Our Christmas Memories

Cranes, Cranes, and More Cranes

In our class, Mr. Nelson read to us the story of "Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes", then he taught us how to make them. It’s pretty easy. Some of us got so into it, that we decided to make a thousand paper cranes and send them to Peace Memorial in Hiroshima, Japan. Right now we have about 300 paper cranes and hope to get a thousand before the end of the school year. Stay tuned and see what happens!! - By Hannah B.

Our Trip to Cranbrook

Stevens T. Mason (and our 4th grade class)

On our trip to Lansing, we got very lucky! Stephen T. Mason, Michigan’s first territorial governor, was lying in state for one day. His remains were temporarily moved to fix Capitol Park in Detroit where his body stays in a crypt beneath his statue. He was only 19 when he got appointed, then became governor at 23. Later, he died from pneumonia, at the age of 43. We saw him on the glass floor under the dome of the Capitol, That floor held 190 glass tiles that were a inch thick. Right next to the coffin there were flowers and a National Guard that switched every 15 minutes for the whole day.   by Emily

LANSING - Next week!

Next week, we are going on a field trip to Lansing. Our class is really excited. We are going to the Michigan Historical Museum, and the Judicial Center and the state Capitol. I wonder how tall the Capitol is? We are going to have so much fun!  We'll report later on just how much fun we had!!
By Joey

Our Signature Creatures

Last Friday Mr. Nelson taught us how to make name creatures. This is how you do it. You write your name frontwards and backwards then from that you use the lines from your name and make a creature out of it. The creature can be anything from rams to bacteria. Mr. Nelson then made a slideshow with the creatures. You could see the slideshow on the blog right now underneath! Everyone had a lot of fun making the creatures.   - By Ryan

Crayon Self Portraits

Huron Indian Longhouse Projects

Our special Michigan Studies project of constructing a model of the Huron Indian longhouse was a smashing success! On Wednesday morning after Chapel we moved into the art room and made a tremendously, dirty mess! There was moss, dirt, branches, leaves (and occasionally some crawly things), all over the place! There was also some great problem-solving, cooperation, and wonderfully creative ideas being generated from the kids. We finished up and cleaned the room completely in the afternoon.

Funny Things in 4th Grade

^{By Emily
The whole 4th grade got huge Bomb Pop popsicles on Ryan’s birthday. Our class stuck their faces in them. Mitchell used it as lip stick. His whole face was red. We all got brain freeze. Way cooool. (Get it?) Thanks for the treat, Ryan!}

4th Grade CC members win!

By Hannah
The kids in cross country won a trophy. There were 40 kids in the race and Alex got the best score. Following him were Ryan, Isaac, Mitchell, Paige, and Kennedy, all with good scores as well. GREAT JOB to our  4^th  grade team members!

A Great Book to Read

By Ryan

Mr. Nelson read us a book called Stone Fox. The whole class loved it. The little boy has a big job to do. His grandpa is sick and the boy needs to figure out what to do to save his grandpa. Then it hits him – the Great Snow Sled Race! It is a great book to read.

Fun Friday Slideshow

Mr. Nelson demonstrated to the class the use of a cool Web 2.0 tool called Animoto.  It's an online service that can quickly generate an video slideshow fo uploaded photos along with some pretty cool music.  Enjoy.

Our First Few Weeks

Now that we are settled and learning the routine, its time to take on a new challenge - a classroom blog. What is a blog?  Good question!  The following is a brief video that helps explain blogging in very simple terms (and in a pretty neat way!)



This blog is the opportunity for students to report what is happening in our classroom.  Fun stuff, lessons, field trips and other such activities will be discussed here on our classroom blog.  Hopefully, parents, relatives, and other visitors can leave comments as part of the online discussion about these topics as an encouragement to all who contribute to this "global dialogue."