Ms. Kreul’s Class Blog

Visit Jon Scieszka’s amazing site Guys Read, a web-based literacy program for boys. The goal of the site is to help boys become self-motivated, lifelong readers.

In honor of the first day of October, visit this site to practice carving your pumpkins for Halloween.

Halloween and pumpkins are a very big deal in Whitefish Bay, WI!

Virtual Pumpkin Carving

Photo taken by Ms. Kreul in Schoolhouse Park in WFB. October 2008.

Visible Earth – A catalog of NASA images and animations of the Earth – very cool

Hubble Telescope –  Hubble history, news, and amazing photos

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.

Download the list of Summer Web Sites 2009. Enjoy!

Summer Web Sites 2009

Fourth graders will be going on an exciting social studies field trip to Wade House on Monday, May 11. Wade House is a stagecoach inn built in the 1860s located in Greenbush, WI.

This historical site also includes a sawmill, a blacksmith shop, and a carriage museum. Students will learn about life at Wade House in the mid 19th century from the viewpoint of visitors, as well as those who lived there.

This is a full day field trip for academic purposes, which is different than a family trip, and students will have related activities to complete on the bus, at Wade House, and back at school.

For the follow-up language arts project, students will take on the character of a person who visited, lived in, or worked at Wade House in the 1860s and describe what life was like in those days.
A note with more information about the field trip is included in today’s Friday folder.

4K has celebrated spring by participating in several baseball activities during April. They read the wonderful anthology selection Lou Gehring: The Luckiest Man, the biography of the well-loved NY Yankee baseball player.

Students went to the computer lab to go on a virtual field trip to the Baseball Hall of Fame to research famous Hall of Famers. Many students were able to view videos and photos of the players, along with other primary source documents available on the site.

Have you ever seen the comedy duo of Abbott and Costello perform their famous routine called “Whos’ on First?” Fourth graders practiced their fluency – and comedy skills – as they read the script of this hilarious baseball routine with partners.

4K’s current read-aloud book is titled In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson, written by Bette Bao Lord. It’s a story set in the 1940s about a girl named Shirley Temple Wong who moves from China to America. Shirley doesn’t speak English and has trouble making friends in her new school until she discovers that she loves to play stickball. She also finds a hero in Brooklyn Dodger baseball superstar Jackie Robinson. Ask your fourth grader to share this wonderful story with you.

We also shared several read-aloud books about baseball, including Mama Played Baseball by David Adler, a story about the All-American Girls” Professional Baseball League, The Babe and I, a tale of a Depression Era boy and his father and Babe Ruth, and Teammates, which tells about the friendship between Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese during a challenging time in American baseball history.

These activities have combined reading, listening, social studies, math, research, and technology skills – and baseball! Not a bad way to spend a few days in the spring!

Milwaukee Brewers Follow our Milwaukee Brewers as they take part in this year’s playoffs

Major League Baseball Follow all of the teams playing in the 2008 World Series

FOSS Web Check out the site that accompanies the WFB fourth grade science curriculum

Social Studies Alive! Web sites to match each fourth grade unit in the social studies curriculum

Time for Kids

The Web site that accompanies 4K’s popular Time for Kids (TFK) weekly news magazine

Packers Kids’ Zone

Follow Wisconsin’s (and your teacher’s) favorite football team here 

Milwaukee County Zoo – http://www.milwaukeezoo.org/

Milwaukee Public Museum – http://www.mpm.edu/

Milwaukee County Parks – http://www.county.milwaukee.gov/display/router.asp?docid=7720

Milwaukee Visitor’s Bureau – http://www.milwaukee.org/

Wisconsin Department of Tourism – http://www.travelwisconsin.com/

Milwaukee Brewers – http://www.brewers.com

Kopp’s Custard – http://www.kopps.com/

Scholastic Kids – http://www.scholastic.com/kids/home.htm

Education World Scavenger Hunts – http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/archives/hunt.shtml

PBS Kids – http://pbskids.org/

Yahooligans – http://www.yahooligans.com

Enchanted Learning – http://www.enchantedlearning.com/Home.html

Bonus.com – http://www.bonus.com/

DiscoverySchool.com – http://school.discovery.com/

National Geographics Kids – http://www.nationalgeographic.com/kids/

Great Sites for Kids – http://www.ala.org/ala/alsc/greatwebsites/greatwebsiteskids.htm

Kidsclick! – http://www.kidsclick.org/

Funbrain.com – http://www.funbrain.com/

KABOOSE – http://www.kidsdomain.com/

English – French Dictionary – http://www.enchantedlearning.com/French/

French Lessons from BBC – http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/french/talk/index.shtml

The Library of Congress – http://www.loc.gov/

The White House for Kids – http://www.whitehouse.gov/kids/

World Almanac for Kids – http://www.worldalmanacforkids.com/

50states.com – http://www.50states.com/

Smithsonian Students – http://smithsonianeducation.org/students/index.html

Digital History – http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/

First Gov for Kids – http://www.kids.gov/

Zoom Info Maps – http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/maps/index.html

The Exploratorium – http://www.exploratorium.edu/

Franklin Science Institute – http://www.fi.edu/

The Yuckiest Site on the Internet – http://yucky.kids.discovery.com/

BrainPOP – http://www.brainpop.com/

Howstuffworks – http://www.howstuffworks.com/

Popular Science – http://www.popsci.com/popsci/

Science Monster – http://www.sciencemonster.com/

Interactive Mathematics – http://matti.usu.edu/nlvm/nav/grade_g_2.html

Everyday Math Games – http://everydaymath.uchicago.edu/educators/samplegames.shtml

Math.com – http://www.math.com/students/practice/arithmeticpractice.htm

Math Baseball – http://www.funbrain.com/math/index.html

AAA Math Site – http://www.aaamath.com/grade4.html

CoolMath4Kids – http://www.coolmath4kids.com/

Ask Dr. Math Elementary – http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/drmath.elem.html

Time for Kids – http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/kids

Writing Bugs – http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/archives/writing_bugs.shtml

Scholastic.com’s Book Central – http://www.scholastic.com/titles/index.htm

Wacky Web Tales – http://www.eduplace.com/tales/

Fun Brain Spell Check – http://www.funbrain.com/spell/index.html

Translator Alligator – http://www.funbrain.com/lang/index.html

Infoplease – http://www.infoplease.com/

ReadWriteThink – http://www.readwritethink.org

Phoenix Mars Lander
Amazing photos of Mars from NASA

BioKids
Biographies for kids from the Biography Channel