Tar Wars

Last Friday, Mrs. Johnson's class had a wonderful surprise! Mrs. Johnson always tells us that we have so many visitors and student teachers because we have the best students! We secretly think she's just being nice, but maybe she's right. What do you think?

Two medical students from University of Mississippi Medical Center visited our room to talk to us about being tobacco-free.


We talked about the different kinds of tobacco, short term and long term effects of using tobacco, and the statistics of tobacco use by age groups. We found out that there are not as many people that use tobacco as we thought!

We asked a lot of questions and told many of our own stories. Mrs. Moore and Ms. Harrell also talked about the false advertisements presented in tobacco commercials. For example, the ads show people with white teeth, but we know that one of the short term effects of tobacco is yellow teeth. They taught us that we should not believe everything we hear or see. We also talked about how much it costs to use tobacco. Wow! We did the math. We used $5 for a pack of cigarettes. If there are 7 days in a week, how much would it cost per week for a person who smokes a pack a day? 7x5=$35 We extended it even further. There are 4 weeks in a month. How much would it cost after a month? 35x7=$245 There are 12 months in a year. So, after a year, it would cost....$2,940!!!! Just think of what we could buy for that much money!

After we had the opportunity to learn about the consequences of tobacco, we participated in a little experiment. We ran in place breathing only out of a straw! After we finished, we were able to see how hard it is to breathe with limited lung function. This is what happens when we use tobacco. Our lungs get damaged.

We learned so much, and we had a great time! Mrs. Johnson was actually a little "on edge" because we were having such fun! Ha! She really should lighten up every once in a while!

Finally, Mrs. Moore and Ms. Harrell told us about a poster contest that is open to fourth graders only. To enter, we simply create a poster with a slogan about being tobacco free. The winners could win a trip to Washington, D.C! Wow! If you are interested in more information, contact Mrs. Johnson.

Thank you so much for visiting our class to teach us how to live long, healthy lives!

Coming Soon...

This Friday, our fourth graders will present a fantastic Black History Month Program featuring Talk About A Family and Uncle Jed's Barber Shop. We have been privileged to work with New Stage Theater through a grant from Ford Foundation connected to the Ask 4 More Arts collaborative. This collaborative is a wonderful initiative that we are taking to infuse our curriculum with the arts. The students have read both books, and they have now explored the characters and the situations within the books. Through their exploration, the students were given roles to present these stories on stage Friday night. The students have worked extremely hard. The New Stage Theater actors have been a tremendous asset to our program, and we are so grateful for their time and enthusiasm throughout the process. Our fourth grade students practice two hours a week with these actors. They have memorized lines, rehearsed, and blocked scenes using stage directions. One of the favorite things before rehearsals is warm-ups!

The New Stage actors guide the students as they "de-stress" and loosen up for their rehearsals after a long morning in the classroom.

Shakin' it loose!

We even have a vocal warm up. Take a look!

After warm-ups, it's time to rehearse! The New Stage actors give last minute advice and direction.

Then, the students are on their own on stage. No one prompts them for places and lines. They become their characters!

While part of the fourth grade group rehearses lines and blocks scenes, there is another group of students working hard on backstage work. There are so many jobs in the theater business! This group of students is in charge of painting backdrops, choosing costumes, lighting, and sound effects. Mrs. Johnson said that it sure SOUNDS like we're having a good time! Ha!

Kim and Genny's room for Talk About A Family

Nice job, girls, on the outdoor scene!

These boys ACTIVELY worked on their backdrop

Aren't you excited about seeing the final performance?!

Another part of our Ford Foundation grant project consists of a field trip! We are really excited about this! Sometime in April, we plan to take a field trip to New Stage Theater to see their presentation of "A Year with Frog and Toad." Mrs. Johnson is really excited about anything to do with frogs!

Thank you again to all involved in this collaborative! It has been a wonderful experience, and we have truly enjoyed bringing our summer reading to life!

They're Up!!!

Our writing, that is! Take a look at our writing all hung up for you to see! Come by and take a look in person when you can.

We ran out of room on the bulletin board, so Mrs. Johnson posted some on the wall outside our classroom.

Don't you want to come by and read them?


What are you waiting for? Now, we are getting ready to start another big writing project. We can't wait!

