Ms. Kreul’s Class Blog

By Jordan and Davis

Can your class spell? Ours can! Here’s how we do it!

First we take our pretest. We put our privacy folders up so know one can peek (not that anyone would). Each week we have a pattern such as long e, long a, and long u. Then after Ms. Kreul gives us all our words, we get our sheets that tell us what words we have this week. Then after we have all our words we transfer the words into our steno pad.

Next we go with our spelling partners and practice our words. There are a lot of activities such as tic – tac – toe, hangman, dictionary hunt, and so many more. At home we also practice with our parents. They help us know the words. Our partners help us if we don’t know a word. We can look in our Quick words books (our kid friendly dictionary)! We practice all the time.

Finally Friday is here! Our test day! We put our name, number and unit on our test papers. Then we put our privacy folders up. After that, we give our partners our steno pad to give us our test. When they’re done we sign their spelling test then we turn it into the baskets. Next our partners give us our tests and we do the same thing!

We are so excited for next week’s spelling test!

SPELLING TIPS:
Study every night.
If you get one wrong write it down.
Have your friends or parents quiz you.
Make spelling fun!

By Zack and Spencer

Do you read TFK? Well, we do in Ms. Kreul’s class. TFK is a fun magazine for kids.

TFK tells about what’s going on in the world. The latest issue was “Who Owns the Arctic?” It’s about the world fighting over the Arctic. It’s very interesting.

Inside TFK there are interesting articles such as Top 5 and Spotlight. Top 5 is about top 5 languages, largest libraries, top sports, and many more amazing facts. Spotlight is usually about famous people such as Wendelin Van Draanen who wrote Shredderman.

One of our favorite articles is “Why is it So Hard to Eat Right?” It’s a great story that gives a lot of helpful information about why it’s hard to eat right.

If you want know about other articles, read TFK!!

By Emma and Jieun

Reading a challenging book? We can help! We can help you with recommending some of our strategies!

While you are reading, if you are stuck and don’t understand a certain part or word in your book, we have some strategies for you. First off you can reread the part or word and see if you understand it. Next, if it doesn’t work, you can infer what the word or part means. Then keep going and maybe you might find out what it means.

Before you start a book you can predict what will happen in the book or you can also predict while you are reading. Another thing to do while, before, or after reading is to ask questions, or think of connections, such as text to self, text to world, and text to text.

If you are at the bookstore or at the library and are having trouble finding a just right book, here are some of our suggestions that might help you!
*You can look at the number of or sentences on a page.
*You can also do the five finger rule, which is when you read five pages of the book before you buy or check out a book.
*Make sure the print is not too small, but not too big.

We hope our reading strategies will help you in the future!

By Kaitlyn and Nathan

Does your teacher do read-alouds? If not we’ll tell you what 4K does!

When we start a new book we predict what might happen before we read it. Before Ms. Kreul starts reading she asks us where we left off the last time we read. After Ms. Kreul is done reading she asks us if we have any connections or questions. Then we discuss it with our with our table group or across partners.

We usually read about fourth graders. We read Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume. Now we are reading The Geek Chronicles: Rosie Swanson for Fourth Grade President by Barbra Park.

We enjoy read-alouds and hope you do too!

4K just read a wonderful picture book titled A Fine, Fine School written by Sharon Creech and illustrated by Harry Bliss.

This book is about a principal named Mr. Keene who just loves his fine, fine, school and his fine, fine students, and his fine, fine teachers and all the learning that is happening. He loves it all so much that he thinks school should be held on Saturdays, then Sundays, then holidays, then all summer long. How can his students and teachers tell Mr. Keen that they need to have time away from school to take a break, relax, and learn other things? Read this humorous book to find out how they solve the problem!

4K worked in teams to write expository pieces describing why their school – Richards School – is a fine, fine school. Read their writing below to discover all the reasons they think they also have a fine, fine school!

Written by Jordan, Emma, Davis, and Spencer

We bet you don’t know how impressive Richards School is. Well, we do! We’ll take you on a tour of a fourth grader’s day at our fine, fine school.

We line up in the morning and we see our friends talking and playing. Ding! The bell just rang. Ms. Kreul brings each class in every morning. We get out our assignment ntoebooks and copy our homework. When we are finished we get out our math tools. We do our math message, then we do our math boxes.

We are so eager to go on our new, gigantic, gleaming playground. So we get our science materials out and zoom outside for recess.

We come in from recess and proceed to the science room. We walk in and see the terrariums on the window sill. Our science teacher calls us to get our terrariums. Wow, the plants are growing like crazy! When science is over we go to our classroom and do MUG shots and then we work on spelling with our spelling partner.

After that it’s about time for thinking with numbers. Ms. Kreul gives us some simple math problems. After that it’s about time for lunch. We are all really hungry so we get our lunchboxes and quickly line up.

