Ms. Kreul’s Class Blog

Book Buddies
By Gigi and Emily

We are going to tell you about our K4 book buddies. Their teacher is Mrs. Kubicki. We go on Wednesdays for 15 minutes. We call them book buddies because we read books to them and they are our buddies.

In book buddies there is a new theme every other week such as: ocean, dinos , and Christmas. We read to them by authors like Kevin Hankies, Eric Carle, and Jerry Pallotta .

We also do some activities with our book buddies such as the gummy bear count and a paper telling what they’d do with 100 dollars. In the gummy bear count we separated the gummy bears into groups by colors, then made a graph showing how many of each we had. On the 100 dollar sheet we asked our book buddies what they’d do with 100 dollars. We wrote it down and they drew a picture of it.

That’s what we read and do in book buddies!

Driven to Write
By Joey and Maggie

Have you ever published a book? Well we have and it took many steps. This year the theme is racecars and the logo is Driven to Write. First you have to pick a theme, subject, and genre. For example you might pick sports, mystery, poems, or a favorite vacation, and so much more. But we think the most popular thing to write about is an animal. That is only the beginning of publishing a book.

Another step and the longest step is picking something to write about then writing a story about it, or picking something you’ve already written. Once you are done with that, you have to revise and edit your story. Once you are done revising and editing, you have to type and print your story.

The final step is publishing. You go to the Imagination Station and pick out a cover. There are so many to pick from. Then you revise and edit your paper with a grown up. Afterward you pick if you want a dedication, comments, or about the author paper. You can pick if you want space to make pictures. Then the grown ups type it and get it back to you as soon as possible. Then you get to make pictures if you want to.

That’s all the steps of making a book.

4K Music
By Nick

Do you want to know what’s going on in 4K music? Well, if you do, you’ll find out now!

When we come downstairs to music, we stand in line to get a drink at the bubbler, then we file in the room as Mrs. Riebau, our music teacher, greets us at the door. Then we stand at our place on the risers that are assembled in the music room and start our lesson for that day.

Currently in both music and choir, (a time when all five 4th grade classes have one music class together) we have been mainly working on memorizing songs for our choir concert, which is coming up next week. It’s a time when the 4th grade perform all the songs we’ve learned throughout the year in the gym for our parents. The songs are Old Carrion Crow, a Nova Scotian folk song, One Tin Soldier, from a movie called The Legend of Billy Jack, Yonder Come Day and Ezekiel Saw the Wheel, two African American spirituals,
Tzena, Tzena, and Merry-go-Round. There are also soloists for each verse in Ezekiel Saw the Wheel and Yonder Come Day.

This year will be the first choir concert ever, but there are two annual concerts for friends and family called the Spring Sing and the Festival of Lights. The Festival of Lights occurs in the middle of December, while the Spring Sing occurs near the end of the year, in May or June. The smoke died down, the drummers started doing a drum roll, and the dragons ran away in the Festival of Lights. I’m not sure what we’re doing for the Spring Sing, but I’m sure it will be fun!

We just finished up on a piece called Rodeo by Aaron Copland. Before the piece starts, we divide into groups of eight. Once the music starts, we do a square dance. First, we form a circle and walk one way for eight beats, and then we turn around and walk the other way for eight beats. Then, we allemande (swing) our corner, and then we do the same to our partner. The head couples (four people in the front and back) step forward for three beats, clap and step back. The side couples (four people on the sides) do the same. To end the song, we “stamp, clap” at each octave, do our own moves, and finally end with our own gesture.

I hope you learned a lot about 4K music!

Written by Gigi and Maggie

Have you been to a music class at Richard School? If not let us clue you in on what we do there. We have songs like Old Carrion Crow and One Tin Soldier together. We go to class twice a week, and those two days are great.

Our music teacher is Mrs.Riebau. She only teaches second, third. fourth and fifth grade. Some music teachers are very serous. Mrs.Riebau is serious, but at the same time she is very funny. If you ask her a question she can answer it or she will figure it out. So people consider her very smart.

Mrs. Riebau doesn’t only teach classes, she also teaches choir. Every Monday all the fourth grade classes go down to the music room and pick up folders. There are not enough for everybody so we share with our side-by-side partner. We get to sing some great songs. All of the students sing the same words or some classes sing some different words.

