Our First Week of School

At the end of our first week, I was able to capture some of our students talking about their favorite parts of our week. Enjoy the video below...

A New School Year!

Welcome to the 2009-2010 school year! This blog is a place to share the happenings and discoveries of our 4th grade class. I'll be posting photos, videos, student work, and much more - all to give you a "peek" at what goes in our classroom. I originally was going to shut down this blog and begin using the district's blog provider, but at this time the district program does not allow embedded video. So...I will continue using this blog address. Videos are a big part of our classroom, and I want you to see it all!

If you are unsure about what a blog is or how to leave a comment, I have created a short video tutorial that gives you step by step directions on how to participate with our classroom blog. I look forward to talking and collaborating with you through this endeavor. Welcome!

Interview with Clayton

We are honored to have Clayton as our featured student this week. We hope you enjoy getting to know Clayton a little bit better!

What's a typical day look like for you this summer?
Well, I sleep until 10:00 – 11:00 a.m. Get up and eat breakfast, check the garden to see what has grown overnight. We have cucumbers, summer squash, tomatoes and basil growing in our garden. I go to the pool. Play with my dogs and take them on walks in the neighborhood. I have been eating lots of good food: fresh vegetables, peach cobbler, ice cream and cheesy noodles, of course. I play until dark then hang out inside reading or watching T.V. Then I go to bed by 10:00 or 10:30 p.m.

Have you been any place special? What was it like?
Yes. I went to the Isle of Palms, to Columbia to visit my Grandparents and to a Pine Tree Farm in Wagner, SC. All of my trips were awesome. I love swimming in the ocean. We went to The Columbia Zoo and saw fireworks at midnight on the Fourth of July. The farm had three ponds we could swim and fish in. I caught a 2 ½ pound bass and we ate it for dinner. We tried to shoot a potato gun, but it wouldn’t work, so we shot off fireworks instead. It was great!

Right before school starts, My Dad and I are taking a trip to California for 10 days. I am most excited about visiting Alcatraz Prison.

What's your favorite summertime activity? What do you love best about the summer?
My favorite summertime activity is definitely going to the pool. I get to hang out with my friends and I like to dive down deep in the water. The best thing about the summer is having no homework.

What good books have you read so far?
I read Medusa Jones early in the summer. My Mom and I read The Dangerous Days of Daniel X. I have also been re-reading some of my favorite books from when I was younger.

Have you picked up any new hobbies this summer?
I have done a little bit of weight lifting while my Mom works out. I like gardening. I love to cook. I created a pasta recipe that I have shared with many of my family members.

If you have any questions or comments for Clayton, just leave a comment below. I know he'd love to hear from you!

Interview with Alaina

One of the ideas I mentioned earlier in the summer was to interview former students from Room 241 and post the interview to the blog. I sent Alaina (08-09 alumni) a set of questions, and she graciously emailed me back with her responses and even included a few pictures. Here is the interview with Alaina...

What's a typical summer day look like for you?
I wake up, eat breakfast, go to Team Greenville (a year-round swim team) around 8:00. After TG practice, I go to Stone Lake (the summer pool) and play around with my friends. Then, I go home and eat lunch, rest at home for a little bit, then, go back to Stone Lake for afternoon practice, then, do something besides swimming, such as: biking, walking the dogs, playing on the computer, then, I eat dinner, get ready for bed and then go to bed! Some weekends I have TG meets and on Thursdays or Tuesdays I might have a Stone Lake meet.

Have you been any place special? What was it like?

On the second week of June, my friend, Ashley, and I went to Clemson Swim Camp. We stayed for 5 days and "lived" in dorms and swam at Clemson's indoor pool with the Clemson coaches. We learned a bunch of new drills and did lots of dryland workouts. What's really cool is that we got to eat in Harcombe Dining Hall. They had so many things to choose from!! They have REALLY good salad and awesome frozen yogurt!

I also went to the Isle of Palms beach with my family and our cousins. It was really fun because we got to see our cousins we hadn't seen in a while. We went with my mom's side of the family to the beach and in August, we are visiting my dad's side of the family in Pennsylvania and going to an amusement park!