Now it’s time for recess. Horray! We burst out the doors in excitement. When we get to the playground we climb up on the rock climbing wall. We slide down the slides. We start walking to the monkey bars and start climbing on them. We all run over to see our bricks. They’re so cool! Wow, there are so many! Ding! We all line up. Awww… recess is over. Ms. Kreul tells our class to come in.

We gave read-aloud after lunch recess. We are reading The Geek Chronicles 2. We are so fortunate to have all these great books. This book is great so far. We are really enjoying it! Then we start reading our own books.

Now it’s time for choir. Choir goes by fast because it’s so fun! Then it’s time for TFK – our kid-friendly magazine. After TFK, it’s time for music – back to the music room. We get to play drums and sing songs. When music is finished we line up and our music teacher tells us to walk up to P.E.

Finally at P.E. – good! We play pass with the brown football. P.E. is almost over. We do a few more activities with the football. Gym is over – ah…! Now we go to the classroom and do our jobs!

We are so excited for school tomorrow because we will be learning at an honorable school with awesome teachers!

Written by Alec, Maddy, John, and Susan

Spontaneous, fun, adventurous but … still educational, these are the words that describe Richards School. From choir to French to spelling to math, Richards sure wins the prize. Let us tell you all about the fine, fine school that Richards is!

Here’s the inside scoop of the daily Richards 4th grade academic classes:
In the morning we usually have math, spelling, and writing, and social studies and science. After lunch we have read-aloud, and on Fridays we have math problem solvers. We have sustained silent reading – SSR for short, then our class goes to specials.

Take a peek at the next paragraph for a scoop of our out of classroom activities:
Our specials are Music, Physical Education, Choir, French, Orchestra (optional), Art, and finally Library. Obviously we play instruments in music or orchestra. Art is simply drawing, painting, and making fun things. Physical Education has fun activities such as running and jumping. Library is easily described – reading and checking out books. French is definitely learning a fun, new, and exciting language. Now you’ve heard about our of the classroom activities.

Richards is a great school to learn a lot, Richards is very educational. If you want to come back, you will learn much, much more – but remember – rich or poor anyone can come to this fine, fine school.

Written by Charlie, Caroline, Jieun, and Zack

Richards is a fine, fine school, do you know why? Richards is a fine, fine school because all of the teachers educate the students very well, and the specials teachers exercise and teach children lots of different things, such as teamwork and sports.

One of our specials is physical education. Our teachers in this special are wonderful teachers! They support and teach kids lots of physical things.

We also have an orchestra program for fourth and fifth graders. In this program you will learn how to play string instruments such as the violin and cello. In orchestra you can’t play the guitar because it is a percussion instrument. We also have a band program for fifth graders.

There are so many different activities that will knock your socks off – like our library. It is fantastic – there are so many books to look at. There are computers to find and check out books.

In art you learn all different kinds of techniques for painting, collages, and layering.

Our music class has drums, recorders, guitars, xylophones, and a piano.

Last but not least the ecomputer room where we go on different web sites and we do typing activities.

Finally we pack up our bags and go home!

Written by Gracie, Emma, Nathan, and Brooks

The Richards way is the way Richards works, with spectacular students and teachers, too. Don’t forget the PTO, which stands for the helpers we use every day.

Recess kids love every recess, the teachers do, too. The students play football and soccer. There are many other things we like to do. What do you do at recess?

Social studies is spectacular. So many places to see, people to learn about, and things to do. You will learn the four social sciences and study the world. That’s what we do.

Specials are spectacular. We have great teachers who help us in French, P.E., Music, Art, and Library, too. How about you?

Math is an awesome subject of numbers and numerals, addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. There are tests to take and quizzes, too. Those are just some of the things that we do!

English is a splendid subject, with reading, writing, and spelling. There’s lots to do, you can write poems like us. Woo hoo!

Science is a super subject with organisms, environments, terrariums, and such.

That’s just a few things we like to do at Richards!

Written by Katie, Chris, and Kaitlyn

When the school bell rings at 8:05
we walk on in with so much pride.

We face the flag and say the Pledge,
and then we start our daily math.

Recess at 9:15 – we get
to do our own special thing.

Social studies next in line,
then we have our lunch time.

Reading, writing, so much fun,
French and P.E., we’re almost done.

At 3:05 we say goodbye to Richards
A fine, fine school.

By Elise and Ali

“This is reporter Ali going around talking to people on the street with my good friend Elise.”

“Elise, how are you doing?”

“I’m doing fine and in other words we decided to talk to people in 4K.”

“That sounds great!”

“Let’s go!”

“This is Ali and we’re with 4K’s very own Emily!”

“Now Emily, can you tell us what you’re doing in writing?”

“Well, we just got finished with a contest about rivers and lakes for the Schlitz Audubon Center!”

“More details please.”