Last but way not least – FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS. Kindergarten does Christmas, first grade does Hanukkah, second grade does Santa Lucia, third grade does Las Posadas, fourth grade does Chinese New year, and fifth grade does Kwanzaa. The Chinese part of the festival features a parade, flags, drums, and a dragon we make in art class.

Keep making music because music makes the world go round!

Written by Robby and Spencer

We are going to tell you about Library at Richards Elementary School in Whitefish Bay. We’ll start by telling our librarian/teacher’s name which is Ms. Roberts. She has an assistant named Ms. Haupt. We also have centers sometimes where we read books, go on the computers, or solve puzzles.

The last two years we had authors come to our school. Last year we had an author named Margie Palatini and this year we had an author named Robert Burleigh. Also at the end of the presentation we can get a signed copy of the book if we ordered it.

We use computers to help us find the books that we are looking for. Also we sometimes go to the Computer lab to look up some information on different curriculums like: Science, Social Studies, etc. We also use the computer to look up kids’ websites and learn new stuff.

Our favorite books are: Goosebumps the Curse of Camp Cold Lake and the Bone series, so check out these books at your local Library.

By Nick and Karen

Do you want to know about 4th grade art? Well, we’ll tell you about it and what projects we’ve been doing. Our art teacher’s name is Mrs. Miller. She is the greatest artist we’ve ever met! Every year we have a student art teacher. This year our student art teacher was Miss Dreblow.

When our class lines up at the door for art, we wait outside until Mrs. Miller and Miss Dreblow come out to greet us. We walk into the classroom and sit on the carpet while Miss Dreblow or Mrs. Miller gives directions. The student of the week that week gets to sit in Mrs. Miller’s rocking chair (which is very comfortable). Then we go to our assigned seats or a seat of our choice, depending on how good we’ve been during directions. Then we start doing our project.

One of our first projects was a stamp project. First, we made five designs on grid paper to carve into our stamp. Mrs. Miller helped us decide which one we should carve on our stamp (it’s really an eraser.) After Mrs. Miller picks the one she thinks is best then we go back to our seats. We do it in pen or sharpie and then we carve it with a Xacto blade. When we are done carving them, we stamp 3 sheets with it, one is a border sheet, another is a full sheet, and the last sheet is one of our choice.

Our recent project was the top activity. We all got CDs and used all different colored sharpies to make swirls and other things on the side you put the CD in the player. When we are finished Mrs. Miller takes the CD and a water bottle cap and hot glues them together. Then she takes a marble and hot glues that on the other side of the CD and you hold it for a few seconds. Voila! You have a spinning top!

By Ali and Kathryn

“What is the Richards school book fair?” you may ask. We can answer that question easily. It is when most of the Richards families get together and have fun and buy books. We have one every year. Every year we have different themes like castles or a rainforest. You can wi

n prizes, all sorts of prizes like $5.00 or $10.00 gift certificates for things at the book fair! Some teachers make lists for books they would like to have for their classrooms for kids to read and families buy the books for the classrooms.

Sometimes we have a special person come to our book fair. A couple years ago we had everyone’s favorite big red-dog, Clifford! We wre about 8 but were still in on the fun. This year we had David Stokes, a person who loves animals, come to the book fair. This year when David Stokes came a fourth grader got a snake on his neck. Mr. Stokes also brought 2 giant bullfrogs. The frogs were bulky and slimy but they were so cool!

Book fair has a ton of books and knick-knacks. They have all the newest books like Series of Unfortunate Events: The End. We have lots of fun playing games, reading, and being with our families. There are lots of families who help out.

Also when the book fair is here we also have Family Fun night. That is when families come and have fun playing games. A couple years ago we had hat dance where you could win brownies and cookies and all that sweet stuff. We also had musical chairs.

We all hope that you come to the Richards book fair one day and if you don’t you’ll be missing out in a lot!

By Brianna and Mike

Wow, we think that orchestra is fun. In orchestra our teacher’s name is awesome Brodie (Mr.Brodie). The instruments that we play in orchestra are cello, violin, and viola.

We play cool songs in Orchestra like “Boiled Cabbage” and “Open String Blues.” We do fingers patterns so we can get different sounds from our orchestras. The days that we have orchestra are Tuesdays. The time we have Orchestra is 12:35.The places we have Orchestra are in the little theater and the music room.

We also have cool activities right now. We’re working on a map called Peking to Paris. It is where we go to different countries and play music from that country. Here are some of the activities we do: Bow hold, Silent bow games, Rest position, and Helicopters.