What's your favorite summertime activity? What do you love best about the summer?

My favorite summertime activity is swimming, I'm usually swimming in an indoor pool and always getting better at my strokes and concentrating on what I'm doing - but in the summer, we can just sit around and jump in the pool and do handstands and try to do cool tricks off the blocks. I also like Diving. Flips and twists and those kinds of things are really cool to try to do.
Hmmm, what I like best about summer. . . that's a tough one. I think I'd have say seeing my summer friends and spending more time with them, and I'd say vacation because I like going places.

What good books have you read so far?
I read a book called, The Outsiders. It was pretty good, a little scary though. Its about greaser or "hoods" and well-fed, healthy people with nice homes and their lives. I also read a book called, Poppy. I really enjoyed it because of the animals and the action in the story. My favorite character was Poppy and I liked Ereth (Poppy's porcupine friend) alot also. I read a book called, The Sister Grimm. . . the fifth in the series, I think. It was about the Grimm Sisters' kind-of-brother, Puck, being sick and they had to take him to a special fairy-tale land. Puck ends up being next for the throne and many things start going wrong.

What summertime advice can you give our blog readers?
Over the summer, you will have more time during the school year, so you should pick a sport or activity that you would really like the focus on and put your mind to. If you really believe in yourself, you will exceed farther in that activity. :)

Have you picked up any new hobbies this summer?

Umm. . .not really. I did figure out that I love to play Scrabble, when I never really used to play it.

If you could do anything on a summer day, what would you do? What would your day look like?
I would want it to be a warm day but a bit foggy. I would want there to be not direct sunlight but the sun be hiding behind some fog. I would probably go to the lake and go tubing with some friends. Or I would want it to be a really sunny, hot, hot day with a bright blue sky and the slightest breeze. I would go to all the amusement parks I could with my family and a few family friends.

What's something interesting that no one knows about you (that would be fun to share)?
I have a huge birthmark on my back, and you can only see it in the summertime when I'm wearing my swim suit.

This picture is me, my brother, Bryan and my friend, Annie Hope, in the clubhouse at Stone Lake while they are deciding to continue the swim meet due to severe weather.

This picture is of me and my dog, Koda, on a hot summer day after taking him on a long walk around the neighborhood.

If YOU are a former student of Room 241 and would like to be interviewed, just leave a comment under this post or send me an email. I'm sure many of you have questions or comments for Alaina, so just leave them in the comments section below - I know she will love hearing from you.

Book Review - Medusa Jones

Medusa Jones

by Ross Collins
reviewed by Clayton
(08-09 Room 241 alumni)

Medusa Jones is a book of fiction about a girl who lives in ancient Greece. She is a Medusa and so are her parents. A Medusa can turn people into stone with a gaze. Medusa Jones and her friends are bullied in school by the Greek God’s children; Perseus, Cassandra, and Theseus. Medusa wants to turn the bullies into stone but her parents won’t allow it. Medusa is friends with Chiron, who is a Satyr: half boy, half goat and Mino, who is a Minotaur: half boy, half bull. Medusa, Chiron and Mino call the bullies the “Chumpians” because they are the children of The Champions: Zeus, Poseidon and Hades. The author makes many references to mythology throughout the book. If you are familiar with myths, you will appreciate the inside humor. But, even if you don’t know anything about mythology, there are many funny situations that Medusa ends up in. One of my favorite problems that Medusa deals with is her hair. She hates the snakes that make the tangled mess of hair on her head so she wears a knit cap each day to cover it up. She even goes to a barber shop one day to get her snake-hair cut and the barber gets bitten by one of the snakes, his hands swell up and she is banned from the barber shop. This is just one of the many problems she has in her life. Throughout the book Medusa is constantly dealing with the bullying of the “Chumpians.” She even has to go on an overnight camping hike up Mount Olympus with her friends and the “Chumpians” where all kinds of things go wrong for everyone. Eventually, at the end of the book, Medusa gets even with the “Chumpians.”

