Mrs. Brown's Classroom Reflections

Today we had the crayfish out of the tank for Science. We invited Mrs. McFarland's boys to join us. They sat at the tables with us and we observed the crayfish. We touched their antennas, backs, tails, and picked them up and put them on our tables. One crayfish ran off the table onto the floor. Teacher Rich had to rescue it! We wrote our observations on our papers after exploring their structures. One of the crayfish did a face plant back into the water because a student got scared when he picked it up. Mrs. McFarland's boys were a little scared when they touched the crayfish. They also felt proud after they did finally touch them. We had a fun time with the crayfish and our guests!

Today in Science we took out the crayfish to watch them freak out! We picked up the crayfish. You have to pick them up by their carapace (backs) so they do not pinch you. We took the crayfish out and each group got one crayfish to observe. We got to see them eat with their walking legs. AJ noticed that the food dissolved in the water. When you pick the crayfish up they are slimy and bumpy. They feel weird. Marcus picked up the crayfish and its shell felt as hard as a stone. When Peter picked up the crayfish it was so slippery that he accidentally dropped it! They sure are creepy little critters!

Crayfish Day

What a great Halloween we had! I was so glad we decided to make Gross Grub instead of cupcakes and cookies. I had so much fun watching you make and eat your own snacks. Spit Wad Sandwiches, Simple Pimples, Boogers on a Stick and Sewer Soda was the perfect ghostly menu. I hope you all had a safe night filled with delicious treats! Thank you to all the families that donated an ingredient for amazing afternoon.

Pomegranate Observations
Today Mrs. Brown brought in a pomegranate to eat. We got to hear the sounds it makes when she cut into it. We also got to taste it. Here are a few journal entries!

Alberto: Oh sock! I have an awesome thing for you. It is a pomegranate. It's kind of sour and juicy. The seeds feel like teeth and it's crunchy and slimy. The juice looks like blood. It feels weird in on your tongue. The seeds are blood red and when you eat it the seed it feels good in your tummy! It feels like you are in heaven. The seed is plain white and a little bit of bloody red. THe seeds are also oval and sweet. They smell like there are three thousand air fresheners in the room.

Olivia: Hey Ayden! I got something for you to eat, it is called a pomegranate! It is sweet sour and a little bitter and this is how you eat it. You take a pomegranate seed and squish it with your teeth. Eat only the outside of the seed but spit out the inside. Hope you like it!

AJ: Oh my goodness Gabi! It is tangy, its bitter, it's squishy, it's crunchy, it's grape juice red and it's juicy! This is the best seller in the 50 nifty united states....including Texas! Well, I wish it was anyway. On the inside there's at least 200 seeds. The seeds are oval shaped. The pomegranate has a hard shell that you have to cut open to eat the nice, tasty, bitter, juicy seeds. There's nothing like it! The taste is scrumptious! I don't think you could get anything as good as this. It leaves marks on my fingers. It's the one and only pomegranate!

Today we were building ladybug gardens. Justin, Dylan and Alexis came up with three different rectangular area models that created ladybug gardens. They needed to have a garden that had an perimeter of 24cm. It also needed to have a table with an area of 9 square cm. Finally it had to have a pond with a perimeter of 6cm. We needed to figure out the dimensions.

Today in Spelling we played a new game called Spelling Soccer. How you play is using your spelling words you give your partner a word to spell. If they get it right they get to move one space closer to their goal. If they get the word wrong they have to erase the word and they cannot move. In math we also played a game that will help us with place value. We roll a target number and then we need to try to get that number or closest with out going over. The winners got a punch! We need to be able to read, write and know the value of numbers through 1 million.

Hey friends! We had a big day today! We started off our day with using the Mimio pad. What an experience that was? We will have to practice with looking at the screen while writing on the pad in our laps. Robert did a great job controlling the Mimio for a science observation while using the pad. In the afternoon I was so impressed with your music performance. You all did an amazing job! I wish you could have seen the faces of the students that were watching....they were in awe! Mrs. Krebs was so proud of you too! Thank


you for being great musician role models for our school!

Today's blog was written by Jasmine, Alex and Dylan....

In Math we used the Mimio to play a game with dice. Mrs. Brown clicked four dice and numbers came up. We could add, subtract, multiple or divide the four numbers so the answer equals 10. If you got the answer right you got a punch!

