The past two weeks we have been reading this book called Just Grace Goes Green, and we have learned all about how we need to take better care of the Earth. In the book, Grace and her friends have to come up with a “green” project to show how they can do their part to help the planet. Our students also got the opportunity to come up with their own “green” project just like the characters in the book. Below are some very creative examples that some of the students came up with to reuse items in a new way.

A Birdfeeder

                                                            A Picture Frame

A Car

The students learned about the artwork of Andy Warhol and his Pop Art creations. Students learned how Warhol used repetition and inverted colors to showcase popular people and things from a particular time. The students replicated his art style while working with patterns in function tables.

The fourth grade students had the opportunity to renact the election process. Each class nominated two students to represent their class in the fourth grade election for class president. The candidates formed campaign parties with their peers, made posters, and had a rally. Each student did a great job discussing their ideas and what would make them a great choice for president. After all of the votes were cast and tallied the fourth grade is proud to announce that the class president for the 2015-2016 school year is

Jaylen Green

We would also like to congratulate the other candidates. These students did a wonderful job on their campaigns.

Kennedy Watts

Mason McDonald

Desire McDonald

A’Jadyn Brown

and

Taniyah Breland

Today we traveled to the land down under during our annual Nora Davis Cultural Arts Festival. This is a day of fun where students rotate through a variety of stations to learn about a particular culture, which this year was Australia. At the food station students got to sample Calamari, ham and pea soup, Vegemite on toast, and Tim-Tams. During the music station, the students learned about opera and The Sydney Opera House. At the drama station, students learned about Aboriginal story telling and dance. Students created Aboriginal art and told stories on boomerangs using symbols during the art station. Students learned to throw boomerangs at the game station and learned Aboriginal dances during the dance station. At the carousel station, students rotated through different areas of Australia including the Great Barrier Reef, the Outback, and Gold Coast, Australia. It was a great day of learning and fun for all students!

The students had the wonderful opportunity to experience the literary works of Roald Dahl! Each class read a different book and created a class reading fair board. The children had a wonderful time coming up with the ideas for the boards and watching their masterpiece unfold before their eyes.

This colorful board belongs to the children in Mrs. McDougle’s class.

Mrs. Watts’s class did a great job on The Magic Finger!

Mrs. Schipke’s class did an awesome job on The Twits!

Dr. Williams held a multiplication bee for the fourth and fifth grade students. Fifteen students out of the fourth grade, five per class, were chosen through a timed assessment to compete in the Nora Davis Multiplication Bee. These fifteen students competed in another one minute drill, and the top five were chosen to go on to the district competition as well as compete in a head to head run off for the title of Nora Davis Multiplication Champion. Donovan Haskin came out on top as the champion after a very spirited showing of great multiplication fact knowledge from all competitors. The top five will go on to compete in the Laurel School District Multiplication Bee to be held on Thursday, November 5th at 10:00 am at Central Office. Shown above are the top five Nora Davis Magnet School multiplication bee competitors that will move on to the district multiplication bee. From left to right are Jahziyah Carpenter, Kennius Jenkins, Donovan Haskin (Nora Davis Multiplication Bee Champion), Kermit Oville, and Tyler Taylor.

We had a wonderful time participating in the Choctaw Days celebration at the Lauren Rogers Museum.

During the dancing portion of the program many students were chosen out of the audience to dance with the dancers.

They learned how to play stick ball, a popular Native American game. We also learned how the Choctaw Indians made many different types of baskets that served many different purposes

It was such a great experience, and lots of fun watching the students learn about another culture!

Students who met their AR goal for the first nine weeks were treated to a block party as a reward. The street in front of the school was blocked off and students got to draw with sidewalk chalk, dance, play games, and more. Thanks to all the students who worked hard to meet their goal. We want to see everyone at the next reward party which will be watching a movie in your pajamas at school – FUN! Click on the link below to see a video of students dancing at the block pARty.

AR Block Party Dance

This week the students have been exploring various strategies for multiplying 2 digit numbers by a 1 digit number. To illustrate our multiplication problems we took this time to explore the concept of symbolism in art . Students were encouraged to use symbols to represent their numbers, and colors to represent place value. Using the concept of a monochromatic color scheme while using warm or cool colors, students created works of art that show their ability to multiply and their creativity.

Can you tell what math problem is being represented by the cool colors of this monochromatic color scheme? If you guessed 36×4 you are correct! Students also illustrated with a different shape how they carried over a number to another place value.

The fourth grade students began a three week long fairy tale unit this week. The students are having a blast getting to read original versions of fairy tales and comparing them to fractured versions of that fairy tale. Students are working with a partner to really delve into the thoughts and actions behind each character as they complete analysis of the main characters from each fairy tale. Next week, the students will create a monologue and masks to represent their character. They will get to perform their monologue the final week of our unit, so parents be looking out for some fairy tale conversations at your house the next few weeks. They should be quite interesting!