Martin Luther King Essays and Anchor Writing

A couple of weeks ago, we began working on a special project. Mrs. Johnson wanted all our students to enter the Martin Luther King Essay Contest. You know what that means? We had a lot of work to do, and she LOVES to make us think hard and deep! Although we were not very excited at first, we quickly changed our minds when we heard what the winners received! I'll only give you a clue so that you can guess....it involved money!

We were asked to write about a person who lives out Dr. King's power of goodness and love. We were also presented with this quote as insight of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s values.

Since Anchor Writing is also due soon, Mrs. Johnson told us that she found a way to combine the two! Now, we can take more time to focus on this one writing assignment without being distracted! In combining the two prompts, we wrote about a person we would like to meet that shares the values of Martin Luther King, Jr.

To get us started, Mrs. Johnson read Martin's Big Words to us as a class. We discussed the book and what we thought Dr. King's values were after reading. It was very interesting to hear the various ideas taken from this book. After our discussion, we wrote on an index card the name of a person that we would like to meet that shares Dr. King's values, or "big words." Once we had chosen a person to write about, we began our research.

Mrs. Johnson provided us with a wonderful graphic organizer to get our thoughts organized. Mrs. Johnson said our neurons were flying all over the place and we needed a little help to organize all the ideas! That paints an interesting picture of what's going on in our brains! Ha!

We chose three values that our person and Dr. King share. Then, we came up with three examples showing how our person displayed each value. This required research. She brought encyclopedias, picture books, and magazines on each person we researched. Some groups even used the internet to research.

As we added ideas to our graphic organizers, we used a thesaurus to replace boring words. There were certain words Mrs. Johnson would not let us use. But, some of us used the thesaurus many times throughout our writing. It was great!

We put our ideas into paragraph form, including an introductory and closing paragraph. This gave us a total of five paragraphs! Mrs. Johnson edited them for us, and she held conferences with each person until we were ready to publish! The final products are very good.

Hopefully, we can share some here for you. You can definitely come by the school and take a look after Mrs. Johnson posts them in the hall.

Fourth graders will take a state writing test in March. Mrs. Johnson stressed the importance of each step of the writing process, and we discussed how easy it was when using all the steps. Hopefully, as we continue to practice our writing, we will be ready to fly in March on that test! WE will fly...our neurons will get organized! Ha!

Honor Roll Luncheon

Each nine weeks, our honor roll students are rewarded with a special luncheon. Mrs. Grigsby, our assistant principal, invited us to join her at the luncheon this term. The middle table was nicely decorated, and we were even allowed to talk! What an incentive to strive for honor roll! After lunch, Mrs. Grigsby even surprised us with gifts! We all received pocket folders and nice pencils. Oh yeah! Did we mention that we were served grape soda at lunch! That's very special!

Look at those nice folders!

Mrs. Grigsby with our honor roll students: Jordan, Jendaya, Sabbion, D'Aubriney, Charles, and Sharnecia

Thank you so much, Mrs. Grigsby, for making us feel special! Maybe we will even add to our honor roll list this nine weeks!

H1N1

Today, our school offered H1N1 vaccinations for all students. Those students who returned a parent form received their vaccinations right before lunch. We were nervous! As we stood in the hallway fretting over "that needle," Mrs. Johnson took this as an opportunity to take a photo!

"Show me how you feel right now," she said.

Kenyada, Sabbion, Antasia, Nareuna, and Brindarious are having second thoughts!

De'Eric and Jordan weren't nervous one bit!

But, these girls were!
Nadia, Lyric, Sharnecia, and Arrion

Afterwards, we realized it wasn't that bad! Plus we were in the nurse's office four at a time. It is much better to get a shot when friends are near. Mrs. Johnson only had to come in once for comfort!

No Swine Flu for us!

Fraction Action

The last couple of weeks have been spent on fractions. A fraction is a part of a whole. This is a skill we learned last year. We stepped it up a little for fourth grade. We already knew what a fraction was. But, this year, Mrs. Johnson introduced us to a new word: equivalent. Equivalent means "the same" or "equal."

Mrs. Johnson began by asking us what 10+10 was. 7+3? 6+4? 5x2? 12-2? All of these equal 10! All the problems listed look different and are put together differently. But, they ALL equal the same thing: 10! Mrs. Johnson told us that fractions can be put together in different ways to cover the same part or fraction of a whole. To help us visualize and experience equivalent fractions, Mrs. Johnson gave us our own set of fraction pieces. She called them "toys," which made us all laugh. She would tell us, "Okay. It's time to play with your toys." or "Please stop playing with your toys for a second."

Jordan and his "toys."

We worked with our "fraction toys" to find equivalent fractions, or two fractions that were the same. It may take more twelfths to take up as much room as one sixth. It was like putting together a puzzle.

Four-sixths is equivalent to eight-twelfths because they are exactly the same size!

Once we had time to "play with our toys" and actually see what Mrs. Johnson meant by two fractions being the same, Mrs. Johnson told us there was an easy shortcut. We could actually find equivalent fractions on paper by cross-multiplying! That was so easy! We all said, "Ohhhhhh!" when she showed us how to do it. When we cross-multiply, if both products are the same...the fractions are equivalent. If they are not the same, the fractions are not equivalent.

