre is fables. What’s your favorite fantastic genre?

We’ve noticed that Book Club is just like Literature Circles. We do sticky-notes just like lit circles. We recommend Book club for 3rd graders and up (if you want to try it). You need to be able to read well, talk well in groups and bam! You’re in fantastic Book Club! If I were you convince your friends, and start Book Club!

Super- Duper Spelling
By Jordan and Zack

In our Super-Duper spelling class we do so many exciting things and have so much fun!

Before we even get our spelling words, we take a spelling pre-test! Our teacher Ms. Kreul gives us 15 spelling words to spell. If we get one or more words wrong then we put the wrong words on our Super-Duper spelling list, and pick other spelling words to study. If we get one or more words wrong then we put the wrong words on our spelling list, and pick other spelling words! Usually none of us have the same list as each other. Every week our variety of spelling words are more challenging but our vocabulary becomes richer.

Every week we have fun, educational spelling worksheet. One of the worksheets is a sheet called Spelling Sentences. What we do is we pick five spelling words or more, and use them in different sentences. We have to underline our spelling words to show we used them. We also do a sheet we call a “ Word Map”. What you do is pick a spelling word and write the definition, a synonym or antonym, put it in a sentence, and draw a picture to match it. Aren’t those some great spelling worksheets?

You probably think that spelling isn’t that fun, but it is! Because we play some extraordinary games, in spelling class! One game is classic, A.K.A Tic-Tac-Toe, with spelling words. Our partner gives us one of our words, and if we spell it right we put an X or an O on the board. Then we give our partner a word and they put a mark if they get it right. The first one to get three of the same marks in a row wins! We also play a fantastic game called Hangman. Our partner secretly gives us a word and tells us how many letters there are in that word. Then we keep guessing letters until we figure out the word. We love our games!

Every Friday we have our spelling test. Our partner gives us our test. Also, our partner has to say the word and then use it in a sentence, so we can know what the definition is. After we’re done our partner signs the test and then puts it in the basket.

We adore our spelling class! Everyday, we count down the minutes until it’s time to spell! We always know there will be something marvelous in store!

4K Social Studies
By: Gracie and Brooks

Ms. Kreul’s Social Studies class is a blast, and guess who is lucky enough to have it, 4K is! We always have Social Studies in our own classroom. Social Studies takes place every other school day from 9:30 am to 10:30 am. During that time we have a wide range of discussions and activities.

Most of those discussions and activities are “tours”. “Tours” take us to the different regions around the United States. During “tours” we read a page in our textbook, then map it in our I.S.N, and then discuss it. Every 3 “tours” we do an activity that relates to the page of the “tour”. So far, we have been to the Northeast, the Southeast, the Midwest, the southwest, and we are about to start the West!

The curriculum we have here at Richards is fun-filled and excellent! Some of the activities we do are Geography Challenges, read-aloud, and pages in our I.S.N. Our favorite activity are the activities we do after 3”tours”. We think the main point of Social Studies is to learn about the United State’s economy, geography, and many other features.

After every unit we have a test! About a week before the test Ms. Kreul gives us a study guide that gives us a clue about what to expect on the test. The test normally includes multiple-choice questions, geography questions, reading questions, and a writing question. The tests are never as bad as we think, but we still get worked up about them.

Social Studies are a lot of from “tours” to tests, we learn a lot and have fun doing it!

TFK
By Gracie and Garrett

Time For Kids is just a kid version of Time. Time For Kids is a way for kids to learn about what has just happened and what is happening. It also has games and it has its own website, too. TFK is what we call Time For Kids just shorter. Our teacher for TFK is our regular teacher Ms. Kreul.

The main article is in the middle of the magazine and it is the main idea of the issue. It talks about a lot of different topics. Some of the topics are Pictures in 2007, That’s All She wrote, [about J. K. Rowling 2007 person of the year], Great Inventions of 2007, California in flames, and lots more awesome topics!

