Ms. Kreul’s Class Blog

We have lots of wonderful summer festivals here in Milwaukee, WI but my favorite has always been Irish Fest.

I love Irish music and dancing, not to mention the shopping and delicious treats available down at the lake front!

Are you an Irish Fest fan? What do you like to do and see when you are there?

It’s August and that means it is time for the Wisconsin State Fair!

Make plans to take your family to the State Fair to sample delicious cream puffs, enjoy the rides on the Midway, drink delicious flavored milk, marvel at the many types – and sizes – of farm animals, see singers, dancers, and magicians, watch animal judging, and much much more!

What is your favorite thing to do at the State Fair? ♥

Write a post for your blog or comment below and let us know.

Looking for something to do with friends and family? Spend a fun summer day at the wonderful Milwaukee County Zoo!

My family always enjoys the Sunset Zoofaris on Wednesday nights during the summer. This year the dates are June 24, July 1, July 8, July 15, July 22, and July 29.

Maybe I’ll see you there checking out the animals, enjoying delicious snacks, and dancing to the band’s groovy music!

4K has begun a short unit on Wisconsin in social studies. Among other activities, teams of students will be reading about Wisconsin’s history, geography, government, and people, then presenting WI facts to classmates using posters, songs, maps, or other formats of their choosing. In other words, they are the teachers for this unit!

Students have completed their Wade House essays, based on their field trip to Wade House in Greenbush on May 11. They used the field trip packet work, the notes taken on the field trip, and their experiences at Wade House to take on the role of a person who lived at, worked at, or visited Wade House in the 1860s.

Students were assessed on their essay in several language arts categories: writing process (packet work, notes, graphic organizer, and illustration), content (accurate information from the time and place), organization (sentences, paragraphs, and essay), conventions (spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and usage), illustration (from the Carriage Museum), and presentation (overview of the person’s life).

Download the list of Summer Web Sites 2009. Enjoy!

Summer Web Sites 2009

Annie and Sam took photos of signs of spring seen on the front playground of Richards on May 12, 2009. Enjoy!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

On Monday, May 11, fourth graders traveled back in time to Wisconsin in the 1860s when they visited Wade House in Greenbush. Now they are taking on the roles of people who lived, worked, or visited Wade House during that period in history, and writing essays about their lives.

Students took notes, made sketches, and worked on related worksheets before, during, and after the trip, and are using these materials to help them create their Wade House essays.

This writing project follows lessons focused on writing with the traits of ideas, voice, word choice, and sentence fluency, and takes students to the next level – writing with from the perspective of a person (real or fictional) who was connected with Wade House in the 1860s.

Students will also focus on the steps of the writing process during this project – prewriting, drafting, editing and revising, and writing – then typing – their final draft.

Wade House essays will be posted on the class web page in the next few weeks – so stay tuned!

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.

Fourth graders had the opportunity to tour our beautiful Wisconsin state capitol in Madison this week. They learned a bit about Wisconsin’s history and government in Madison and will be learning more in social studies in a few weeks. For now, your family can take a virtual tour of the capital via the official web site: Wisconsin State Capitol

Visit Riveredge Nature Center in Newburg, WI where 4th graders will go for a science field trip in October.

Riveredge Nature Center

Packers Kids’ Zone

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

Change in Whitefish Bay
by Maddy

Have you ever wondered what goes on in village hall? Well, one of the things the people who work at village hall are thinking about is refurbishing East Silver Spring Drive. In some people’s opinion, change could be great; others think Silver Spring should stay the way it is. What do you think? Should the people of city hall refurbish, change, and maybe improve East Silver Spring Drive?

Students were interviewed to find out what they think about this situation. Students were asked questions such as what they thought about changes on Silver Spring, what they would change about Silver Spring, and what they would add and why. The choices of possible additions were: bowling alley, better shoe store, arcade, better toy store, better restaurants, and other. Is Silver Spring losing its sparkle? Do you think Silver Spring needs better retail? Well, here is what your fellow Richards School students said!

Results:
Bowling Alley: 4 people answered bowling alley or 19%
Better Toy Store: 3 people answered better toy store or 14%
Better Shoe Store: 1 person answered better shoe store or 5%
Better Restaurants: 4 people answered better restaurants or 19%
Arcade: 4 people answered arcade or 19%
Other: 6 people answered other or 29%

It’s in the Midwest
It’s the 30th state
Our capital is Madison
Our state animal is a badger
Our state motto is Forward
We became a state in 1848
We used to be the top dairy state
Milwaukee is the biggest city
Our baseball team is the Brewers
Wisconsin means “gathering of the waters”

The 30th state
Became a state in 1848
State mascot is a Badger
State bird is a robin
State fish is a muskie
Capitol is Madison
Largest city is Wisconsin
The “Dairy State”
Surrounded by 2 Great Lakes and the Mississippi River
Many settlers were European

30th state
1848 Wisconsin became a state
Dairy state
State animal – badger
State bird – robin
Wisconsin means “gathering of the waters”
Two Great Lakes surround it
Two peninsulas here
State beverage – milk
A main crop – corn

We are the dairy state and cheese state
We are the 30th state
We became a state in 1848
Our state animal is the badger
Our state motto is Forward
Our capital is Madison
Our football team is the Packers
Our state is next to Lake Michigan
Milwaukee is the largest county
Wisconsin means “gathering of the waters”

Became a state in 1848
Looks like a left hand mitten
First people here were Paleo People
30th state and 30th star on the US flag
State bird – robin
State tree – sugar maple
State animal – badger
State fish – muskie
Wisconsin means “gathering of the waters”
Glaciers carved most of Wisconsin’s land
Capital city is Madison
Biggest city is Milwaukee

Facts from Chapter 2 of The Wisconsin Journey
Compiled by Erika, Laura, and Joe

There are 5 regions in Wisconsin.
The longest river in Wisconsin is the Wisconsin River.
A big business in Wisconsin today is dairy.
An old job in Wisconsin was lumber jacking.
Wisconsin’s state animal is the badger.
The Western Upland, one of the regions, was never covered in glaciers during the Ice Age.
Back in the 1800’s and 1900’s, people thought they’d never run out of trees to cut.
It took one month to travel from New York to Wisconsin by stagecoach.
Wisconsin produces about one-third of the country’s cheese.
Wisconsin has the second largest amount of dairy cows of all the states.