I AM SO EXCITED! I got to show off all your technology skills to teachers from East Wenatchee, Leavenworth, Cashmere, Brewster and Omak! They were so impressed. I learned how to make virtual postcards and movie posters. I already have ideas on how we can use them with Science! Picture this....a crayfish on a movie poster! Hilarious. There was also a time where I had to fill out a goal page for Miss. Guerrero and I. It was about how we are going to use technology for the rest of the school year in Math. I ordered clickers and a mimio pad too! The picture show how I look when I am proof reading my goals. Its hard work and requires a lot of concentration! Mrs. Vanatta told me you had a great day and that you were patient in the computer lab! Way to go friends!

Today's blog was written by Georgia, Alberto and Olivia!

Today we went to the computer lab and wrote our stories. We sorted our spelling words after we came back from the computer lab. In Math we learned about centimeters, decimeters and meters. We felt happy about the day because we didn't talk as much when were we not supposed to!

Hey friends, Mrs. Brown here....I will blog about my day tomorrow. I will be at a technology training. I will get to brag about your technology use and skills and learn more ways we can learn with the technology we have! Check back tomorrow night for a crazy picture of me too! Ever wonder how I look when I am learning? Hmmmmm could be interesting!

Today we did Science we did a new experiment with seeds. The experiment is to see if you can grow seeds without soil. We planted our seeds in a plastic container without soil but we a coffee. We watered them with bleach water. They started to sprout. We drew our seeds on the Mimio. We had to draw what was happening with the seeds in our Science journals. The seeds we have are: sunflower, pea, corn, bush bean and lima bean. Mrs. Brown proved to us that you do not need soil to plant a seed.

Today during Read to Self time Mrs. Brown allowed us to buddy read. Buddy reading is where two people sit together and quietly read a book. Dylan and Alberto chose to buddy read by reading out of the same book. They both had a copy of the book, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, 3rd one. They each took turns reading a page. We were knee to knee and elbow to elbow. Justin and Alex buddy read a different way. They used reading phones. One person read into a phone while the other listened at the other end. They read a page at a time. They read a book called, Rainforest Babies. It was a nonfiction book about baby animals that live in the rainforest.

Hey friends! Since we ran out of time to blog today I will fill our families in! Today in science we invited our special education friends to join us! We were observing seeds of different fruits and vegetables. I even brought in a few trumpet vine pods from my garden! The students estimated the number of seeds in a green pepper, an ear of corn, green beans and trumpet vine pods. Then we drew detailed sketches of the seeds. Finally we shared our descriptive words as our properties of the seeds. The best part was using the Mimio to interact and share our ideas. I was so impressed with our descriptive words, sketches and Scientific thinking! WOW what a way to end a great day!



The students may argue that Science was the best part of our day because we also entered our first Moodle journal entry. As I type, I noticed that many are in Moodle at home reading and commenting our their peers stories. Sorry parents, this is a private classroom so you will have to ask your students for their passwords and log in information! I did tell them that they could use this time reading, writing and commenting on stories towards their reading minutes! Happy Moodling!

Today we passport club practice using the Mimio.Edwin and AJ got to find continents on the world map! Lots of other students got to go up to use the Mimio. We tapped the cursor under the spotlight and moved it to the places that we were asked to find. The 7 places we need to know for next week are: Asia, Europe, North America, Antarctica, Africa, Australia and South America. Our passport check in date is Wednesday the 30th! We read a chapter in our book, There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom. We also learned that in Chicago they don't put ketchup on their hot dogs!

We used the Mimio today to practice our multiplication and addition facts. The Mimio is a piece of technology has games and shows kids work. It interacts with Mrs. Brown's lap top and projector. We can create anchor charts and manipulate the Internet. The Mimio is also a virtual white board. We can also use it to sketch stuff that helps us learn.

Today we blogged a little differently. Mrs. Brown had us write on a post it note something we did then we shared our ideas!

Alex-We all passed the rectangular area model test in math!

Alberto-Today we read a chapter in our book, There is a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom.

Isabel-We learned about seeds. Some seeds have parachutes to help them travel.

Ezzie-In P.E. we played tag.

Dylan- We did passport practice today. We need to know every continent in the world.

Justin-Today we learned how to do a 4th Grade summary.