Each week we have a new TFK! For each TFK we have one or two sheets to go along with a couple articles in that issue. Occasionally we have a sheet we can choose to do. We call those sheets for fun. We also have a sheet that we have to do and it normally has about twelve questions about a couple articles in the TFK. Out of the ten questions about nine of them are multiple choice and one of the questions is a write it out/opinion.

As you can see there are many things about TFK from what it is about to the main articles to it’s own website!

Click here for the TFK web site.

Social Studies
By Brooks and John

Do you want to know anything about Social Studies? Then read on! The Social Studies program we use here at Richards school is called Social Studies alive. It is a mix of creative activities and visiting places in our imagination.

We studied about the Northeast and the Southeast in the previous units. We “visited’’ Boston, Pennsylvania, Independence Hall, Washington D.C., and New York City. Our favorite sights were Pennsylvania and Washington D.C.

In our Southeast tour we learned about the hot humid climate of the southeast. We saw the John F. Kennedy Space center, Memphis TN, and New Orleans LO. We loved learning about Memphis and New Orleans culture.

In our current unit we are learning about the Midwest’s Michigan Soo Locks, the America Motor city, and the Mall of America. Our favorite stop was the Mall of America.

Every thee stops we do an activity that is related to the tour. One of them was an assembly line with the Motor city, and we drew our own cars that people in the 1920s would like to buy.

If you have any questions email us at mkreu.ri.wfb@wfbschool.com

Science
By: Emma, Emma, Josef

Wow! Science class is so amazing! Our science teacher’s name is Ms. Green. Speaking of green, we learn about green plants, green grass, and green leaves! We go to science class 2 to 3 days a week. So far we have learned a lot about oceans and plants! Our class is always very excited to go to science class. We can’t wait till next science class!

We have a lot of different topics in science class. Some of the topics are oceans and plants. Our current topic is oceans and marine life. It’s an interesting topic and a fun one too. In the oceans topic we learn lots of different stuff about oceans, like the water cycle, the ocean floor isn’t flat, and how different marine animals live their lives. For example : a Hermit Crabs’ right claw is bigger than the left claw. In a plant project we got to grow some awesome plants.

In science class we use a lot of different kinds of tools. Some tools we use are books. We use the books to gather information or learn about things. We also used a paint pan with water in it to see how you can make waves with your body. Another tool we used was a wave bottle. We used the wave bottle to see what you have to do to make a wave. For example we tried to tilt it one way. A wave bottle is a water bottle with oil and something else that was dyed blue in it. Some more tools we used were soil and seeds. We used the soil and seeds to make a mini garden in a tub. First we put the soil in and then we made holes for the seeds to go in. We grew foot long plants! But we of course had to use rulers to measure our plants. We used our notebooks to record our information. Sometimes we watch videos about topics we are learning about. We even get to watch “Magic School Bus” movies!

In science class we are assigned all different kinds of projects! One of the projects we’re assigned was a cereal box project! We had to pick a marine animal and find information about it. We also grew plants for a project! That was really messy and fun! For our plant project we had five different types of plants: wheat, barley, corn radish and clover.

We learned about the ocean floor. We found out that the ocean floor is very interesting. We had to draw the ocean floor for another project! That project was not very easy because the ocean floor is not flat. We really liked the fish project! It was so fun. We learned about the fish and we looked at them and studied them! After that project if we could we’re allowed to take home a fish!

Reading
By Nathan and Caroline

We have many things to do with reading at your school. One of the things we do most is SSR. Every day at 12:55 we read and write in our school reading logs. Reading logs are journals that we write in either before, after, or in the middle of when we read. In our reading logs we can write connections, inferences, predictions, I wonders, questions, sensory images, and determining importance’s of what we just read.

We also read in science and social studies. Like in science we read about the ocean and different environments. In social studies we read about things from the past and what it was like back then.

Another thing we do is read to our book buddies. Our book buddies are four-year old kindergarteners that we read to once a week. Every month they have a variety of books according to either the closest holiday or what they are mainly learning about.

