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!!

Solar Week!

We have worked a lot with solar energy this week. We created projects that taught us about the different types of energy. We had a choice board and were able to choose which one we wanted to create. We also built solar cars. The teachers gave us the pieces and we had to build the car at home over spring break. We were able to decorate our cars any way we wanted. We are going to race our cars next Friday at 12:30.
In music, we started using Ipod touches today. We listened to "I Feel Good" by James Brown and were able to watch the music video at the same time. Then we had to write about the meter, the mood, and the instruments used in the song. In Science we created circuits with the Switch On! kits and watched a brain pop about wind and solar energy.
After school, we are working on our different performances for the Multicultural Program. 7 of our classmates are in the performance. Some of them are doing an African American story of music, others are doing the Bulgarian dance, some are even doing a Mexican dance, and others are performing a Readers Theatre piece.April 30th is our performance.
In art, we are making sculptures and finishing optical illusions.
Those of us in Chorus performed in the Music Man back in February when Mrs. Choudhary was still at home with Anthony. It was a huge success. Now we are working on more songs for our Spring Concert. Yesterday, was the performance.
In technology we worked on two websites. We tried to create comics with Toondoo.com, but the website was down. Since we had issues with Toondoo, we moved on and created avatars with Voki.com. We were able to make our own characters using clothes, bling, backgrounds, and even glasses. We were able to make our vokis talk too. It was interesting to see our characters.
Check back next week for our next update. We are excited to begin working with Mrs. Hake's 4th grade class in Missouri with google maps. We will post on our experiences. :) Have a nice weekend!

Week of December 8th

We have a tradition at Washington School in which each class does some research and creates projects about a winter holiday. We put all our projects together and then display and discuss them at the celebration. Our holiday is the Buddhist holiday, Bodhi Day. We have been working hard on our Bodhi day projects and using lots of glitter for our jewels. Next week we are going to decorate cookies shaped like the Banyan tree leaves. In math we learned a silly new song about being rounding heros. Ms. O's singing voice isnt so good. In social studies we finished watching a video about the american revolution. During reading time we have been working on reading graphs and completing cause and effect charts. Next week we are going to make our own ginger bread houses to bring home for winter break.

Mrs. Choudhary had her baby last Friday night. Anthony Nicholas was born December 5th at Loyola University Medical Center. He weighed 9 lbs. 5.6 oz. and measured 20.5 inches long. She and Anthony are resting and adjusting to the new life at home.

The fish!

If you move the mouse over by the fish tank, you will realize that the fish follow the mouse! They are hungry! Just click on the mouse, and it will drop little green food in the tank for these little colorful creatures. Thanks for keeping our fish fed!

December Mix

Enjoy some winter music to get into the holiday season!

Week of November 24th

This week was very short. We only had school for a full day on Monday and then a half a day on Tuesday because of Parent/Teacher Conferences. Both days we worked on some researching of the first Thanksgiving. We performed a Reader's Theatre play and really enjoyed that. Tuesday, some representatives from the American Cancer Society came to talk to us about the dangers of smoking. We also started our reserach on our Winter Celebration, Bodhi Day. Each classroom at Washington School is given a Winter Holiday to research and create a display for the rest of the school. Our celebration will be December 18th. Members of the Schiller Park community are welcome to come out and see what we have learned. Bodhi Day is a Buddhist holiday in which the Buddhists celebrate Buddha's enlightenment. We started to think about how we want to present this information to the school and what we want to create. It will be a fun project to work on in December.
Ms. Olszewski will be our new teacher from now until April as Mrs. Choudhary is ready to start her maternity leave. We will still keep you updated with what's happening in our classroom. :) Happy Thanksgiving!!

Week of November 17, 2008

This week was a very hectic week for us at Washington School. It was a week that was very abnormal. We took Common Assessments, so we did a lot of reviewing in math and reading all week. On Monday we met Ms. Olszewski who will be taking over for Mrs. Choudhary when she has her baby. Ms. Olszewski stayed with us all day and worked with us in small groups to get to know us better. Thursday we had a very special day. All morning we had special guests who came in to do Junior Achievement with us. They taught us about geography and having a small business. We learned about profits and costs and we were even able to play some games that went along with our businesses. In the afternoon, Kennedy School (where we went to preschool-3rd grade) welcomed us back for an ice cream treat. They told us we did so well on our ISAT's last year that they wanted us to come back so we could celebrate. We had vanilla ice cream with all kinds of toppings: chocolate chips, m&m's, whip cream, chocolate syrup, strawberry syrup, and sprinkles. We really had a treat! Today we are at the Lincoln Park Zoo studying our animal groups and animal adaptations. If we have some good pics, we'll post them so you can see what we were up to! It's chilly out there, so we are glad we came in our winter coats, hats, scarves, and gloves!
Next week we have a really short week. We will be here all day Monday and then only a half of a day Tuesday because of Parent Teacher Conferences. Wednesday-Friday we will be on Thanksgiving Break. If we do not post next week, you'll hear from us in December!