We are going to have a concert in February and it is going to be cool.

By Isaiah and Grant

In Physical Education we work on the best sports in the world like Football, Dancing, Soccer, Baseball, Basketball, Tennis, Gymnastics, and so many other great sports! Oh, we forgot about kickball! Kickball is a game kind of like baseball. It has all the same positions except there is a rubber ball that the pitcher rolls to the batter. The batter kicks as hard as he or she can.

We even have centers. Centers is an activity with games like Dead Bugs, tunnel, slide, and jumping rope. Also, one of our favorite tag games is Jurassic Park tag. In Jurassic Park tag we have six taggers. The T-Rex can only tag a person when he or she isn’t moving, the Galapasaurus has to throw the ball to tag a person, and the Velaciraptor has to lock arms and run around to get someone. Then there are the friendly dinosaurs, the friendly dinosaurs slide on scooter-boards and touch the people who were tagged.

We also do tests like the Pacer and Fitness test. The Pacer is a test to see how your Lungs work. The Fitness test is a test to test your Upper and lower body strength. And believe us P.E. is Fantastic Fun!

Have you ever heard of book buddies? It is when we read books to kindergarteners. We all get assigned to one kindergartener. Sometimes there are two fourth graders with one kindergartener.

Every time we come to read to them they sing a song to us or do a letter in sign language. For example, they sang We’re on Our Way to Dracula or signed the letter B in sign language.

We are always reading different books to them. They are all picture books but it’s still fun.

Written by Hannah and Jack

In Richards school we learn a different language. We start to learn the language in 1st grade. The language we learn is French. Our teacher’s name is Madame Jacque.

Right now we are learning about Le cheveux (Hair) and we are learning about Les yeux (Eyes). For hair we are leaning about different types of hair such as raides (wavy) and boucles (curly). For the eyes we are learning about the different colors of eyes. We played a game about hair color and the of eyes. It was really fun!

Also in French we are learning how to say complete sentences. We are learning sentences like “Jai les cheveux” and “Quelle est la couleur de les yuex.” We learn these sentences so one day we can speak fluent French. The reason French has so many words that you probably haven’t heard of is because France is from a whole other part of the world. The continent that France is from is Europe.

In the beginning of the year we learned about school objects. In fact we learned 34 objects. Our teacher likes to make French fun so once we learned the school objects or at least most of them we played a fun game called Raton. You play the game by making two lines and then placing pictures of the objects in front of the people. There should be two of each picture. One of the pictures should be on one side and the other should be on the other side. Then you chose a caller. The caller calls out the objects and if you have that object you switch places with the other person who has that objects, but when the caller calls out “Raton” everyone has to switch places and the caller goes and tries too get a card and one person will be left out so that person is the new caller!

We all here at Richards school love French because its fun. The reason its fun is because we play so many games like loto and raton. We also have French two times a week so we can memorize the words. We also have 34 objects that we learned and played games with. The games that we play all have some French in them, like raton where the person that is left calls out French words in till they finally think its messed up so much that they call out RATON!

Written by Terry and Sam

In music we are practicing songs for the Spring SING. One of the songs is “Light One Candle” and another one is “Free to Be.” There are other songs with awesome words. There are “Light One Candle” dancers and some of them are from our class.

One more song is “My Dog is a Plumber.” They think the dog is a boy, but its favorite toy is a cooking set. Dad can’t climb a fence and the dog can’t climb a fence either. We have some instruments for this song, and we think that is going to make it even better.

Lots of the people in the Spring SING are working very hard on their songs. We think they are all going to be awesome in the beat and rhythm and style of the songs. Imagine all the songs put together!

Written by M.J. and Laura

Technology is right around the corner for 4K! We have been doing many projects using the web and other applications on the computers. From baseball to making stationary, we’ve covered a lot! We’re going to tell you about our main projects, starring the computers!

We went to the Baseball hall of Fame! Just kidding, but it really felt like that when we visited their web site. We had just read a story about Lou Gehrig and were researching famous baseball players. We learned their positions, checked their batting/pitching averages, saw their plaques, and read a short biography of their lives. Everyone liked this project!