Every night we have a little bit of reading homework. After we read we have to write 3 to 4 sentences about what we’ve been reading throughout the last 20 minutes of what we read (our home reading logs). Five log entries are due are due each week. On Friday we take home folders that have new logs in them.

We have a system called lit circles as well. It’s were we get into groups of 4 to 5 people that read the same book. Then write a log about what we read during the given number of chapters. Right now we are reading biographies about people like Davy Crockett and Hellen Keller. We do many different things with reading.

Read-Alouds
By Chris and Spencer

We have a fantastic time called read-alouds. During read-alouds, Ms. Kreul reads fun-filled books. When there is a good stopping point we chat with our side-by-side partners or our across partners about what we’ve just read (such as connections, predictions etc.)

We are reading this fascinating book called The World According to Humphrey. The hamster Humphrey is facing lots of troubles, such as the loudness and A.J.’s house, too many people at Richie’s house, and his enemy Garth.

We have also read book such as Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, The Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson, and The Geek Chronicles 2.

Read-aloud is magnificent. We have really enjoyed reading these books. We recommend these books to 3rd graders and up. You’ll probably enjoy these books as much as we did!

What You Want To Know About Mr. Tenorio
by Katie & Kaitlyn

Mr. Tenorio likes pets, and to show this, he has two dogs named Oliver and Max and his cat Owen. Kaitlyn and I Interviewed Mr. Tenorio and we found out a lot of things about him I mean a lot. We asked him 26 questions!

Before this job Mr. Tenorio was a principal at another school in Milwaukee. Mr. Tenorio thinks his job is very important. Imagine if we didn’t have Mr. Tenorio for even a day! Mr. Tenorio’s birthday is November 8th , and he went to college at UWM. Do you know how many meetings Mr. Tenorio goes to a week? Well as Mr. Tenorio says, “too many.”

Mr. Tenorio shared a lot of his favorites. His favorite color is green, which happens to be our favorite color, too. We asked him what his favorite book is, and he said he had read many books and they were all good. His favorite sport is football (he really enjoys the Packers). His favorite animals are dogs. His favorite class in elementary school was Art class.

Did you ever wonder how Mr. Tenorio came up with the morning message? Well we asked him how he got the idea and he said at the school he worked at before this they did the morning message. When he came here he brought the idea of the morning message. He thinks it is a good way to get a good massage across.

Mr. Tenorio’s most memorable moment at Richards was being a human hockey puck. I’m sure everyone at Richards remembers that. When we went to interview him in his office, he had a picture of him being a human hockey pock. Sounds like fun to me! Would you like to be a human hockey pock?

Hopefully, you’ve learned something about your “head master.” As Mr. Tenorio says, “Make it a great day or not the choice is yours,” and “Work hard get smart!”

Math Class
By: Zack and Davis

Our math teacher’s name is Ms. Kreul. Math is our favorite subject because we get to play math games, we get to measure, and do fun division and multiplication methods.

Each unit we have a different topic. This unit’s topic is a division method and measuring angles. In our units we always do something called math boxes, they are 5-6 boxes of different problems. Usually they’re multiplication and division problems. Each unit we have about 2 quizzes and a test. Quizzes are math boxes and tests are short packets of math problems. Almost every day we bring home study links for homework, we do study links that have to do with the unit. Sometimes we bring home our math journal. Every unit we get a new set of study links that match the unit.

During math class we get our math tool kits. We have a bag of straws and twist ties, a template, a full circle protractor and a half circle protractor. We also have a tin of fact triangles, a ruler, a slate, 2 markers, a sock for erasing, a compass, and a green pen for correcting.

Math is our favorite subject.

Book club is for kids like us who don’t do orchestra. It’s pretty fun.

First we read. It’s really quiet when everyone is reading. Most the books are funny. Also when we finish a book it makes you happy and sad because you usually want it to go on forever.