This book is 147 pages long. This was an easy, but fun book to read during the summer and I recommend it to everyone in Room 241.

I want to give a big thank you to Clayton for taking the time to write this wonderful review. What do you think? Is this a book that interests you? Do you have a friend who might like this book? Leave a comment below and let Clayton know your thoughts. I know he'd love to hear from you.

If you are an alumni of Room 241 and would like to do a book talk, just send me an email or leave a comment below. We'll get YOUR own book talk posted soon!

Summertime Blogging

Even though we're not together in the four walls of our classroom, I'd still like to stay connected to everyone during the summer. I've got a few ideas how our blog can be used during the next few months...

1. Books Talks - I read LOTS of books during the summer. I'd like to post some of my book recommendations for the kids - hopefully it will give them some new titles to check out at the library or local book store.
2. Guest Bloggers - I'd love to have some guest bloggers post this summer. Maybe some students would volunteer to write a short piece about their summer? Maybe some students would like to contribute a book talk to the blog.? Maybe some students would like to write share a story or funny moment?
3. Interviews - I read several blogs that interview authors. I thought it would be fun to interview some of the students of Room 241 during the summer and post their responses. This would be a great way for us all to stay connected.
4. Book Conversations - What if we all tried to read the same book during the month of June? Not a chapter book, but just a really powerful picture book that you could check out at the library. We could all leave comments with our responses to the text - an on-line conversation!

As you can see, I'm pretty excited about continuing the conversation this summer. Please check out the blog each week - I'll work hard to keep it interesting and updated. And members of Room 241 (past and present), send me an email at ghbrown@greenville.k12.sc.us if you'd like to be interviewed or contribute a book talk or help out with the blog in any way. I look forward to hearing from you!

Our Little Piece of Vacation

To all my students' parents - THANK YOU! Your extremely generous gift certificate to Lowe's allowed our family to buy some furniture for our back deck. Our previous deck furniture was handed down to us from my uncle, and we just found out this past weekend that the furniture (two chairs) was over 30 years old - can you believe it?! So, our new table and chairs have transformed our deck into "a little piece of vacation," as described by my wife. We love to sit out there in the morning and eat our breakfast together as a family. In the afternoons and evenings, we'll read books as we watch our kids play in the backyard. It's made our family extremely happy. Thank you again for your kindness and generosity. Below is a picture of me and the kids enjoying breakfast one morning last week.

The Tin Cannies

My favorite event of the year is the Tin Cannies. This is my opportunity to recognize each child's gifts, talents, and special contributions to our class. Each child receives a Tin Cannie (it's a trophy made of tin cans, gold paint, a little bit of hot glue, and a lot of love) during this special ceremony. I love reading the descriptions of each award, and I know the kids love trying to guess who each tin cannie will go to. There are always a lot of laughs and joyful tears during the ceremony. Each child in my class is so unique and wonderful - I love having the opportunity to celebrate my students. Below are a few pictures from this special event.

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Song Celebration

Singing is an important part of our classroom. It's fun, and it brings us together as a community. Whenever we learn a new song, the kids do an excellent job creating motions and movements to go along with the words. For our end of the year celebration, we decided to invite our parents and friends to our classroom and share all the songs we learned during the year. Here was our song list:
"Lean on Me"
"Grandma's Feather bed"
"You've Got a Friend"
"Thank You For Being a Friend"
"The Constitution Blues" (written by our class)
"Right Field"
"Love Can Build a Bridge"

The kids an incredible job with the performance. We hope you enjoy the pictures below...

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Field Day

I included these pictures in our electronic portfolio, but there may be other friends and family who'd like to see these pics. We had a blast on field day! Third through fifth graders attended in the afternoon, and I was ever so thankful. It rained all morning long as the kindergarten, first, and second graders participated in field day activities. The rain let up just as we went outside around 12:00. But it didn't matter - we still got soaking wet. A big thanks goes out to Coach Rohrer for planning and coordinating all these fun events.

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