The Secret Knowledge of Grown-Ups was used as inspiration.  The book takes a rule, like eat your vegetables, and gives the top secret real reason for the rule.  Everyone knows you should eat your vegetables because they are good for you; but really we eat our vegetables so they don't grow big and take over the world.  The book is very funny and makes kids think creatively about all those rules they need to follow.  Students took a rule they hear often from school or home and described the "real" reason for the rule using the writing style from the book.  Students did a rough draft, and then creativitly displayed their work.  They then got into triplets and shared their work.

The students used The Important Book to write about important things in their life.  This also reinforced their practice of descriptive writing.

     Students used ink pads and inspiration from the author Ed Emberley to create characters from their thumbprints.  Students were challenged to create as many characters as possible.  Next, students reviewed prepositions, words that show location.  Students then used their thumb characters to write prepostional phrases.  Next, students reviewed descriptive words and then wrote descriptive phrases about some of their thumb characters.  Students then got into groups and read their descriptions.  In groups they tried to guess which character on their page the writer was describing.  Finally, students chose one thumb character and wrote a story using prepostitonal phrases, descritive phrases, and their spelling words.  This series activities got "two thumbs up".

The first part of the school year the fifth graders have been taking a music class from Mr. Haeberle to learn how to play the recorder.  The fifth graders then had an opportunity to perform as part of the Gridley Unified School District Music Holiday Program.  It was an exciting night and the fifth graders showed as a group that they can perform with grace and talent.  After winter break, the fifth graders will decide if they want to continue with music and select a band isntrument to play.  Their first performance as a real band will be the Red Suspenders Parade in the spring.

Our class made pillows with our grandparents and families.  Right before winter break we visited the Gridley Recreation Senior Program.  We recited traditional poems and stories, and sang Christmas carols.  Then we gave each senior citizen a hand made pillow.  The next day the seniors surprised our class with rice krispie treats and a signed card.  It was a great experience for all.  Our class had about 20 pillows left over, so Mrs. Wolf donated them to the critical care unit at the Biggs Gridley Hospital to bring comfort to a patient.  Thanks Mrs. Wilkerson for being our photographer.

Mrs. Gonzalez and Mrs. Wilkerson designed a very cute holiday craft for our class.  Alex's mom gathered the gourds from her father's field and dried them all during the fall season.  Then she painted them white with different types of finish.  Brian's mom then got in on the project and hand made individual hats, noses, and scarfs for each snowman.  Students each took a gourd and decorated it with buttons, scarf, hat, and nose.  Some students chose to draw faces with marker.  The gourds were then placed in snowman gift bags to place under the holiday tree for gift giving.  I hope some families will cherish these wonderful crafts for holidays to come.  Thanks Julie and Diane!

Olivia's grandma, Mrs. Soares, came to do art with our class.  Mrs. Soares helped our class learn how to creatively weave paper.  She brought in great colored paper, tricky scissors, and a lot of patience to teach the students the process of decorating strips to weave.  Then students wove their paper creations.  Finally students had the option to decorate the woven projects.  They turned out beautiful.  Thank you Mrs. Soares!

Grandparent's Day is always a very exciting day at Wilson School.  Our class decided to make pillows with our grandparents.  Samantha's mom helped cut all the fabric into perfectly sized pillow panels.  Parents came the day before to help the class sew buttons on one panel of the pillow.  Most students have never sewed before, so learning to thread the needle and tie the starter knot was a struggle at first.  After a couple buttons, everyone was ready to begin sewing.  On Grandparent's Day, we not only invited grandparents, but we invited moms, dads, aunts, uncles, or any family member that wanted to attend.  Our family members helped everyone to finish sewing their own pillow and then worked on extra pillows to give to the elderly for Christmas.   In all, our class made over 70 pillows.  Students ate lunch with their family in the cafeteria and then invited their family back for rootbeer floats.   We had one special Grandma, Grandma McKelvey, that stayed the entire day to help finish every pillow.  The day was very successful, students now know how to sew buttons, sew basic stitches, and did a good deed for members of our community. 

