Ms. Kreul’s Class Blog

Remember that Reading Log pages can be downloaded from the class blog so students can type their reading log entries each week. A great way to practice keyboarding skills!

Over the next few weeks, fourth graders will be finishing up their keyboarding lessons using “Type to Learn.” As the year goes on, they will have the opportunity to word process some of their class assignments, so the keyboarding practice will come in handy!

ReadWriteThink Printing Press - Cool online tool for creating newspapers, brochures, flyers, and booklets at home

Math Activities – A variety of activities for each grade that match the units in the WFB math series

Each week fourth graders work on fluency, expression, pace, and interpretation as they read poems from their Poetry Folders.

This week students are learning how to post articles to their personal blogs on the 4K @ Richards Class Blogmeister blog in school. They can post articles at home, so in today’s Friday folder there is an identical copy of the directions to keep and use at home.

To see work by 4K students from the past 2 years, click on the links for 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 for the 4K@ Richards blog under Blogroll from the class blog page.

4K took the O.R.E.O. Project challenge this week and snacked on yummy cookies while working on math skills.

Each student was allowed 2 attempts to try to stack as many cookies as high as they could. As one student stacked cookies, his or her partner helped count the cookies. After the attempts were completed and recorded, the class worked together to find the important landmarks from the data they collected.

Here are the results from the 4K stacking challenge:

• Maximum number of cookies stacked – 25 cookies
• Minimum number of cookies stacked – 15 cookies
• Range of the number of cookies stacked – 10 cookies
• Mode of the number of cookies stacked – 21 cookies
• Average of the number of whole cookies stacked – 20 cookies

Ready to stack the cookies

Stacking cookie towers

Cookies galore

The class will be learning how to do Literature Circles in 4KR next week using a variety of Junie B. Jones books. Students will write comments similar to reading log entries and discuss their thoughts with a small group of classmates in the circles. Book reviews too!

What activities can you do at home with your fourth grader to practice math skills, as well as provide challenging math activities?

Check your fourth grader’s SRB – Student Reference Book – for the math games on pp. 184-208. These games can be modified to provide practice and/or challenge, depending on the needs of the student playing the games.

Card games and board games that include math as a component can provide practice and challenge in an enjoyable format. Monopoly, Cribbage, Solitaire, and Rummy are favorites in my family.

There are mathematics web sites* available online that can be used to provide opportunities for students of all ages:

AAA Math

FunBrain.com

A+ Math

Math Forum

Cool Math.com

Brain Teasers

Math Challenges

*As always, an adult should carefully supervise children who are online.

Time for Kids – or TFK – is the news magazine we read each week to find out what is happening in the US and around the world.

Visit the student site for TFK for learn more about this week’s issue and lots more…

TFK for Students

A Group Book Review by 4K on Sept. 18, 2009

Do you have a pesky little brother or sister? If you do, you’ll love Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume.

Peter Hatcher is a 9 year old boy with an annoying 3 year old brother named Fudge. One day the boys went to the dentist because Fudge tried to fly like a bird from the monkey bars at the park. He knocked out his two front teeth. At the dentist Fudge refused to open his mouth. The dentist and Mrs. Hatcher made Peter open his mouth so Fudge would too. Fudge always wants to copy Peter and be just like him.

If you like funny books, you’ll like the part when Fudge gets to be in a commercial for Toddle-Bikes. Do you have a little brother or sister? You’ll really understand the book because you know what little brothers and sisters are like! If you’re a fourth grade teacher, you will want to read this book to your students because it’s about a fourth grader. Is realistic fiction one of your favorite genres? You’ll love this book, too!

You’ll like this book if you have siblings, students, or just love a funny story. Run, don’t walk, to your library or bookstore and pick up a copy of Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. It’s a comedy that any kid with a little brother or sister can relate to!

4KR math students will take pretests prior to starting each new math unit beginning with Unit 2. Students are reassured that pretests are not scored or graded for report cards.

Teachers will use information from pretests for planning instruction, pacing lessons, and organizing partnerships and small groups.

