The students had to solve division word problems by looking at art prints while using specific themed manipulatives for the print. They had a lot of fun learning the process of division.

Madison battled amongst the 20 top students in our district to be THE CHAMPION of the Fall 2016 Multiplication Bee! We are so proud of her!

On Friday, October 28, New Stage Theater came to Nora Davis and performed “Oh Freedom!  The Story of the Underground Railroad”.  Famous participants like Harriet Tubman and Harriet Beecher Stowe were represented as well as lesser known heroes of the movement.  The performance gave our students insight into the time period of the Underground Railroad and what life was like by combining events and songs of the period.  The story inspired all students to work together for the advancement of all, no matter what their backgrounds are.  After the performance, students were able to ask questions to the cast members and director.

Every year fourth grade students all over the pine belt region are invited to attend the annual Choctaw Days at Lauren Rogers Museum of Art in Laurel. The students learn all about the Choctaw culture through a variety of stations put on by volunteers at the museum as well as Native Choctaws from a local reservation.

This is a list of stations the students attended to learn about the Choctaw culture:

• Dance – The students viewed the Native Choctaws in traditional clothing performing traditional Choctaw dances.
• Food – The students ate Fry bread, a traditional bread eaten by the Choctaws.
• Baskets – The students viewed a demonstration of basket weaving as well as toured the extensive Native American basket collection located at the museum.
• Bead Necklaces – The students created a beaded necklace to simulate the traditional necklaces worn by the Choctaw.
• Language – The students learned some common words and phrases in the Choctaw language.
• Basket Drawing – The students viewed a variety of baskets made by Native Americans up close and learned how artists use different techniques to draw still life pictures of the baskets.
• Basket Weaving – The students used paper strips to weave in and out to simulate basket weaving.

Our top 10 fourth graders faced off in a heated multiplication bee to find the TOP FIVE that will represent Nora Davis at our district battle! Our top five are Bryce, Jamiyah, Cor’Neceyunna, Madison (our school champion), and Nevaeh!

Nora Davis Magnet School held our annual Arts and Literacy Night on October 4, 2016.  Parents were invited to come learn more about how the arts are integrated into daily literature lessons.  To begin the night, parents, students, and teachers assembled in the auditorium.  Three grade levels were chosen to perform, and a select group of our fourth graders presented their muppet shows from our Jim Henson unit.

Below, students performed their Muppet show.

The first show was about a brother and sister, Sasha and Cool Man.  Cool Man pranked the Sasha by replacing her soap with shaving cream.  After finding out about this, Sasha took away all of Cool Man’s electronics until their mom returned from work.

The second show told the story of a prince and a king.  The king told the prince that he would never find a wife.  The prince, determined to prove him wrong, searched the entire land and finally found a wife that was loyal, confident, smart, pretty, and rich.

After the performances, parents were invited into the classrooms where they were taught a lesson that had been taught to the students earlier during the day.  The lesson integrated text structures and music.  The students/parents sang children’s songs, and picked which text structure was found in the lyrics.  This integrated the Principles of Music: unity and variety.  The students sang the songs in unison before picking the text structure from the variety of songs chosen.  Everyone had a great time!

“It was extremely fun because we got to do so many activities with Jim Henson. The performances were funny and goofy. We learned how many things he created. Like the Muppets and Sesame Street. It was fun and challenging at the same time creating the simple machine Muppets. But we would definitely do it again.”

– Center Group Number 5

We read a biography about our famous Mississippian, Jim Henson. We learned so much about his personal life, how he wanted to better the world, the ways he creativity changed television, and about his most famous works, the Muppets. Because we were learning about simple machines in science, we created our own Muppets using our knowledge of levers. In order for a Muppet to work, our working simple machines included a load and fulcrum. In pairs, we created a storyboard with a partner that had a simplistic plot. The elements of Jim Henson’s work, opposites attract, had to be evident with our Muppet’s character traits and look. We learned that Muppets just can’t be funny; they have to do funny things. The skits were preformed showcasing our theater skills including pacing and voice projection.

Last week, we completed a unit on plants.  Students read the book Plantzilla by Jerdine Nolen.  This book was about a student, Mortimer, who took home the class plant, Plantzilla, over the summer.  While taking care of Plantzilla, Mortimer documented Plantzilla’s daily activities and wrote letters to his teacher to inform him of the progress made.  As the summer went on, Plantzilla began to grow and do things that plants should not be able to do.  These things included hiding Mortimer’s pet Chihuahua in it’s leaves and eating food such as hotdogs.  After students learned about Plantzilla, they were able to create their own during an arts integration lesson.  Students made each part of their plant and later explained to their teacher where each part of the plant was placed.

We have been doing a fairy tale unit for the past two weeks, and it was a lot of fun! The students read an original fairy tale, and then they read a fractured fairy tale of the original. Some were The Three Little Ninja Pigs, The Princess and the Pizza, The Wolf that Cried Boy, and The Penguin and the Pea. The students compared and contrasted the two tales using a Venn diagram. The students then chose one of the main characters of one of the tales. The students analyzed this character and wrote down characteristics that they noticed from the books. The students had to cite evidence for these characteristics from the text. The students then wrote a monologue in first person point of view describing the character, their feelings, and their responses to situations. The students created masks to represent these characters using a variety of art materials. The students performed their monologue for the class using their masks. It was a lot a fun!