Endeavor Team's Community Service!

It's September 26th and we did community service!  Today we walked to the Shelburne Food Shelf and donated 167 boxes and cans of food!  Everybody on the team donated these food items to our week long Food Drive!  We did this food drive because the Hike for Hunger is coming up, tomorrow!  We wanted do something for our community as well as all Vermonters that can't get enough food!  Shelburne Community School has raised $408. 75 for Hunger Free Vermont, an organization that makes sure all Vermonters have the food they need to live happy and healthy lives.  We reflected about our community service and this is some of the words our classmates used to describe this experience.

"It felt good to proved a service to people in need!"

"I was happy to do a service to my community!"

"I like helping others!"

 

Tomorrow some of us all will be Participating in the Hike for Hunger!  We are representing our team and we are proud of our Food Drive and our donations to Hunger Free Vermont!  We are already thinking about our next community service project!  Trick or Treat for UNICEF!

Written by Nora and Trey

Exploring the caterpillar life cycle!

For the past 19 days we have been exploring the caterpillar life cycle.  19 days ago these little guys were so tiny you barely could see them!  You needed a microscope to see them when they arrived!  But now they are growing and some of them are huge!  We have been feeding them a lot of milkweed.  We almost ran out!  We clean the cages twice a week.  We clean the cages so that it doesn't get stinky from the frass.   Frass is caterpillar waste.  We try to give them fresh milkweed everyday.  In our Science Notebooks we sketch the caterpillars and write about how they are growing.  Some of us have been measuring our caterpillars to keep track of their growth.  We also record our wonderings about the caterpillar lifecycle!
  ~Written by Jack
P.S. Mrs. Crowther's class has 2 chrysalises.

Food drive next week!

The food shelf needs:

Spaghetti sauce

Pasta

Mac n cheese

Boxed rice

Boxed mashed potatoes

Thank you so much!  We will be delivering our donations on Friday the 26th!!!

The adventures at Shelburne Farms!

On Thursday the entire 4th Grade went on a field trip to Shelburne Farms!  It was so cold but we had fun learning about soil and rocks!  We were there kicking off our study of geology!  Geology is the study of rock types, the rock cycle, and changes in the earth's landscape.  We learned about the changing landscape at Shelburne Farms.  We learned about the landscape by observing soil and rocks on the property.  Some soils are more acidic than others because of the rocks found in soil.  On the property different locations had different levels of acid!  We used a soil test that measures pH.  A pH level tells you if the soil is gonna be good for gardening, pastures, or simply left as green space.  A blue color on the test means the soil is neutral.   By the beaches we could see different types of rock.  Many of the beaches are covered in shale.  We could also see how the bedrock has moved under the soil, sometimes two different rocks collided and moved over or under each other.  We also could see how the lake is causing erosion to the landscape, wearing away land and creating cliffs.   Lastly, at Shelburne Farms you can find metamorphic, sedimentary and igneous rocks!  We can't wait to learn more about Geology!

Today, Shelburne Farms came to us to teach us about Teamwork...ask your child about the challenges they completed in their groups!

This post written by Bevan and Haley

All Fourth Grade Morning Meeting

Our class lead the first all fourth grade Morning Meeting on Friday, September 12!  Our class was split into four groups of five.  Each group was in charge of a circle of fourth graders from the other three classes.  We taught the group a greeting, a game and showed them our caterpillars and science notebooks.  At the end of the meeting we reflected about how it went!  Fourth graders said things like...

It was fun!

It was nice to see all of my friends and to get to know new people.  

We hope to do this again!

It was cool to be the teachers.  

Written by Dylan and Robbie

Dot Day Project

Team Endeavor celebrated Interrnational Dot Day by creating many dots to form one dot!  International Dot Day was inspired by the story titled The Dot by Peter Reynolds!  Vashti, the main character, taught us that you should always try new things! She also taught us you can do anything as long as you put your mind to it! 

Photos and words by Lily

Leaving our mark on the world!

Starting International Dot Day in ART Class! Thanks Ms. White!

Our First Mystery Chat!

A Mystery Chat is when Vasanthi sets up a google chat with another classroom somewhere in the USA or World.  This time it was with another state in the USA.  Each class asks the other class yes/no questions until the class as a team can narrow it down to the correct location.  We practiced for our google chat because we had certain jobs that we had been assigned that would use the answers we received to narrow our choices down to the correct state! Some of the jobs were photographer, emappers, mappers, back talkers , logical reasoners, runner, greeters, inquirers, and the question keepers.  Ask your child about these jobs!  Every job uses some materials.  The mappers and emappers use maps, puzzle maps , time zone maps and google earth.  We also used an iPad for the photographer and google chrome books for the back talkers.  