To gain an awareness of fractions, our class did some fun activities.  First, we used the Hershey's Milk Chocolate Fractions Book as a guided activity with Hershey Chocolate Bars.  The book lead the class through several hands on activites showing equivalent, adding, and subtracting fractions.   Next, we folded strips of colored paper using our prior knowledge of factors to help determine the folds.  Ask the strips were folded the terms equivalent and reducing were reinforced.  Each strip was labeled, and then glued onto black paper.  Who said fractions are hard?  Fractions are fun!

Students decorated the classroom in November with Tricky Turkeys.  Students took a turkey pattern and changed it to disguise the turkey so it would be safe for Thanksgiving.  Students changed the turkeys into dancers, hunters, Giants baseball players, and even astronauts.

Fifth graders have been studying molecular compounds and formulas.  Students used gumdrops to make common compounds such as water, carbon dioxide, and salt.  Students learned that in order for molecules to combine there must be a chemical reaction.  Students then created their own compound and used their knowledge of chemical formulas to name and label their model.  It was  "sweet" experiment!

On November 3rd our class held the annual Math-A-Thon.  Students got pledges and then completed 100 grade level math problems in one hour.  Students then got together to compare answers and discuss problems.  The money collected goes 100% to our class for needed supplies and field trips.  Thank you to all of our sponsors!

Students completed 1000 Accelerated Math objectives and earned a Halloween party.  Parents provided a healthy lunch and some sweet treats for the afternoon.  We played games and everyone had a great time!

Students used strong adjectives, adverbs, characters, and settings to write scary stories.  Students took their stories through the writing process and then drew pictures of scenes for their stories.  Finally they read their scary stories in the dark as a part of our Halloween Party.  Each group of 5 picked a winner and the winners read their stories for the whole class.  What a scary fun activity.

Our class was very spirited during red Ribbon Week.  Students showed they were looking ahead and wore red, took their caps off to drugs and wore a hat, were too cool for drugs and wore sunglasses, were team players and wore jerseys, and socked it to drugs by wearing crazy socks.

It is a tradition at Wilson School to celebrate Fridays during PE.  Students make a circle and take turns dancing in the center.  The fifth graders asked if they could go watch and support the fourth graders for their Freaky Friday circle.  Even one of our PE teachers got in on the fun!

On October 22nd, the class had a combined science lab.  Ms. Wolf posed the question, how are cookies scientific?  Students wrote their ideas into their science journal and then the ideas were discussed.  Then Ms. Wolf led the class in making "no-bake" cookies.  As the cookies were being made science connections were discussed.  The fourth graders pointed out the uses of electricity.  The fifth graders discussed matter and digestion.  While the cookies were cooling, students wrote in their journal a summary of all the ways cookies are scientific and glued in the recipe.  The best part of the lab....eating the cookies!  It was a fun Friday lab.

The fourth graders have been studying electricity and had a chance to experiment with circuits.  Students had a battery, power source, wires, bulbs, and switches.  They were challenged to each build a series circuit, parallel circuit and then build a series circuit with a switch.  Students tried to create a 6 bulb circuit "train", but found it would only work with three bulbs and one power source.  Students then wrote about the lab in their journal and drew a series circuit, parallel circuit and a circuit with a switch.

Fourth graders are learning about magnets.  Students had a chance to experiment with different types of magnets.  They were able to identify the magnetic poles of the magnet and were able to observe the magnets repelling and attracting.  Students also tried the magnets with iron filings.  A lot of creative experimentation with the magnets was done, and the room was filled with discovery and excitement.

Our class is learning how to write SUPER SUMMARIES.  Students start a summary paragraph with a great topic sentence.  To help them remember what is needed in a sensational topic sentence for a summary...students TAP, TED, TELL.  TAP- Title, Author, Piece    TED- tells, explains or describes   TELL- what the article is about   Students used these mnemonic device to practice writing topic sentences from articles from National Geographic Extreme Explorer Magazines.  Students first worked with a partner or group of three to read the articles.  Then they wrote the topic sentences.  Once the topic sentences were mastered, students wrote the article summaries.

One day in early October, Mrs. Wilkerson came to be our class substitute while Ms. Wolf was gone to a meeting.  She surprised the class with some fun art activities.  Students created these very festive pumpkins below.  They also wrote their names with creepy symbols.  It was a fun set of activities...thanks Mrs. Wilkerson!

