Improvisation Class

We started our Improvisation Cycle with Mike and Laura from Freestyle Repertory Theater today!

We learned the two key rules of improv:
1) Always say YES.
2) Always make your partner look good.

To practice these rules, we learned "Pass It," our weekly warm-up game.

We also played the Present Game. You pick up an imaginary present, and you give it to your partner. Your partner has to say YES to your present and make up what it is. You say YES to your partner and make them look good by agreeing with them and adding on details about your present. Presents ranged from folded-up cars to specks of dust!

Teach your family one of the improv games. What did you try? How did it go? 

Mummies

In order to get to know each other on the first day of school, we turned six of our classmates into mummies! We worked together as a team to cover our classmates with toilet paper. Here are some pictures of the process!

Here are our finished mummies!

What was your favorite part of the Mummy Game? 

Revision Work

Today we started revising our first writing pieces--our personal narratives. One strategy we learned in class today is that writers pay attention to the internal story of their piece--what's going on inside a character's head. We talked about how characters can run, jump and play, but how they also have to think, dream, yearn and remember. We revised our personal narratives to make sure the internal stories were clear.

You know SO MANY smart revision strategies! What are some of your favorites? Describe one to us in the comments! You can even talk about a revision strategy YOU invented!

Hip, Hip, Array!

We dove into our first math unit on multiplication with an array hunt. We searched for arrays (rectangular arrangements of rows and columns) all around our classroom. Here are some of the arrays we found:

A 1x3 array!

A 26x2 array!

A 2x2 array!

A 3x9 array!

A 2x2 array!

A 7x3 array!

A 3x10 array!

Are there any arrays at your house? In your neighborhood? Describe them in the comments!

Welcome to Fourth Grade!

Tomorrow brings the first day of school! Our classroom is all set up and ready, but it's missing the most important part--all of you! Here are some pictures of what our classroom looked like on Wednesday night before anyone arrived. If you want to see a larger version of a picture, just click on it!

This is the sign on our door. 

Here's our schedule for the first day. 

Part of our Fiction Library

Desks and Fiction/Non-fiction Libraries

Letters to Katie

Another view!

Our Employment Board