What do you get when you take the Internet and math, and mix in a little fun? Funbrain! In Funbrain, we played math games that sharpened our skills to a perfect point! Funbrain takes ordinary games, like tic-tac-toe, and makes them a learning experience that is fun and creative. You can pick your level on Funbrain, from easy to superbrain! You can also pick your favorite subject and start to learn!

We also use the web in other subjects including library and science. In library we use a system called Destiny to help us find books. Destiny uses the Dewey decimal system and our super computer skills to find books all over the library. What would we do without your Destiny?

In science we visited the lab once for our mixtures and solutions unit. We did a game called Junk Yard to help us define what are mixtures and what are solutions.

In a program called Printshop Deluxe, we printed stationary for the staff on Teacher Appreciation Day! We made our teachers’ favorite designs on the stationary. We also made a calendar of the month May and stationary for ourselves. We made these with our favorite designs and border.

We’ve done so many fun things in 4K, but the most memorable are the ones with our good buddies the computers!

Written by Erika and Tommy

Guidance is great, so get ready for Mrs. Cefalu! Mrs. Cefalu is our awesome guidance teacher.

Recently, in guidance, our class has been discussing respect. We watched two movies. One was called Fighting Fair, the other was called Facing Up. In Fighting Fair, there were two groups arguing over who should get the basketball court. When the Phy Ed teacher comes out, he helps them find an agreeable solution. Facing Up was about an eighth grade bully who likes to pick on a sixth grader. Again, the basketball coach helped the bully stop picking on the sixth grader.

While we watched the movies, we took notes on respectful behavior and disrespectful behavior that took place during the movies. At the end, we took turns sharing what happened. Sometimes, we even got to act it out in a little skit.

Our past lesson was about goals and how we should make goals in order to achieve them. A fun activity we did was when we made goal shields. We had to write our goal and then write out three things you would do to achieve it on pieces of paper shaped like shields. Mrs. Cefalu also looked up the definition of goal in the dictionary, and came up with, “the result towards which effort is directed.”

Guidance has been a blast! It’s too bad guidance is almost ending for the year. We hope there will be more exciting topics next year!

Written by Jack and Annie

What takes place every Thursday and is 4K’s favorite special? Library, of course!

To kick off a new school year, Ms. Roberts, our school’s librarian, taught us a new system to find books called Destiny. Destiny is replacing the OPAC system. To help us get the hang of Destiny, we went to the lab. In the lab, everyone had to take a quiz about checking out a book using Destiny.

Every year, our school has a concert called the Festival of Lights. Each grade sings about a different holiday. The fourth grade’s holiday is always Chinese New Year. To enhance our understanding of Chinese New Year, Ms. Roberts read lots of Chinese folk tales to our class. We even got to watch a movie!

After winter break, we started learning about the Caldecott Award. It’s awarded to the picture book from the past year with the best illustrations. We read many of the books that the winner was chosen from. Then we voted on our class’ favorite book. The book with the most votes was Traction Man. Our hearts broke when our book wasn’t chosen.

The most recent unit in library is reference books. A reference book is a book that can be used to do research and find information. We learned how to use almanacs and dictionaries. An almanac keeps track of events that have happened in the past. We used dictionaries to find the definition and spelling of words.

We’re so disappointed that school is winding down since summer means NO MORE LIBRARY!

Written by Ryan and Brennan

Our art class is a colorful experience!! Our awesome art teacher Mrs. Miller gave us some cool projects over the year. In the beginning of the year we did portraits of ourselves. We first drew pictures of anyone we wanted to, then we got out mirrors and did ourselves.

Last week we did noodle houses. This is how we did them, we first drew a house, and then we glued the noodles over our drawings. After that we put foil over the noodle house drawings, finally we steel wooled them.

We also did mazes. The mazes were drawn out in pencil then colored in. You could do it with a partner or do it by yourself. Our next project is going to be copper foil art.

Our art teacher Mrs. Miller gave us some comments about being a art teacher. We asked “What is your favorite thing about being in art? Why?” “Watercolor painting because I love drawing and painting from nature and I love the outdoors,” Mrs. Miller said.

And once again – we are having an awesomely colorful experience!

Written by Cassidy and Greg

Fourth grade orchestra is a blast! We’re learning how to read notes. The only letter names are A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. We try to read the notes ourselves. If we can’t read the notes Mr. Brodie, our teacher, helps us. We try to memorize what the names of the notes are. We also have to remember what string to play on, and where to put our fingers.