“Well, we could either write about a lake or river we have been to or we want to visit, then we would write a story about the animals and fish that we saw. Our teacher sent them in and if we win we get invited to a breakfast to read our essay and then go on a guided tour in a canoe.”

“Cool!”

“This is Elise with Mike in 4K. Now Mike what can you tell us about writing class?”

“We just got finished with our mystery story. We read a book like Nancy Drew, A to Z Mystery, Hardy Boys, or Encyclopedia Brown. We had to write a review that would make other people want to read it. Also we had to write our own mysteries.”

“We are interviewing one more person and his name is Paul!”

“Now Paul, what are you doing in free write?”

“We are doing a poem called “This is Just to Say.” It is about a man who eat some ones plums. Otherwise we write any thing we want like spring poetry or a story.

“Well there you have it!”

“This is Ali and Elise on the 4K News whenever you need to read.”

By Paul and Emily

We are working on writing strategies in our class. Some of them are: graphic organizer, web, editing with a partner, writing table, and a list.

A graphic organizer is four columns with rows of your ideas. Each column represents who, (the character(s)), what the character did, when it happened, and where the setting is. We do this before we write the story.

Webs are used the most for prewriting. In the center of the web is the main idea. Connected to that are the some ideas. Connected to that is some details about the ideas. It all ends up looking like a spider web.

You could also use a table to organize your story. The table top is the main idea of the story. The legs are the details of the main idea. If you take one of the details the table wobbles. If you take away more details, or legs, the table crashes to the ground. Just like if you took away all of the details in your story, your your story would not be good.

After you finish your first copy, you can edit with a partner. Editing means to check to be ready for a public presentation. They will read it over and make changes to your story if you didn’t change them yourself. There are editing marks that mean to change things like add a period or delete a word. You also edit yourself before your final copy.

The last strategy we use is a list; this is very simple. All you do is make a list with about 10 to 15 ideas about your story in it. You don’t have to use all the ideas, just the better ones.

Those are some of our writing strategies that we use the most in class. Hope you have fun using our writing strategies.

By Joey and Brianna

Did you know that Teddy Roosevelt was the 26th president? If not you can learn that in 4K Social Studies. You can learn that and more if you listen to us while we tell you what we do in Social Studies.

In social studies we are known to do something called a Geography Challenge. It’s ok if you have absolutely no idea what were talking about because we will explain it. In our Geography Challenge we have to use our text book maps in order to answer the ten questions that are presented to us. We also get a map where we have to map the rivers, capitals, states, and points of interest, national parks, and the oceans.

Pretty much every unit we do a letter that has an introduction that tells about the unit. Also we write about three places we toured. It has to be very descriptive and has to have really good details. Once we are done doing all the writing we draw a picture of one of the places we visited.

The last thing we want to tell you about is the tours we do. The pages in our textbook each show a different place in each region and tell about the states’ geography, like Wisconsin. After we listen to a recording of the page we have to talk about three things we learned during the recording. After we talk to a partner we map it then talk about our drawing.

And that is what we do in Ms. Kreul’s 4th grade social studies class.

By Ellen and Jack

This quarter has been the best for science out of all the quarters! We would like to tell you why. Our teacher, Miss Green has made it so fun and interesting and exciting. One way she makes it interesting is that we do an experiment almost every week. Some of the experiments are so fun.

Some of the experiments include making chemical reactions with baking soda, calcium chloride, citric acid, and water. The first reaction we made was with calcium chloride and baking soda. It actually had a white solid at the bottom and if you let it harden it will eventually turn into chalk. The second reaction didn’t fizz because it was only calcium chloride and citric acid. The reason the class thinks that it didn’t fizz was because there was no baking soda. We got that idea from what happens with paper mache volcanoes because they always need baking soda. The third reaction was the coolest according our class because it looked like Sprite.

The next thing is the Learning Fair and it is the most fun. The reason most people in the grade think it is cool is because you can do any science project (yes, that includes volcanoes) or history project but it has to be teacher o.k. If you want to do the Learning Fair you need a bright idea and a partner – but you don’t need a partne,r you can do it alone or a group of three. The best part about it is that you can raise your grade and have fun with your friends. You even get to put it up in the middle of the hall and show the project to the whole school!

We also have tests after every unit. Some kids think they are annoying but some think they are good because they show that there is going to be a new unit coming up. The tests basically have questions about the previous investigations and what we learned and what we should already know. We think that the tests are fun because we usually study hard. The start of the test is a multiple choice section and then there is a real life problem.

That’s what we do in science!

By Spencer, Grant, and Gigi

In 4K we read great books and here are some of the fantastic books we read.
In read aloud we are reading a great book called The Mysterious Matter of I.M. Fine. In this book a girl named Franny and a boy named Beamer go to a new town to look for an author named I.M. Fine because weird things are happening to the kids that read the books by I.M. Fine.

