New Stage Theater

Last week, our fourth graders took a wonderful field trip. This field trip was a culmination of our latest arts project with New Stage Theater powered by a fabulous grant from the Ford Foundation. As you may remember, we worked with New Stage to create, rehearse, and perform our own production for our Black History Program.

To pull everything together for us, our teachers took us to tour the New Stage Theater. We never imagined how much fun we would have and how much we would learn! Immediately upon entering New Stage, we were welcomed and split into three smaller groups to tour the theater.

Mrs. Johnson's class visited the Hewes room first. This room is used for a variety of purposes. They sell concessions here during regular productions. They also use this room to rehearse while the set it being built onstage. Interestingly enough, they also use this room to put on smaller plays. They set up a stage and about 50 chairs to perform these smaller productions. The ceilings are tall so that they can hang the lighting for the productions. We were all interested in this room and asked several questions.


Next, we walked into the basement! This was our favorite part, I think. We saw where things were stored in the basement.


We also saw all the costumes hanging in the basement.


There were SO many props and set pieces down there! Mrs. Johnson must have been scared we would knock something over, because she kept telling us to FOLD OUR ARMS.


We even saw the electrical room in the basement. People were actually working on things in that room when we stopped by.


After touring the basement, we walked into the "green room." The green room is used before actors go onstage for their parts. There is a television and speakers so that the actors can see and hear what is going on onstage. They can also make sure to see or hear their cues this way. Ms. Dorcus actually walked onstage and waved to us while we were in the green room. That was funny!


We walked through the green room door, and we ended up backstage. Ms. Dorcus showed us the prop table, where everything has a labeled spot on the table.


All the props for each scene can be found on the prop tables.

The boys were checking everything out.

Nadia found the plate of biscuits!

Now, you won't believe this! But, we were actually allowed to go on the set! We walked behind the scenes so that we could enter through the doorway of the set.


And, we entered a lovely Victorian-style home. Everything looked so real!

Everyone looks at home here.

Ms. Dorcus took some pictures too.

While we were onstage, another class was in the audience. So, we got to feel like actors in a play with an audience watching us perform.

We learned all about the different plays they perform, the times, the summer camps, and many other things that New Stage Theater provide.

We listened so well! After all, we had an audience!

Selicia, Jendaya, and Antasia still have their arms folded. They are being very careful!

You may think our tour was over at that point. Wrong! We continued on through the side door of the set, and we landed backstage where the set is built.

This man has a very neat job. He, first, creates a small version of the set to scale. It's as small as a shoebox!

Then, he creates the full size versions.

He showed us how he uses math everyday in his job. He mostly uses measurements and conversions. We better take our math more seriously!

The technical director showed us how heavy pieces and chandeliers are lifted and moved onto and off the stage. These cords, along with some weights, lift the items when a person pulls them accordingly.

Once we saw all the backstage excitement that goes into the performing arts, we became the audience.

We watched other classes onstage, and we listened to Mr. Mike talk a little more about their future productions.

This was so interesting! We were very glad to see all the hard work and the many people that work together to make a production possible! Hopefully, we will be able to watch a production at New Stage some day.

What's going on next door!?

Monday, Mrs. Johnson was laughing so hard when she came back from next door. So we asked, "What is going on next door?" She just smiled and said, "Cowboy Sam!"

Mrs. Jierski's third grade class had a visitor. Cowboy Sam galloped into her class on his horse. He was trying to persuade the class to visit his Dude Ranch. I'm not sure if I would listen to a funny looking cowboy in this outfit, but it sure kept her class at full attention.

Cowboy Sam gave the students information about his ranch along with persuasive details, I'm sure. Persuasive details are sentences ON TOPIC that show us why we would want to do something or think a certain way. We have been studying persuasive text too. Maybe Mrs. Johnson can talk Cowboy Sam into visiting our room.

Cowboy Sam also had a problem. The economy has gotten bad, as you know. The dude ranch is a little slow, and he needed Mrs. Jierski's class to help. Sam has decided to sell products to help raise money. Mrs. Jierski's class helped out by creating persuasive posters to advertise.

I hope these third graders were able to help!

What's going on next door? A lot of fun and learning!

After all, Dr. Bowen always tells us to "have fun as we learn!" I think Mrs. Johnson's and Mrs. Jierski's classes follow directions very well!

We MEAN it!

We sure do! We MEAN it! Mean is the average of a group of numbers. We can find the average, or mean, of numbers by following two easy steps!

Mrs. Johnson taught us about mean over the last couple of days. She began by asking us all to reach one hand in the basket to pull out some blocks. She didn't give us a specific number...we just reached in and grabbed some. In case you haven't met our class, we LOVE anything hands-on. As we reached in to pull out blocks, we giggled and wondered what in the world we were going to do! Surely fourth graders had no business playing with building blocks! Ha!

Once everyone had their blocks in front of them, Mrs. Johnson asked us to write on our Post-it note to tell how many blocks we pulled out. Easy enough.

Next, she asked us to write down how many blocks each person in our group had chosen. So, we listed our group members and the number of blocks each person had chosen. Still pretty easy.

Mrs. Johnson then asked us how we could find out how many blocks our whole table had. Add, of course! So, we did. We showed how we could find the total number of blocks at our table. Easy still.

