Kennedy Visits Washington!

Hi my name is Lukasz and I am going to type for room 101 today.Today Kennedy School has visited Washington School. We went to the gym. The chorus sang and the band played for the 4th and 5th graders. Then, each classroom got paired up with a different classroom.We went down to the Media Center first.In the Media Center we showed them the books that you can check out.Then we showed them the Art Room which is where we do all are artistic drawings and sculptures.After that we went to the Music Room to show them the keyboards.While we were giving the tour, we also showed them the Band Room in the basement.We showed them where they would play for recess. Next,we went to our room and we got something to eat and a juice to drink.We watched a Photo Story that Mrs. Cole's class made to show them all about Washington School and 4th grade. The third graders asked us some questions from the question box they created on a flip chart from the Promethean Board that we answered.Before they left, the third graders made a time capsule while Miss Gosche took their pictures. They will be sealed up until next spring when they are in our desks as 4th graders. Their teachers will give them their time capsule back so they can see what they looked like a year ago. We were able to see what we looked like last year from our time capsules. We cleaned up our snacks.The third graders had no time left so they had to leave.

Tour Of Schiller Park

Hi World!

Today we were lucky enough to have the ladies from the Schiller Park Historical Society take us for FREE field trip around town. We took a tour of our town and learned A LOT about people from the past who were really important to Schiller Park. We learned about a mill, an old general store, what rules teachers had to follow back then, the Kolze family, Mr. Robinson, the importance of the railroad, and a little bit about a part of our town called Frogtown. Feel free to ask us some questions as a comment or ask us if you see us around. Right now we are busy creating online posters on www.glogster.com to help you learn a little more about Schiller Park. Mrs. Choudhary will post them to our wiki next week when we are finished. Check it out at: www.championsof101.wikispaces.com or go through the link of the Student Link page of our classroom website:
http://webmail.sd81.org/~kchoudhary@sd81.org/00026E7F-011F7A50?Plugin=Metro.

We know that's long, so we usually just copy and paste it in!

Here are a few of us working on our projects!

It's Show Time

This week we performed our Readers' Theatre plays. We were broken up into 3 groups. One group performed What Shoes Do You Chose?, group two performed The Legend Of Slappy Hooper, and the last group performed The Hidden One. They were all written by Aaron Sheperd. We practiced all the lines and created scenery all week so we could perform for some 5th graders and Miss Mullarney. Dragomir liked how Emily who was playing Katie, threw her money at him and bought all the shoes. Paulina thinks all three plays were interesting. She likes how the pictures that Slappy Hooper created came to life.

Have any of you participated in Readers' Theatre? What play was it? What character were you? Have you ever seen a Readers' Theatre play before? Which story did you see? Finally, would you like to be in a Readers' Theatre performance? If yes, why?

Making Many Marvelous Memoirs

Hi, my name is Emily A. I am typing for our class 101 today. I hope you enjoy.

In writing, we have been working on our memoirs. A memoir a story from your life that is important to you. Memoirs are life stories that you have learned something from. For example, in Patricia Polacco's book Thunder Cake, the character got over her fear of thunder by making a cake with her grandma. She took steps to get the supplies for the thunder cakes. She didn't even notice the storm coming while she was getting all the supplies. She became brave.

So we would like to know. Have you learned a lesson from a time in your life? If so, what is it? What would your life's memoir be about? Please tell us your name and where you are from so we can see who and where our blog is reaching.

New Epals in Dubai!

This week we finished up our MAP testing. We take this test every fall and spring to determine our growth in math, reading, and language arts. We continued our unit in poetry in Readers Workshop. We practiced writing quatrains, acrostic poems, and limericks. Check out our classroom website to find some neat websites that take you step by step through the process of writing several kinds of poems. http://webmail.sd81.org/~kchoudhary@sd81.org/00026E7F-011F7A50?Plugin=Metro
In Writers Workshop we have been weaving our internal and external stories together to create our memoir. In the afternoons we have been busy researching our exquisite experiments for science as well as working on money in math.

Our most exciting news as that we have new epals in Dubai! We emailed them early in the week and are anxiously waiting a reply. We are going to be learning about their culture as they learn about ours. Technology has made the world so small!

Multicultural Week

Two weeks ago was Multicultural Week here at Washington School. Each year, the students in our school celebrate our many cultures as well as the many cultures of the world. This year, we went to a Polish restaurant in Chicago, The Jolly Club for lunch. We had pierogis and blintzes filled with cheese and potatoes. We learned about manners and how to eat in a nice restaurant.

We also had a Multicultural Program. Many of our classmates performed in the various dances. Some of us participated in African American music, a Readers Theater production for Pakistan and India, or a Bulgarian dance. It was fun to see all of the other students participating in various other productions. We look forward to doing it again next year as 5th graders.

Our Field Trip Friday!

Today we went with the entire 4th grade to visit Graue Mill in Hinsdale. Did you know that Graue Mill was an actual stop on the Underground Railroad? We learned that was a big reason as to why Mr. Graue did not keep good and accurate records. He did not want to get caught. The basement of his mill was the hiding place for the slaves. We saw the water powered mills, how to grind corn, a spinster working on a loom, and what a house might have looked like back in the late 1850's. Before our tour of the mill, we had lunch in the woods and then walked the trail. We had a great day. We are thankful to Mrs. Gorzynski for putting together a fabulous Photostory video that we watched yesterday in Reading Room to prepare for our trip today. Thank you also to Mrs. Gorzynski and Mrs. Piltaver for doing our post field trip activity this afternoon before we went home.

Happy Mothers Day to all of my Champion Moms!!