Recently, the fourth graders from our class traveled to the CSUC Hands on Lab to learn about magnetism and electricity.  Students joined other fourth grade classes and became part of their groups for the day.  Students rotated among 6 centers that were lead by college students in the teaching program.

Fifth graders have started to learn about matter.  One property of matter is it's density.  Density is how tightly packed molecules are within it's volume, and is not about size or weight.  Students took four liquids and placed them into water bottles.  They were surprised to see they did not mix, but layered.  They then understood that the liquids were different densities.  Next, the students began to place objects into their water bottles.  Less dense items floated, more dense items sunk to various layers of the liquids.

Fourth graders recently did a series of activities to learn about static electricity.  Students used balloons and combs to rub on their hair.  Then they tried to collect confetti, bend water, and other activities to see if it would attract or repel.  Students learned that opposite charges attract and same charges repel.  Students also took a field trip to the Chico State labs to learn more about electricity.

Each week the students have an opportunity to make free choices for spelling.  The goal is to get enough points to earn their desired grade.  100 points earns them an A.  Below are pictures of some spelling free choices turned in during first trimester.

Our class divided into groups of five to work together to read Maniac Magee section 3.  First groups take turns reading, switching readers every paragraph.  Readers read fluently and tried to use their voices to make the story sound real.  Then after each chapter, the groups discussed the comprehension questions.  Next, they found the vocabulary words in the chapter and used context clues or a dictionary to find the meaning.  Last, they wrote a summary sentences for the main idea of the chapter and added it to a summary paragraph.  Groups then returned to read the next chapter and the process repeated for the day's reading goal.

Alisha from UC Davis Nutrition Program came to teach us about healthy habits and nutrition.  She started with having our class brainstorm habits.  Then the class brainstormed healthy habits.  As a class we created a list: Be Active, Eat the Pyramid, Eat Breakfast, Sleep, and Drink Water.  Alisha then taught our class two fun games to play with our friends to be active.  Then she showed us how to make "Yummy Banana Roll Ups".  We each got a whole wheat tortilla, scoop of peanut butter, piece of banana and a plastic knife.  We spread the peanut butter on the tortilla, peeled the banana, and then rolled up the tortilla around the banana.  Next came the best part...we ate the banana roll ups!  Thanks Alisha, we had fun and learned a lot!

Students used based ten blocks to try to gain an understanding of decimals.  Students first had time to play and explore with the blocks.  Then, students learned that a tenth is called a tenth because it takes ten of them to make one whole.  Then they discovered a hundredth is called that because it takes a hundred to make one whole.  The discovery continued for thousandths and ten-thousandths.  Students then read large numbers with decimals and made a model of what they would look like with the base ten blocks.  Equivalent decimals were also discussed and discovered.

Students completed an art project using crayons and watercolors.  Students traced their hands and added designs in crayon.  Then students filled in the spaces with watercolor paint.  It is a very fun art project.

This week our class read several tall tales and discussed what makes a story a tall tale.  We discussed the literary terms hyperbole and onomatopoeia.  Students then worked together to tell a story verbally using hyperbole (exaggerations).  The students then took a story from their own life and turned it into a tall tale.  Stories were shared and edited.  Students then illustrated a picture to accompany their final draft.  Finally, the students are ready to read Maniac Magee written by Jerry Spinelli, a modern tall tale.

     For fourth and fifth graders, the Language Arts Standards to read, write, and follow directions came to life with our paper airplanes.  First Ms. Wolf taught the class to make paper airplanes and discussed the principles of flight..  Students subsequently read an article about Isaac Newtons' principles of flight.  Next, students made a paper airplane at home.  Students then had to teach their classmates to make that paper airplane.  The Language needed to get a group to follow directions really improved.  Students then read and followed some paper airplane directions.  The class discussed what made a good set of directions, and then were given the challenge to write their own directions.  Students brought those directions to school and worked with a series of partners to edit and improve them.  Students then competed in paper airplane contests selecting the best plane for distance, hang-time, and accuracy.  After the contest students returned to class and wrote a six paragraph essay about the paper airplane fun.  Paper airplanes can be fun...but also very educational!

The first day of school was an exciting day. The day was filled with science activities about observations and soda.

The class has 17 fourth graders and 13 fifth graders.