Christmas Break

It's finally time for Christmas break! Everyone around school has been counting down! We worked hard, and we finished our nine weeks tests. Now, it's time for a break! Mrs. Johnson had a full half day planned for us on Friday.

First, we began by completing a fun Christmas themed morning work assignment. Then, Mrs. Johnson pulled out fun supplies! We actually made our parents a Christmas gift!

Nadia and Jendaya showing off their handmade gifts!

It didn't stop there! We also wrapped our gifts so that we could put them directly under our Christmas trees at home.

De'Eric and Sherrina carefully wrapping their gifts.

D'Aubriney can't wait to give her parents their gift!

After making and wrapping our gifts, we made Christmas cards to go inside the gift bags.

Nareuna making her card

Our first graders put on a wonderful Christmas program. The entire school was invited, and we are so glad Mrs. Johnson wanted to go! Jendaya, Nadia, and Sherrina performed with the first graders as a part of our show choir. Take a look at the talent!

"Rise Up Shepard and Follow"


"Rudolph"

Finally, we had some surprise visitors! Our young Montessori students came caroling! It was so cute watching these 3-5 year olds singing Christmas carols. Thank you for coming by!

We wish you a Merry Christmas!

Lyric listening as the youngsters sing.

Now, it's time for Christmas break!!!

Santa Clause is Coming to Town

Merry Christmas!

Love,

Mrs. Johnson's Fourth Grade Class

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

It's time to get in the Christmas spirit! Mrs. Johnson didn't waste a second. The first day back from Thanksgiving break, she broke out the Christmas decorations! We didn't know that WE would actually be creating them too!

We reviewed multiple meaning words last week...with a little twist. Multiple meaning words, or homographs, are words that are spelled the same but have different meanings. For example, spread could be an action or something that you put on your bed. There are also several other meanings for spread. Each group of students chose a homograph. We wrote our homographs on the star of our tree. On each ornament, Mrs. Johnson had us to write a definition and come up with a sentence to match the definition. We had to be very careful to be sure to use our word correctly in the sentence.

Jendaya, Arrion, Antasia, and Nadia

Tatyanna, Charles, and Brindarius

The following day, we met as a group again to discuss WHY we chose each sentence. You see, next week during the district tests, there may be multiple meaning words in a passage. We need to be able to use our context clues in the sentence to determine the meaning being used in that particular sentence. We must look at the part of speech and other clues. After our groups discussed our reasoning, we presented our projects to the rest of the class with our explanations.

Sherrina, Kenyada, and Charles

Sharnecia, Lyric, and D'Aubriney

Everyone did a fabulous job, and Mrs. Johnson was glad to have more Christmas decorations to go out on the wall with her frog Christmas wreath. Man, those frogs are everywhere!


In case you're wondering about our cute garland, we also decorated with alliterations. Alliterations are words that begin with the same consonant sound. Mrs. Johnson began by reading Fox in Sock, a book full of tongue twisters. Many of those tongue twisters are examples of alliteration. We used alliterations to make sentences about Christmas.

Sharnecia had presents on the brain!

Charles is wishing for a white Christmas!

And, Arrion can't wait for Santa!

Do you have your Christmas decorations out yet?

Thank + ful = Full of Thanks

With Thanksgiving coming up, Mrs. Johnson's class is counting our blessings! One thing Mrs. Johnson told us we were thankful for was affixes. I'm not so sure we would have come up with that on our own, but Mrs. Johnson says we should be thankful for them. Why? Because they help us to determine meanings of some words. If we understand the prefixes and suffixes, then we will better understand words that use them.

Mrs. Johnson reviewed the prefixes and suffixes with us. Then, she gave us an activity that we were certainly thankful for! We put together a turkey for Thanksgiving! Each student had a different prefix or suffix. Our job was to find words using those affixes. We put these words on the feathers along with their meanings. We used the meaning of the affix to determine the meaning of the words. It was fun! Thank you, Mrs. Johnson!

