Ms. Kreul’s Class Blog

By Joslin

Over the summer I went to the lake on Mercer Island with our friends who live there. When we got to the lake we set up the picnic table for dinner. Then we got our swimsuits on so that we could go to the raft in the middle of the lake.

The water was freezing but we went into the cold gray water anyway. You could jump off the raft that was covered in seaweed and go to the bottom. It was only four feet deep so it wasn’t too far down. At the bottom there was slimy seaweed covering the little tiny clams. You could sometimes open them to “sea” if there was anything inside if not we would throw the clam as far out into the lake as possible!

When it got dark and quite cold we all ate dinner together. Then all of the kids on the swirly green playground. After that everyone said their goodbyes and one of our friends took us to our hotel.

By David

When I went to Ride School in Colorado. I was waiting for people to get ready. It took forever! At last I met my teacher and his name was Smitty. Once we met the students and them what we were allergic to. One person said I am allergic to chocolate and meat.

We did some warm up slopes with s turns. After that we did the real slopes. When we got to the top, Smutty   said, to stop at the  slow down sign .Since  I was  the first one down. Smitty was going full speed, did a quick stop and snow went flying in my face! At lunch the person who was allergic to meat ate all of her pepperoni and sausage off her pizza. Well that is how I spent my morning.

By Kenadee

Today was my first horse back riding competition ever! When I got on my horse I was positively terrified! They were giving us directions on which way to go and what to do while we were riding. My horse went ballistic, she was jumping and running around! I tried to get her under control. You would have never guessed but I got her calmed her down and kept on riding, doing what they told me to do. Finally I was done and my trainer gave us our ribbons! I won first place! Then my trainer gave me a carrot to give to my horse! It was funny watching her eat the carrot with her tongue liking it! It was the happiest day of my life!

By David

Washington .D.C is a very neat city Washington .D.C has a lot of monuments. Here are some examples. The Jefferson Memorial has the Declaration of Independence in it and has a dome on top. The Washington monument is a very small and skinny building. You can climb up there on stairs or take the elevator. There are windows on top that you can see through. The Lincoln Memorial has a huge statue of Abe Lincoln on a chair. There are pillars in front of the memorial.

In Washington .D.C they have a bunch of museums like the Natural History museum and the Air and space Museum. My favorite is the Air and Space Museum because I like airplanes and spaceships.

In Washington .D.C they have the Capitol and the White House. The White House is the home of the president. The current president is Barack Obama. The Capitol is where the Senate and Congress work. In the Capitol they make laws. That’s what I want to share with you about Washington .D.C.

By Alice

When family and I went to the beach in California my brother and I took the boogie board into the places where the water comes most often .We stood on the boogie board and when the water came it would lift us up , and we would fall off . It is much more easy when I was doing it alone. But one time the wave was to big so I fell on Robert . When I was doing it alone I fell over and the boogie board fell on top of me , but luckily no wave was coming . after a while I started really boogie boarding .One time the wave was not big yet , and I jumped on and hurt my chest. After that we started jumping in the waves . It reminded me of when I went in the wave pool at Noah’s ark because one of the waves knocked me down . We wanted to make a sand castle , but we forgot to bring the toys so we built a sand mountain of sand and named it mount brown ( with a stick on top ) . then w played some more on the water some more then we went home.

By Matthew

Do you like to play football. If you do you will like this paper. Now a days football is a popular sport for forth graders. Most people play at recess, play junior Blue Dukes or 7 on 7. If you play junior Blue Dukes you play 11 on 11 and it is for fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. If you play junior Blue Dukes you will play teams like Cedarburg, Grafton, Menomonee Falls, Port Washington and other teams. If you play 7 on 7 you have 7 people on the field at all times. For myself I play 7 on 7. My last game is tonight. I am looking forward to playing my friends tonight. Wish me luck.

The Carbon Dioxide Experiment

Reported by David, Betsy, and Eve

Our experiment in science was to prove that fish exhale carbon dioxide.

We did this by placing a goldfish in a cup of water, then we added BTB which indicates carbon dioxide.

BTB starts as a shade of blue. When BTB interacts with carbon dioxide, it turns to a shade of yellow, depending on how much BTB was put in the water.

After about an hour, we looked at the cup with BTB, water, and the goldfish. Believe it or not, our experiment worked! The water was now a bright yellow!

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.

Looking for math challenges?

Leave a comment with the web site and URL if you know of any others!

Houghton Mifflin Math Expressions

National Library of Virtual Manipulatives

Figure This! Math Challenges

Brain Boosters

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 discussed what they could do to make working with partners, groups, and the whole class educational, cooperative, and enjoyable for everyone. The class made a list to show what working together looks like and what it sounds like.

Working together looks like:
Nodding heads
Giving eye contact
Taking turns talking
Taking turns listening
Listening to each other
Thinking then talking
Writing ideas
One person talking at a time
Smiling at each other
No fighting
Disagree agreeably
Reading directions
Sitting correctly
Having your materials ready
Having fun

Working together sounds like:
“Nice job.”
“What’s your idea?”
“That’s a good idea.”
“Let’s try this.”
“Your turn.”
“Let’s use your idea.”
“Great job.”
“Nice work.”
“Superb!”
“I like your idea.”
“Do you have an idea?”
“I like your idea so let’s use it first.”
“I liked working with you today.”
“Keep up the good work!”
“Please” and “Thank you.”
“Let’s take turns.”
“Let’s stay on topic.”
“That was incredible.”
“Can I piggyback on your idea?”
“Way to go!”
“That was fantastic!”

ReadWriteThink has organized a wonderful collection of summer reading and writing projects for students in Grades K-12 called Learning Beyond the Classroom.

Check out the Grades 3-5 section and write sports poetry, create online trading cards, making board games, and lots more.

Leave a comment to recommend a cool activity that you tried out!

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.

By Hannah

Hello, Welcome to the Wade House in Greenbush Wisconsin. My name is Elizabeth White. I came here a few years ago with my family. My daughters name is Mary White and my husbands name is Robert E. White. We came here to the Wade House from New York in our carriage. We had a Cut Under Basket Pea. We barely all fit. It’s was a very tiny carriage. I work here as a cook and my husband works in the Blacksmith shop. For every night we stay here at the Wade House, we have to pay 50¢ for each of us to stay in a room. We have to pay 25¢ for meals.

The mattresses we sleep on are made out of straw. Mary and I share a room together to save money. Mary sleeps on a mattress on the floor. Something else I do besides cook is make candles. Mary helps me make them. The candles we make are made of cow fat. We make them ourselves because there to expensive to by at stores. The Wade House has 27 rooms and 12 of them are for the Wade family. Every once in a while there will be a dance in the Ballrooe a dance called Cotilion. When I’m not working I will go to the Parlor and read or go to the Blacksmith Shop to see my husband. (The Parlor is for women only).

The Wade House doesn’t have bathrooms so under our beds we have pots called chamber pots. I’m glad I’m not the maid here at the Wade House! The Wade House is on a street they called farmers highway. They called it that because farmers would come on the road and stay at the Wade House. In the Wade House there is a Barroom. Robert would go in the Barroom with other men. The Barroom is for men only like the Parlor is for women.