May 21, 2013

Learning How To Make Movie Trailer

The year might be about over, but our learning is not.  With Mr. Slabaugh's help today we learned how to make movie trailers on the iPods.  We made movie trailers for the states in the northeastern region of the United States.  Check back next week to see our finished products.

May 17, 2013

Landscape Day

This afternoon we joined with all of the other Washington Township students to clean up and landscape around our school building. The fourth grade responsibility was the outdoor classroom.  We picked weeds, moved rock, swept, and laid down new mulch.  It is amazing how much better it looks with just a little attention.

May 16, 2013

Lunch in the Outdoor Classroom

We took advantage of the beautiful weather and ate our lunch in the outdoor classroom.  This was one of our bead jar rewards.

May 6, 2013

Usborne Reading Challenge

Today was the assembly for the Usborne Reading Challenge. The fourth graders were the class that had the highest percentage of participation during the two week challenge. Because of this we won a $50 Best Buy gift card which will be used to buy a connector to hook an iPad up to the Smart Board.

 Here are the top two readers from the fourth grade.

May 2, 2013

Fitness Day

At 8:45 all of the students at Washington Township gathered in the gym to be divided up into friendship groups for our annual fitness day.  The fifth graders were our team captains for the eight activities that we would do.  Before we left the gym we all recited the fitness pledge to eat healthy foods and to keep our bodies active and fit.

Dancing was in the fourth grade room so there are more pictures of this than anything else.  Here we are doing the Dinosaur Stomp.

Another dance we did was the Tootie Ta.

The Chicken Dance was also popular. 

The parachute was a crowd favorite. 

The fourth graders were stellar at putting together the human skeleton in the Mr. Bones Relay.

We all were tired, but fit by the end of the morning!!

April 30, 2013

Best WT 4th Grade Field Trip Ever!

On April 30, the WT fourth graders, Mrs. Wilson, and Mrs. Kehoe went on a career field trip to Iowa City. We started the day at Hills Bank where  Deb Gwynn, Operations Manager, gave us a handout and presentation on careers in banking and then gave us a tour of the bank.

On the tour we got to talk to five commercial loan officers, a consumer loan officer, a teller, and a personal banker besides viewing the safe deposit box vault. 

The students all received Frisbees from the bank. 

Our next stop was at the First Avenue Hy-Vee Store where Tiffany Yoder, Human Resource Manager, gave us a tour and arranged for us to speak to the produce manager, a dietician, a cake decorator, the meat manager, the dairy manager, a RPM specialist, a product specialist, a pharmacist, and a floral designer. The highlight for many of the fourth graders was getting a cookie or fresh fruit as a snack and watching the cake decorator actually decorate a cake. 

Next we went to lunch at Los Portales Restaurant where Mrs. Lundberg joined us and helped the students order in Spanish. They did a great job ordering and using good manners. 

In the afternoon we went to the Animal Clinic where Dr. William Gay, Veterinarian, told us it takes eight years of college to be a vet. He introduced us to his three veterinarian assistants and gave us a tour of the clinic. We got to see four cats and three dogs. Then Dr. Gay told us about  heartworms and tapeworms, showed us x-rays of things dogs have swallowed and a litter of puppy, showed us models of dogs and cat teeth, and showed us the protective gear they wear in working with animals. 

Our final stop was at the University of Iowa’s Athletic Hall of Fame. We toured the museum on our own and got to see 14 different types of sports memorabilia. The students enjoyed a game of basketball in the interactive Hawkeye room.

It was the best field trip ever!!