Teachers will soon be assessing student reading skills using “3-Minutes Reading Assessments.”

Students read a passage aloud while I observe their word recognition, fluency, expression, phrasing, and pace. Then students are asked to retell what they read in the passage to check for comprehension skills.

The results of this informal assessment, along with individual conferences using books students are reading for SSR time, will be used to plan lessons and projects for the whole class, small groups, and individuals.

4K has started using Time for Kids (TFK) as part of the reading curriculum. TFK is wonderful for learning about current events, reading about interesting people, learning how to read nonfiction texts, discovering how fiction texts differ from fiction texts, working on reading fluency with partner reading, and practicing comprehension skills.

4K fourth graders are beginning to review the traits that good writers use in their writing.

Writing by fourth graders…

• has fluent sentences – your writing flows well
  
• has voice – it sounds like you
  
• stays on topic – you stick to the subject
  
• makes a picture in your mind – you use sensory words to help visualize
  
• has pizzazz – you show excitement, fear, or other strong emotions
  
• is organized – you have made your piece easy to read
  
• has interesting word choice – you have added many descriptive details
  
• has correct conventions – you have used correct capitalization, punctuation, grammar, and spelling
  
• grabs the reader’s attention – you have made your reader want to start reading – then keep reading!

4K brainstormed a list of what makes books easy, challenging, and just right for fourth grade readers. They will use their ideas to make sure they are reading just right books for most of the time this year.

Easy books:

Understand everything
Not enough words on a page
Too much white space
Text size too big
Takes a short time to read
It’s way too short
All the words are easy
Don’t need fix-up strategies
Read fluently
Too predictable
Doesn’t keep your interest
Can’t make predictions
Have lots of schema

Challenging books:

Don’t understand a lot
Too many words on a page
Too little white space
Font is too small
Lots of hard words
Too long
Can’t make predictions
Don’t have much schema
Takes too much time to read
Doesn’t keep your interest
Can’t read fluently
Use too many fix-up strategies
Read later in the year or next year

Just right books:

Understand most of what’s going on
Enough words on a page
Text size is just right
White space is just right
Takes an average time to read
There are a few hard words
Use fix-up strategies a few times
Read fluently
Can make predictions
Have lots of schema
Keeps your interest
Want to read more in the series
Want to read more by the author
Enjoy reading

By Evangeline

Good day to you! I am one of the workers on wagons, I came to the Wade house because I was poor, and couldn’t take care of my wife, Margaret. As a wagon maker I heard a costumer talking about a small place called Greenbush, were you could live at an inn for fifty cents. So there I moved, I rented a small room with only a chamber pot, a pitcher, and a bed, at a nice inn called the Wade house.

Mr. Wade loved all the wagons I made, often I would have a free wagon drive me down to the forge, and ask to have a curtain size wheel made. I soon learned that people would pay more in a place were only one person was making wagons than in a place were lots of people made wagons. Soon I had enough to stay at the inn and much to have a good life. One thing that helped was that not many things were close together.

Some rooms concern me more than others, at first I was amazed that it costs three cents to get a whiskey, and five cents for lemonade! I wonder why my wife was delighted with the parlor? Lots of the time I wish I had a larger room and bed, I’m cramped in this teeny, tiny room!The rooms on the floor below me are a ton better, I wish I had one of those nicer rooms.

But I’m not the only one suffering, the chamber maid cleans out the chamberpots, cooks, and cleans for a meal and a roof. That must be hard to live with! Poor girl! That I come to think of it, life here is fun but nobody here has an easy time living here. But it’s almost midnight so I must conclude.

By MH

Good morning my name is Elizabeth I am 33 years old. I am here with my husband John (32 years) and my daughter Samantha (2 years.) There are 27 rooms in the Wade House.

My family has been here for 5 days and 4 nights. We are only here until the weather clears up.

My family moved to Wisconsin in 1848 which is when Wisconsin became the 30th state. The Wade House was built in1850 which is 2 years after Wisconsin became a state.