Cross multiplying is easy!

After showing us and involving us in learning about equivalent fractions, Mrs. Johnson gave us some time to practice our new skills independently. We used our "fraction toys" to come up with two equivalent fractions. Then, we checked it on our paper by cross-multiplying. Mrs. Johnson walked around the room to check and help those who needed help. It was fun!

Lyric saw that four-fifths was NOT exactly the same as four-sixths.

Antasia is checking to see if one-half is equivalent to two-fourths.

Sabbion checks to see if four-eighths is equivalent to two-fourths.

Jendaya is so organized as she explores equivalent fractions!

Now it's time for us to move on to more complex fraction skills. Coming up on the math menu: comparing and ordering fractions, fractions as decimals, and estimating fractions! Wow!

"Tell me and I forget. Show me and I remember. Involve me and I understand." - Chinese proverb

The Plot Spot

Yes, Mrs. Johnson's class has been the spot to find out about plot! Since coming back from our Water Crisis break, Mrs. Johnson has worked us to the bone! It's a good thing, though, because we want to be prepared for upcoming assessments. Plus, we want to function intelligently in the real world!

This week, we began a review of Plot. Mrs. Johnson reminded us of the elements of a story that make up the plot: characters, setting, conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. Why is this important? Well besides the fact that any of us who decide to become writers will need this regularly, it is also helpful to determine the main events in a story. Using these elements will help us retell and summarize a story. Mrs. Johnson displayed a plot chart for us to use to organize our thoughts. Before the lesson, she had passed each group a different piece of information from Charlotte's Web. After reviewing the elements, each groups discussed our part. We had to decide where it went on the plot chart and WHY! There goes that WHY question again! Man, she loves to ask us that!

Once all the groups had decided which element they had and glued them onto the chart, we went back as a class to make sure the story is in order. Mrs. Johnson also used this finished product to model what each part looks like.


After the modeling and guided practice, Mrs. Johnson gave each partner group a sample test passage and question. We used our knowledge of the elements to answer our question while Mrs. Johnson came to each group to check for our understanding.

Later on in the week, Mrs. Johnson gave us a group assignment with plot. Each group read one fiction leveled reader. Then, we created our own plot chart complete with the characters, setting, conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. Mrs. Johnson went to each group and observed and assisted where needed.

Selicia, Arrion, Jordan, and Alero are looking for the conflict.

Sabbion wasn't that happy to work with pink paper! But, the truth is - only real men can handle pink. Ha!

While we worked on group work, Ms. Richardson worked on writing with some of us.

Brindarius, Jendaya, Nadia, and Tatyanna worked well together.

De' Eric, James, and Sharnecia (see her hand?) were a risky choice for a group! They all like to laugh a lot! Ha!

Kenyada, D'Aubriney, and Nareuna were the first ones finished!

Now, our AR books will be even easier to summarize and comprehend. We understand the elements of these stories! Story elements - check! Now, we're moving on. No rest for the brilliant!

Please Excuse this Interruption

Those are the words that ran through our heads last Monday as we were hurried to lunch early because of Jackson's Water Crisis! School let out early! Thankfully, we were just finishing up our language arts lessons as the announcement came over the intercom. So, now that we are back up and running at Van Winkle, let us give you a peek at what was happening before that "Breaking News!"

In language, we discussed and reviewed the various types of nouns.

• A singular noun is just one person, place, or thing.
• A plural noun is more than one person, place, or thing. While we discussed plural nouns, we also talked about the ways to make words plural.
• Common nouns are nouns that name any person, place or thing. These are not specific.
• Proper nouns name specific nouns - a person's name, the name of a business, the name of a specific state. Proper nouns are always capitalized!
  
• Singular possessive nouns are used when one person, place, or thing shows ownership.
• Plural possessive nouns are used when more than one person, place, or thing owns something. We talked about the rules for possessive nouns while studying the latter two.

Mrs. Johnson made an anchor chart as we went through the lesson. The examples listed are ones we came up with as we reviewed.


In reading, Monday, we discussed the various genres. Not only did we review the broad genres of fiction, nonfiction, drama, and poetry...we also discussed types of fiction and types of nonfiction. We learned that fiction can be described as: short stories, novels, fables, legends, fairy tales, or myths. Nonfiction can be described as: biography, atlas, dictionary, thesaurus, encyclopedia, report, internet, or textbook. After learning and reviewing these genres, Mrs. Johnson gave each person a sample passage and test question. We also had colorful cutouts (Mrs. Johnson never goes far from her construction paper!) to write our explanations. For example, if it asked the genre, we may choose fiction. On the cutout, we told WHY we chose fiction. Was it a fable? How did we know? This is one way Mrs. Johnson makes sure we "know that we know" the material. We always have to explain WHY!

Once we all finished, we brought them up one by one to share our reasoning with the class. We glued our passage, question, and explanation under the appropriate genre.

Now we have a visible reminder of the various genres!