Here we are meeting our mystery class and getting started!

Here are the mappers and question keepers in action!

The inquirers and greeters communicating answers and questions and the mappers and question keepers at work.

Here is everyone in action as we neared the end of our chat!  Both classes figured out where the other class was calling from!  We met 5th Graders from Missouri!  They have the St. Louis Arch and they are home to the Missouri Tigers.

Written over lunch by Photographer Logan and Vasanthi 

An exciting message from SCS Feed!

Hello parents! SCS FEED welcomes you to the 2014-15 school year! Information about our “Food Education Every Day” program will be presented at Curriculum Nights. It is there that you will have the opportunity to sign up as a parent volunteer if you are interested. In the meantime, the Committee has decided to kick start the school year with TWO fun upcoming activities for all of our students and parents are involved!

(1)    “THE BIGGEST VEGGIE CONTEST”- to celebrate the bountiful summer harvest, allstudents, K-8, should bring in the largest vegetable they can find either from their family’s garden, community garden or neighbor/friend/relative’s garden.  Students will have ONLY fromMonday 9/15 to Wednesday 9/17 to bring ONE to school. Please try and label you’re your child’s name and teacher on the veggie. If not, it will be done at school but the less labels to fill out, the better. There will be a box in each classroom for them to place it in. There will be a few winners and they will be announced on Friday 9/19. Prizes will be from Shelburne businesses. All veggies will be used in school lunch selections. PLEASE ENCOURAGE YOUR CHILD TO PARTICIPATE!

(2)    SHELBURNE FARMERS’ MARKET SCAVENGER HUNT- this has been done in the past with great success. It is a great way to encourage your kids to have fun at the market before the season ends! It is also a great introduction/reminder for them to know where their food comes from. PRIZES WILL BE AWARDED- 1 PER GRADE LEVEL! Scavenger Hunt Questions come home in backpacks Friday 9/12. Please put these on the fridge or somewhere handy to prevent it from getting misplaced! Kids have Sat, 9/20 and 9/27 to attend the market and complete the scavenger hunt. They will need to communicate with vendors to find the answers to the questions. They have until Wed, 10/1 to turn their sheets in to their teacher or front office. Winners will be announced (and parents emailed) Friday 10/3. Winners have Sat 10/4 and 10/11 to redeem their prize at the market from vendors!

 

All info is updated on our link on the school’s website and on our Facebook Page!

7 Days of 4th Grade!

Dear Families,
     This was an incredible week filled with excitement!  We continue to spend time getting to know each other by talking about our common interests, sharing books with one another, solving math problems together and playing games in class and at team time.  We are well on our way to creating a community of learners that will be kind, respectful and responsible!
     This week we found our selves getting to know our class library and where all the books our housed and what genres, authors and favorites it holds.  We also made a wish list of books we would like, so if you  have some books you would like to donate to our classroom library just send them in!  We have been filling out our reading logs and even reflected about the amount of pages we read this week.  We also received our fancy Reader's Notebooks that will stay with us for two years!
    During Math class this week we focused on solving multiplication story problems using strategies like a ratio table, a number line, an array model or an area model.  These strategies will anchor us as we continue to work with multiplication and division.  It has been so impressive to hear the students actively engage in "math talk".  Mathematicians share their strategies, strive to solve problems using multiple pathways, critique and debate their answers and also take the time to be metacognitive and to think about what they learned from the lesson.
     We kicked off Chorus on Friday, almost our whole class will be participating in this elective!  So glad to see so many taking advantage of this great opportunity!  Mrs. Southworth is very excited.
     We also sent Homework home on Friday.  Please help your child find a place to work that is not distracting, has the tools they will need to be successful and please, please make sure the HW folder and its contents, reading log and reading book and writer's notebook travel between school and home daily.  There may be opportunities to work on HW in class and some assignments will be reviewed as they are completed.  The class was excited to get their HW and we took the time to make a mini calendar and to plan when we would hope to work on certain assignments.  We don't want to save it all for Wednesday night and we want to fit in at least 5 nights of reading.  Taking the time to organize ourselves and to plan out our weeks will hopefully leave us feeling happy about HW.  IN the next few weeks we will also be adding spelling HW, a typing or fact fluency component and sometimes some special projects.  So, talk with your child to develop a routine for HW and organization.  Oh yeah!  HW is due THURSDAY!
      Lastly, our scientist created their monarch caterpillar abodes with the jars and milkweed you all sent in.  We gently placed our specimens into our homes and now we will begin the process of careful observation and care of our new friends. Please continue to send in fresh milkweed, they only like fresh moist, leaves:)
    Take Care, Vasanthi