After that, Mrs. Johnson said that she wanted everyone to have an equal number of cubes. Now, how can we figure that out? Divide! So, we divided our total number of blocks by the number of people in our group. D'Aubriney's group had 35 blocks. If they all wanted an equal amount of blocks, they would have to divide 35 by 5 because there are five people in her group. Each person would receive 7 blocks! Not hard at all!

After we finished, Mrs. Johnson told us that we completed our lesson without her even teaching. What? I really think this Spring weather is getting to her! She explained to us that MEAN is the average of a group of numbers. Average is the amount if everything is spread out evenly. Just like our blocks!

There are two steps to finding the MEAN.

1. Add the numbers (or blocks) together.
2. Divide the total by the number of numbers (or group members). The answer is the MEAN!

Now, that's easy!

Mrs. Johnson uses MEAN to find our grades for our report cards. She taught us how to find our own grade at the end of a nine weeks. All we have to do is add all our grades together and divide the total by the number of grades.

Maybe we should all average our own grades next time. You know, just to give Mrs. Johnson a break. No really. We MEAN it!

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

Our PTA really gave us a treat on Friday! New Stage Theater presented the production, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie for our school compliments of our PTA. As you may remember, our fourth graders worked with New Stage Theater in February to plan, rehearse, and present our own production for the Black History Month Program.

It was fun watching our drama coaches perform for us! The play was SO funny! We laughed and smiled the entire time!

The whole school was in awe of the production! Dr. Bowen told us that she loved seeing the smiles and the wonder in our eyes! It's so nice that our school is planning "fun Friday" events for us during this MCT2 preparation. I wonder what next Friday will bring!?

Kenyada and D'Aubriney taking it all in.

Selicia laughed the whole time! Sharnecia wants to see too!

Our fourth graders are going to see another production by New Stage Theater next week. We can't wait! Especially if it is anything like what we saw on Friday!

When the production was over, the whole school erupted in applause, hoots, and hollers! We were especially excited when we saw our friends who helped us with our production. They came out to introduce themselves to everyone else.

And, because we are so special, the fourth graders were able to come up to the stage and pose for a picture with the New Stage Theater cast!

Thank you so much, New Stage, for entertaining us so well! And, thank you to our PTA for such a wonderful and FUN experience!

Van Winkle Faculty Easter Egg Hunt

That's right! Our teachers and school staff had their very own Easter Egg Hunt yesterday! Can you believe that!? We have the very best PTA ever! Mrs. Grigsby also worked very hard to make this a fun and successful event for our school staff. Dr. Bowen called all the participants to the rotunda to explain the rules. Before explaining the rules, she told everyone that there was $100 on the playground somewhere! Wow! The teachers went wild! Then she told the teachers the rules:

1. No pushing.
2. No holding anyone back.
3. No injuries!

She walked everyone outside where they lined up so that no one got a head start.

Then, she gave the whistle and they were OFF! I've never seen these teachers move so fast! Can you find Mrs. Johnson? She came to school quite sore today from trying to run so fast!

Look at Mrs. Torrey go!

The teachers had SO much fun! We are so glad that our school is an enjoyable place for us AND our teachers! The results? Well, Mrs. Johnson came away with $5! But, the big winner was Ms. Bew! She had the surprise egg...$20! There WAS $100 on that playground! All the teachers got a part of it! Fun!

I wonder if they will share?

Put Your Affixes to Work!

We have studied, reviewed, memorized, and explored affixes since the beginning of school! But, that's no reason to stop. We must keep our minds fresh and quick! The more we explore and use our knowledge, the better our long-term memory will store it! So, Mrs. Johnson had us put our affixes to work!

• A prefix is a group of letters added to the beginning of a root word. Prefixes change the meanings of words.
• A suffix is a group of letters added to the end of a root word. Suffixes also change the meanings of words.

If we learn the meanings of the various affixes, we can figure out the meaning of any new word made with affixes! Some words even have both a prefix and a suffix added to the root word! Don't worry! We can do that too!

This week, after reviewing all the prefixes and suffixes, Mrs. Johnson had us to create a Venn diagram for our words with affixes. We cut out words that had prefixes, suffixes, or both. Then, we sorted them according to which affix was added. Finally, we put them to work! We used our knowledge of affixes to write the meanings of all the words. Simple as long as you know the meanings of the affixes!

Brindarius

Antasia

We are so glad we are keeping our minds sharp by putting all our knowledge to work!

Kristin is tired from all her hard work!

Take a closer look:

Shipping means to ship it now because -ing means that it is happening now.

Mishandling means to handle wrongly right now because mis- means wrongly and -ing means that it is happening now.

That's right! We put our affixes to work! Not only that, but we put them on display for all to see!

We Did It!

District test scores are back, and we are proud! We are proud because of our improvement! We are proud because we worked hard! And, we are proud because we have six more weeks to get even better! Watch us! We can, and we will! But, for now...we will celebrate!

Tuesday morning, Mrs. Johnson held a "ceremony" for those who passed each test. Some of us were so surprised and excited! Now, we have a certificate to take home and keep as motivation!

We passed our district reading test!

We beat that district language test!

And, math test...watch out! "Who dat" passing that math test?!

Not only were we proud of our individual test scores, but we were also proud of the students who passed all three district tests!

That's what I'm talkin' about!

We did it!

And, we'll do it again!

Just watch and see!