For practice we use methods. Some of the methods are the penny method and the elephant foot method. The penny method is when you play a piece. When you play it correct you move a penny to the right, if you do it wrong you put a penny to the left. If it is on the right, and you play the song wrong, you move it to the center. Your goal is to have them all on the right and you get three pennies to do it. The elephant foot method is where you play one measure three times and do it better each time. Then you do the same to the second measure and play them together three times. You do the same with the rest of the measures.

We do two concerts a year in fourth grade and our second is coming up. We have solo songs in this concert. We didn’t have solos last time. Mr. Brodie would like it if we memorized our songs. We don’t have to memorize them if we can’t. We get to choose the song we play for the concert. To make our songs great, Mr. Brodie rotates around the room, gives comments, and of course helps.

Overall fourth grade orchestra is amazing! Also, don’t forget so is the amazing teacher – Mr. Brodie!

Written by Turner and Riley

We have been busy in 4th grade Physical Education. We’ve been learning about some very interesting things. Some of those things are roller skating, gymnastics, teamwork, and fitness test.

In roller skating we have been doing very fun activities, like the number game. That is when Mr. Genthe starts then stops the music and we find a number to go to. Then he rolls a giant die and the people who are on that number get a free skate for one minute. While we’re skating, Mr. Genthe plays music!

A couple of units ago we did gymnastics. Some stations that we did were rings, tumbling, springs, balance beam, and ropes. One week we climbed the ropes and the other week we swung from them.

Three units ago we did teamwork. Teamwork is where we go to different stations and we work together to complete them. Those stations are, black hole, lasso rope, mak walk, spider web, and whale watching.

Written by Elle and Misty

Hey, we have a question, what exactly is “Student Council”? That is a question many Student Council members will be asked. What exactly is Student Council? We’ll tell you. To join, you have to be in grades 2-5. You also have to fill out a sheet telling what group you would like to be in – Community, Spirit, or Fundraising.

We will explain about the groups:
In Spirit you plan fun activities that will not disrupt the school day. Basically, they provide spirit for the school. One example of the things that the Spirit team plans is Pajama Day. That’s when everyone wears their pajamas to school. Another is Twin Day, and this is when all the student’s ask a friend or group of people to dress alike. One last one is when Spirit made bookmarks for all the teachers, in honor of Teacher Appreciation Day. So as you can see, there is a lot going on for the Spirit team.

The Community team is like a helping hand to our Community. Sometimes they pick up trash around the school. They do the littlest things, but it all adds up to one major thing. They also made buttons to let the students know who to ask about helping our community. One thing they do to help Richards School is set up chairs for our school meeting. This is a big job, because there are many chairs to set up, because all the teachers need a chair. This group also has an awesome purpose.

Last but not least is the Fundraising team. They have the most important job towards organizations in Milwaukee. They just finished selling rubber wrist bands. All the profits were sent to three different organizations. One was Make-A-Wish-Foundation, another was American Diabetes Foundation, and the last one was Children’s Hospital.

Student Council is a good way to show how much you care about your school!

Written by Elizabeth and Bob

Do you love to write, but can never find the time to write down the many stories that keep popping into your brain? Then buzz on over to writing club!!! It takes place every Thursday during lunch recess in Ms. Kreul’s classroom, but much to the other classes’ dismay, it’s only for Ms. Kreul’s class. And for people who don’t enjoy writing as much as others, they can still go out to recess – it’s optional. (Although most people do prefer writing club.)

During writing club, we do free choice writing, so we write down what bursts into our heads. We can start new stories, but since we don’t want to unleash millions of stories into the world, we can also continue old stories. Can you concentrate on writing a story while listening to the equivalent of a explosion? We didn’t think so. Fortunately, writing club is peaceful and quiet, so that your story doesn’t take a twist for the downside.

Do you like to write poetry? Well, you can do that too. We can write poetry from A to Z and back again! If your head feels like it’s stuffed with cotton and you can’t think of what to write – there are plenty of resources in the room to help you. And if you really like your poem, you can share it with the other members of writing club.

If poetry and story writing just aren’t your thing, you can always try your “mouse” at journalism! Some children in writing club have started their own classroom newspaper. It tells what’s going on, gives silly input and crazy advice, and is always looking for new members.

As you can see, writing club is not a dull, boring waste of recess, but a wave of fun! So if you love writing, WRITING CLUB IS THE PLACE FOR YOU!!!