Arrion beginning to put her turkey together

Nareuna works neatly on her turkey

Arrion prepares her turkey

Monique and Selicia think of words with their prefixes

Sharnecia ran out of ideas, so she got help from the dictionary!

Jendaya knows that the suffix "-er" means "one who does something." So she wrote "painter - one who paints" on one of her feathers.

Jordan worked quietly.

James is proud of his "un-" turkey!

"Un-" means not.

Kenyada is thank"ful!"

Selicia, De'Eric, Monique, and Antasia

Sharnecia and Nadia

Thank you, thank you for such a fun activity!

Lunch with the Principal

This week, several students from our class had a very special surprise! The students who made honor roll last nine weeks were invited to eat lunch with the principal! The students received a formal invitation delivered to our class. When we walked into the cafeteria for lunch, Dr. Bowen had set up a special table with a tablecloth and balloons right in the middle of the cafeteria! Wow! I think we will work extra hard to make honor roll this time! That looked like fun!

Mrs. Johnson's six students got to sit right across from Dr. Bowen!

Dr. Bowen gave all the honor roll students a prize and a cookie after lunch. She was so impressed with Mrs. Johnson's students for all their AR points that she gave them all a bookmark!

Jordan and Jendaya getting their prizes

Thank you so much, Dr. Bowen, for making our honor roll students feel special! And, congratulations to our honor students: Sharnecia, Charles, D'Aubriney, Jendaya, Jordan, and Sabbion!

Fall Festival

Van Winkle held its annual Fall Festival and Career Day this past Friday. It was, as always, such fun and very interesting! We began our morning hearing from professionals from various careers. Our class asked many questions, and we learned more about the careers that are awaiting us!

First, we heard from a chef. He told us how our school work is useful in his job. He talked about his education and how it has helped him be successful in life. We wish he had cooked for us! Surely it is yummy!

Getting questions from the students

Nadia asked, "How do you feel when you cook?"

Next, we heard from Ms. Byrd. Ms. Byrd is a journalist for the Associated Press. We really enjoyed hearing how important writing is in her career. She even called a few students up to role play. We acted as if we were reporting a wreck.

Alero listens as Sherrina asks questions about the accident.

We were starstruck when we saw Ethan Huston from WAPT News! Mr. Huston is the local meteorologist for WAPT. It's always fun to hear what he has to say about the weather. Did you know that he starts his day by waking up at 1:30 in the MORNING!? Wow! That's an early morning! But, his day is finished by noon. He talked about the education we need if we decide to pursue a career in meteorology. Science, math, and communications are the most important subjects to master when pursuing meteorology.

Thank you, Mr. Huston!

Our class listened intently.

We asked lots of questions.

Mrs. Johnson's class with Ethan Huston

After listening to these professionals, it was time for Fall Festival! Fall Festival is always filled with fun and interesting things. This year was no different!

Staff from our zoo brought a few animals. Some of us even pet the alligator!

Only the brave ones actually held the alligator!

Mrs. Johnson started to hold the alligator, but she chickened out at the last minute! Ha!

There were snakes, lizards, and turtles too!

We also played a little basketball. Most of the girls sat this one out, deciding to giggle and talk instead. Girls!

Quintarrius shooting for two!

We loved hearing from the local firemen! They showed us their equipment and told how each piece is useful. We even got to climb in the firetruck!

Look at all the equipment!

Showing us how the oxygen tank works.

Fireman De'Eric

Nareuna and Sherrina try on the firemen's gear.

That jacket is a little big, Sabbion.

Charles, I think I see smoke coming out of the building! Can you help us?

Besides all the visitors that came to the school to share in our Career Day and Fall Festival, we were also able to buy tickets for concession stand treats and space jumps!

These girls are ready for pickles, chips, candy, drinks, and nachos!

Resting and eating a bit.

Monique gets her face painted for 2 tickets.

James gets his initials painted on his cheek.

Nacolby and Nadia ready to race!

Nacolby, De'Eric, and Brindarius watch the finishers.

Was it fun, Kenyada?

It was absolutely a fun day! Thank you to all the people who made Fall Festival and Career Day a success!