Now we are doing spring poems from a book called Handsprings and we also read a book called Victory Garden.

In book club we read a book and then share with a group. When we get into a group we read our entries in our reading log, when everyone in the group is finished. We hand out Popsicle sticks, and ask each other questions, or make a connection.

SSR (sustained silent reading) is when you read then make a comment in your journal. Then you share your comment with a partner then they share theirs with you. This is different than book club because you don’t share with a group.

TFK is a kid’s version of TIME magazine. It tells us the new facts in the U.S. and sports facts. After we read we get a work sheet to work on. We usually read with a partner and we have a sheet of questions that help us read the article.

By Spencer, Grant, and Gigi

In 4K we read great books and here are some of the fantastic books we read.
In read aloud we are reading a great book called The Mysterious Matter of I.M. Fine. In this book a girl named Franny and a boy named Beamer go to a new town to look for an author named I.M. Fine because weird things are happening to the kids that read the books by I.M. Fine.

Now we are doing spring poems from a book called Handsprings and we also read a book called Victory Garden.

In book club we read a book and then share with a group. When we get into a group we read our entries in our reading log, when everyone in the group is finished. We hand out Popsicle sticks, and ask each other questions, or make a connection.

SSR (sustained silent reading) is when you read then make a comment in your journal. Then you share your comment with a partner then they share theirs with you. This is different than book club because you don’t share with a group.

TFK is a kid’s version of TIME magazine. It tells us the new facts in the U.S. and sports facts. After we read we get a work sheet to work on. We usually read with a partner and we have a sheet of questions that help us read the article.

By Hannah and Karen

Ever wonder what students in 4K do in math? Well here is what we are doing!

Since we are at the end of the year we are working on combining fractions, decimals, and percents. We are also working on turning easy fractions into percents and decimals into percents. Kids in 4K are also learning how to divide and multiply decimals.

We are almost finished with our unit on lines of symmetry and reflections. When we work on reflections we use transparent mirrors. We also use the transparent mirrors to play games like darts and pool. We also made a picture of a clown with the transparent mirrors. We look at pictures and draw the line of symmetry.

Kids in 4K math are also learning about positive and negative numbers. While we were learning about positive and negative numbers we learned that 0 is neither positive nor negative. We also learned that numbers under 0 are negative and numbers over 0 are positive. A game we learned how to play deals with getting credit with positive numbers and debit with negative numbers.

Now you know what 4K does in math!

By Maggie and Mike

Have you ever tried Lit. Circles with some friends? Well we have and it was worth it!

Our class split up into 4 groups. Each group did different mysteries. A member of the group read a different book in the series by the same author. The groups read Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, Encyclopedia Brown, or The A, B, C Mysteries. The author of Nancy Drew is Carolyn Keene and the author of A, B, C, Mysteries is by Ron Roy.

During the time doing our Lit. Circles we each have to do a packet. In the packets we pick a comment like making predictions and connections. We can summarize what we just read, or tell who your favorite character is.

A connection is when you have had an experience like a part in the book you are reading. A prediction is when you guess what is going to happen next and a summary is when you tell what just happened in the story. You can also explain who your favorite character in the position they are in right now or who your favorite character has been through the whole book.

All the books that our teacher picked out are all amazing. Of course all of the books are mysteries. The books are all easy to read, but not too easy. The books are so common that there are probably lots of people who own the books (at least we do). Remember they are easy to read but fun to read.

When we finish the book and the packet we do a book review. When we are in groups we did it as a group but because we all read a different book we did them separately.

You should try out Lit. Circles for yourself. Trust us, we have done it before and it was awesome!

Written by Spencer and Grant

Lately in Social Studies we have been learning about the Ford Motor Company. We designed a car and worked at an assembly line. We had to make 50! That’s how Detroit got its nickname Motor City.

Illinois is good for crops. Its nickname is the prairie state. It is famous for O’Hare Airport and Wrigley Field. It is home of the Chicago Bears.

That’s what we’re learning in Social Studies.

Written by Ellen and Mike

What is super? It is science! It is great because when you are learning it feels like you’re playing education games. One time we played pass the inflatable globe and if your finger touched water you said “water” and if your finger your touched land, you said “land.”

In science we also have a Marine Animal project. It is where we had to pick an ocean animal and write a report. We either had to type it or write it but most of the people typed it. We put our reports and pictures of our marine animals on the cereal boxes.

We also do quite a bit of experiments like when we worked with fish. We put BTB (a type of indicator) into a cup then put a fish in it. The water turned from blue to yellow because when BTB touches oxygen it turns yellow.

Have you ever wondered how much water is on the earth? We know that the earth’s percentage is 75%. Wow that is a lot!

Don’t we do a lot in science? It is also great fun.
Anyway we hope we took you on an amazing tour of science!!