Science Fair 2010

Monday, our school conducted the 2010 Science Fair. There were many very inventive projects, and Mrs. Johnson's class really showed out! Take a look our our little scientists:

D'Aubriney

Nacolby

James

Lyric

Monique

Kenyada

Jordan

Jendaya

De'Eric

Arrion

Sherrina

Charles

Antasia

Kristin

Selicia

Great job, students! In fact, our class had three winners this year. Wow! Out of all the school, three of the winners were from our class! These winners will continue on and present their science fair projects in the district science fair.

Arrion, Lyric, and Jendaya

Congratulations!!

Appositives with Mr. Cleaver

Our class is privileged to host a student teacher from Jackson State University. And, do you know who it is??? None other than our very own Mr. Cleaver. Mr. Cleaver is also an assistant teacher in first grade, and he chose our class to complete his student teaching! We are very excited to have him, and we cannot wait to see what all he teaches us.

This week, Mr. Cleaver taught language. Tuesday, he taught a lesson on appositives. To begin the lesson, Mr. Cleaver introduced us to his friend, Fredrick the Frog. It looks like Mrs. Johnson has influenced him with her love of frogs! As he introduced Fredrick, he also described his frog. Words that describe a noun are typically called adjectives.


We also had visitors on our tables. Each group had a different animal. Mr. Cleaver gave us a few minutes to name our animals and to write words to describe our animal.

Sherrina, Selicia, De'Eric, and Nacolby

James, Quintarrius, and Jordan

Nareuna, D'Aubriney, and Nadia

Sharnecia, Antasia, Lyric, Kristin, and Brindarius

Once we got to know our animals, Mr. Cleaver taught us about appositives. Similar to how adjectives describe a noun, appositives help to describe and explain nouns also. Mr. Cleaver modeled how to put our descriptions into sentences with appositives. This is a great way to combine ideas!

After the lesson and after Mr. Cleaver turned his description into an appositive, we turned our descriptions into an appositive and wrote a sentence about our animals.


We also had the chance to share our sentences on the board. This was a great way to check to see that we correctly used commas and words in our appositives.

Mr. Giraffe, who is yellow with black polka dots, lives in the jungle.

After this activity, Mr. Cleaver let us practice combining ideas using appositives. Once we had substantial practice using and composing sentences with appositives, we completed an independent practice where we combined two sentences using an appositive.


It looks like we understand appositives well! Thanks, Mr. Cleaver!

"Center"ed for Success

Mrs. Johnson's class has been busy! We aim for success! In fact, we try to aim for perfection around here. In order to do that, Mrs. Johnson tries to meet with us in small groups to help us with our areas of weakness. While she does that, we work in centers. Our centers vary from week to week, but they are always hands-on and engaging! Centers are a privilege. Mrs. Johnson reminds us of this often. We usually cannot wait until 11:00 when we get to rotate to our stations. This is why it is important to stay focused and get our classwork finished so that we have time for centers. Busy, busy, busy!

Last week, we had six centers. Our language center dealt with subject-verb agreement. We have learned that if our subject is singular, our verb usually has an "s" on the end. If our subject is plural, our verb usually does not have an "s." Of course, there are exceptions...just like everything else in the English language! Ha! For example, "I" and "you" do not follow the rule. We sorted sentences according to whether they were correct or incorrect. Then, we corrected the subjects and verbs on the incorrect sentences. Once again, construction paper is a staple in our room!

De'Eric and Tatyanna concentrate on correct placement

Great Job!

There is one station that never changes. And, that's our AR Center. We can honestly say that we have 20-30 minutes uninterrupted reading time a week! During our AR Center time, we lounge around reading our AR books, taking AR tests, and checking out new books.

James and Jordan reading

Nothing like curling up with a good book!

For our social studies center, we read through one of our lessons answering questions that Mrs. Johnson prepared. We enjoyed learning about World War I and II!

De'Eric, Charles, and Tatyanna

For our writing center, we made corrections after Mrs. Johnson edited our writing. We wrote our final draft during this time.

Sabbion and Nareuna

Our reading center focused on Plot. We have spent a great deal of time talking about all the story elements. So, in our reading center, Mrs. Johnson gave us a reading passage from Study Island. She had the elements already typed out. Our job was to cut them out and glue them in the correct spot on a plot chart. We found the characters, setting, conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. After finishing our plot chart, we used this activity to answer two sample test items with the passage.

Nareuna drawing out her plot chart

Kristin and Antasia looking for the correct event

What do you think? Are we "center"ed for success?