After that we bring our chairs in to a circle, and discuss the books we’re reading. Usually we make predictions and connections. It’s interesting what other people are reading

Does your school have SSR ? If not listen carefully. In SSR we read and write . We have Reading log for school and home.

Also we have books about sports, food, adventure, literature and even writing. Some of our favorite authors are Judy Blume, Beverly Cleary, and even Erin Hunter. Some of genres we read are fiction, realistic fiction, adventure, and nonfiction.

By Caroline and Brooks

Book club is for kids like us who don’t do orchestra. It’s pretty fun. First we read. It’s really quiet when everyone is reading. Most the books are funny. Also when we finish a book it makes you happy and sad because you usually want it to go on forever.

After that we bring our chairs into a circle and discuss the books we’re reading. Usually we make predictions and connections. It’s interesting what other people are reading.

Does your school have SSR? If not listen carefully. In SSR we read and write. We have a Reading log for every day that we read.

By Charlie and Katie

Do you know how much technology 4K uses in a school week?

We’ll start with a few basics. We do Kid Pix during indoor recess. We get to use our imagination, draw, type, and a lot more things.

Type to Learn is where we learn how to type. Type to Learn helps us type, but not look at our fingers while typing. In fourth grade we have 15 levels on Type to Learn.

We don’t just use technology in our class, we use it in library too. We use Destiny to find our books. We can search in three different ways:
1. Authors search. We search by name of the author.
2. Title search. We put in the title of the book we want.
3. Subject search. We put in a subject you want to learn about.

We hope that we could have more technology from Middle School on.

By Maddy and Susan

Take a seat in Ms. Kreul’s social studies class and here’s what you’ll learn! Let us tell you all about our social studies curriculum.

In each social studies chapter we study a different topic. In unit 1 we studied the social scientists, like economists, historians, political scientists, and geographers. In unit 2 we are learning about the 5 regions of the USA. That unit included longitude, latitude, different map types, and much more. All of this info comes from our textbook.

During our social studies year in 4K we use three different writing materials. The first one is our ISN, which is a workbook. We use it for many activities. In unit 2 we drew a map of our house, for example. The second writing tool is our packet. Every unit we get a new packet. Our third tool is our textbook.

Each social studies unit we do a project. In unit 1 each student could choose from 4 different activities including: a geographer, economist, political scientist, historian activity. For example: the geographer activity was you had to draw a picture of the state you had a picture of the state you would want to live in and give some reasons why.

You know a test is coming when you get a study guide. A study guide is a social studies paper that you study. It shows you vocabulary words you need to know. It also shows you what the test is going to ask you. It’s very simple. For a test you also study your textbook and ISN. All this studying will pay off for the test.

At the end of each chapter we have unit tests. Each test usually has a couple pages of multiple choice questions, otherwise known as ‘fill in the bubble questions. Also we have a writing or drawing project. In the past unit we had to draw 4 heads of the social scientists. Now you know all about fourth grade social studies.

By John and Chris

Do you want to learn more about science? Then read on!

In science we are learning about environments and plants. We planted barley, corn, peas, radishes, and clover in a terrarium. We make charts about our plants everyday in our science notebook. We also planted our seeds in 4 mini-terrarium called dry, moist, wet, and very wet, to see if the plants will grow well in them or not.

Last week we went to a field trip to Riveredge. It was about science because there was a pond that had bugs, animals, and environments.

We have a great time in science. We hope you like science a lot!

By Emma and Gracie

If you like math this is the thing for you! In 4K math we learn about geometry, multiplication, division, and don’t forget about place value!

Now we will tell you about our math messages. Math messages are activities for the morning. We basically do time tests or read something in our S.R.B [Student Reference Book].

In our math Journal we do math boxes and sketch geometric shapes. We also do multiplication, addition, and subtraction too.

On our slates we review problems we did in past grades. We also do things like angles, rays, and lines. That is the kind of stuff we do on our slates.

We do group projects like how many people in our family data collection. We also estimate how many raisins are in a box. So we’re doing all kinds of things.

That’s what is going on in 4K math!