Peabody Essex Museum

Our trip to the PEM in Salem was a great success! I'm so proud to say that our group received numerous compliments about their curiosity, knowledge and behavior from the guides and from other visitors to the museum! The students participated in a guided tour, which explored Native art. We used examples of natural materials in a scavenger hunt, finding the art that was made from certain resources. The collections at the museum have a striking combination between traditional arts from Native Americans and contemporary pieces. We also had time to explore other galleries and to find one piece in the museum that grabbed our attention to think about and sketch.

After over two hours in the museum, we walked a short way to the Salem Common for a picnic lunch. A spontaneous game of Sharks and Minnows broke out, and it was impressive to see so many fourth graders playing together in a way that was inclusive, collaborative and fun!

Tiger Trot

On Thursday, May 26, all of the students in our school ran in the Tiger Trot to raise money for our school playground. It was a sunny, beautiful day, and the students ran many, many laps! There was a special guest cheering us on - the Tiger mascot! We can't wait to see improvements to our playground as a result of the Tiger Trot.

Carolyn Coman Visits

This afternoon, we had a real live author visit our classroom! Carolyn Coman has published nine books, and many of them are for middle-grade readers. She was kind enough to come in and talk with the fourth and fifth grade students about her process as a writer, how she learned that she wanted to be a writer (in second grade!), and she shared a bit of her latest book with us. Lots of students became interested in her new book right away!

Book Clubs

Our class just finished reading a book together. The book is called Rachel Carson: Pioneer of Ecology and it was a biography about an amazing woman. For each chapter, students volunteered to generate discussion questions and to highlight challenging or unknown vocabulary words. We would read a chapter, then get together to discuss it. Some pretty deep discussions took place, including one about the positives and negatives of being a perfectionist. We enjoyed the book and loved discussing it with each other.

As a group, we decided to continue having book clubs. We decided to put small groups together (you can ask your child how groups were arranged) and today, new books were selected. Each group chose their own book, and a few groups selected two books and chatted with me about which would be the best choice. The book clubs are keeping their own records and having a facilitator for each meeting. The first book club meeting was today, and the pictures above show each group happily diving in to their first chapters. I'm excited about this experience!

Salt Marsh Trip #3

On Thursday, May 5, the fourth grade made their third trip to the salt marsh. We rotated through four stations. At the channel station, groups selected a channel in the marsh and followed it. They used a Google Earth map of the area, a tide chart, and hydrometers. At the cordgrass station, students closely observed salt marsh cordgrass, read about it's three adaptations (which help it survive on the marsh), and created models of the cordgrass plant. One station involved observing the salt marsh with our senses and making marsh metaphors. The final station was the art station, and you would not believe the breathtaking artwork that the students produced!

Once again, the hard work, curiosity and excitement for learning on the part of the students was obvious and so very appreciated. It was a wonderful day!

May Concert

Eastern Woodland Environments