The rooms are very small but you just have to live with it. My daughter and I have the biggest room of all the guest rooms because I have to be with her. John is in the room next to me. It only cost 50 cents a night. The ballroom is attached to the guest rooms and sometimes they have Cotillions (dances) which makes it hard for Samantha to sleep.

My husband is usually in the tap room (barroom.) Which I am not allowed to go in neither is Samantha.

It cost 25 cents a meal. In the dining room are 2 long tables and the walls are white.

Everybody in the Wade family helps out. Hollis is the youngest but he was drafted into war. So Mr. Wade paid some other young man 300 dollars to take Hollis’s place that is called commutation. Well’ the weather is clearing up I have to go.

By EH

Good afternoon, my name is Elisabeth White. I traveled to the Wade House from England with my husband, Mark and my 4 children, Sasha, Isabelle, Jamison, and Mark.

Now let me tell you a little about my life at the Wade House. We had an earthquake in England and our house got tore down, all the houses in our state were hurt.

We had to make a decision either to move to a different part of England or to move to WI Greenbush. We decided to move to WI Greenbush.

We moved her the day that WI came a state in 1848. Now we live hear here with all out friends and family.

By Annie
Good morning! I am Caitlin and I’m going to tell you about my stay at Wade House. I have two kids; Lucy who is going to be 11 and John jr. is 10 months old. My husband John is a black smith.

Sometimes he helps in the sawmill at 5:00 am and 11:00 pm. He gets paid 50¢ when he does both Jobs and 40¢ if he works in the blacksmith shop.

We moved because we heard howling in the night. On our way we got tired so we stopped at the Wade House.

Did I mention I work in the kitchen? I make lunch and dinner, I get paid 140¢ a week or 1dollar and 40¢. Each day I go to the parlor and read my book. We have two rooms, and a crib. Lucy and I sleep together, John sleeps in the other room, and you can guess who sleeps in the crib.

Lucy makes candles, we keep some and sell some. Two for a penny. She makes 3¢ to 8 ¢ a day. She buys candy with some of the money and pay the rent with the rest. John goes to the barroom anytime he can. Women never go in the barroom.

I have to go! I’m going to make colored candles with Lucy. Goodbye!

By DW

Good day, my name is Dylan. I am the blacksmith at the Wade House. I’m 33 years old. I have a nice sized room on the second floor. My pay for a ten hour day is 35¢

The first floor has the barroom, dinning room, and parlor. The barroom is for only men, thats why it is my favorite. You can play cards, other games, and drink. The parlor is like the barroom exepet it’s for women. They like to read and talk. There is also a piano in the parlor, people rarley play it though. But when they do beautiful music fills the Wade House. Last but not least the dinning room. It  my favorite food, pork, corn, and rhubarb pie. The noon meal is all I eat but it’s 25¢, thats most of my pay!!!

Now onto the second and third floors. To sleep on the second floor you must pay $2 a week! It makes sence because they are bigger. The second floor is were I sleep. Mr Wade lowers my rent to $1 a week.    On the third floor is were the guests sleep for 50¢.

by: TV

Good day, my name is John and I am a Blacksmith here at the Wade House. My story is my home town back in England had a war so we got on a boat to come to the United States then we found the Wade House and decided to stay  here.

First off lets go to the Barroom. This is where the men play cards and gamble or play checkers or they just hang out. If you want a Whiskey it costs 6¢. If you want a lemonade it costs only 3¢. Now lets move onto the Parlor.

Women stay here while they are waiting for a meal to be made. They usually either read a book or listen to some music. Now lets move to the little rooms right up the stairs.

These are the rooms witch people stay in. They cost 50¢ to rent for only one night. Did you know that there is a total of 27 of these rooms in the Wade House.

This is the dining room where you eat all of your meals. The main meal costs 50¢ to eat, it is pretty much lunch. They will you stew and some pie if you would like some.

If you come to the Wade House come visit me at my Blacksmith shop I’ll be there. I hope you if you come you’ll like it as much as I have. I had liked it a lot also doing my years at the Wade House.