Frontier Museum

On Monday, we visited the Frontier Culture Museum in Staunton, Virginia. We spent the day outdoors, walking from exhibit to exhibit at the museum. The Frontier Museum tells the story of the thousands of people who migrated to Colonial America. The first pioneers came to American during the 1600s and 1700s from communities in England, Germany, Ireland, and West Africa.

To tell the story of these immigrants, the museum has moved examples of traditional rural builidings from Germany, England, Ireland, West Africa and America. The Old World exhibits show rural life and culture in the four homelands of early immigrants. The American exhibits show the life that the colonists and their descendants created in the early United States.

1700s Ireland

Gathered around the fire listening about life in rural Ireland

1700s Germany

Trying on wooden shoes that German children wore to gather firewood and do other outdoor chores

Straining milk for curds and whey

Drawing water from a well

Not so sure about having to draw water from the well for every need

1600s England

1600s English farm house

Fertilizing the garden with manure

Shoveling manure for the garden

The English farmhouse we saw was from an upper middle class family and had real glass!

1700s West Africa

Carrying baskets 

Entrance

1700s Native American Encampment

Hollowing out a tree trunk to have a canoe

1740s American Settlement

Early American "starter house". These houses were temporary and built to last until the settlers were able to tell if they would be able to survive by farming their new land.

Sawing logs to build a house

1820s America

Hearing about English, German, and Irish influences to American houses

1850s American School House

The boys writing on slates 

The school teacher

The girls trying their hand at writing on slates

We had a great time exploring the early beginnings of Virginia and the United States!

Ecosystems!

On Friday we started our new science unit, ecosystems and habitats. Here are a few great sites for building background.

Living Systems Matching Exercise
Habitats and Food Chain Exercise
Study Jams on Ecosystems
Habitats Quiz on Quia
Energy Pyramids
Food Chains versus Food Webs Exercise
Virtual Owl Pellets Dissection
Fun with Food Webs
Build a Food Web
Food Chains Game
Walk the Plank on Ecosystems
Name It! Living Systems
Life Cycles Practice

Halloween! & the End of the First Nine Weeks

A big thank you to Mrs. Brookman, Mrs. Lilly, and Mrs. Walker for coming in on Halloween. The class thoroughly enjoyed listening to a Halloween story and having delicious homemade cupcakes and juice!

It is very difficult to believe that the first nine weeks of school have passed already. I feel that our class has done a great job of adjusting to fourth grade and I have enjoyed beginning to get to know each student. Routines are becoming familiar and the class has fallen into a nice weekly routine in each subject. Grading for the first nine weeks ended yesterday (Friday, November 1st) and report cards will come home this coming Friday, November 8th.

Enjoy your gorgeous fall weekend and I will see you on conference day on Tuesday!

Guest Speakers

Earlier this month, we had two speakers come talk to us about Virginia's natural resources to help with the challenge that Mr. Joseph and the Virginia Department of Education gave to us.

First, we had a speaker from the Virginia Department of Forestry come talk to us about the importance of forests in the protection of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. She did a demonstration about polluted water and showed how trees and vegetation near banks of rivers (and other water sources) can help reduce pollution.

To follow up with her talk, we made our own "polluted" water and built water filters out of various materials to see which ones would function best as filters.

Second, we had a speaker from the Hanover-Caroline Soil and Water Conservation District who talked more about our watershed address, watersheds in general, and the importance of soil as a natural resource. She did two demonstrations that really hit home the concept of a watershed.

A demonstration to show the importance of vegetation in filtering pollution from water sources

Various pollutants on a small watershed model

Look at that polluted water! (upper middle in picture)

After having two great speakers come in and share their knowledge with us (along with our other studies on the topic!), we feel ready to start working on our demonstrations for Mr. Joseph. More information to come as we move through the process!

Updated Pages

Please check out the Reading & Language Arts page for information on our word study program this year.

Updates on the Science, VA Studies, and Math pages coming soon!

Happy Friday!

Watersheds and Salt Dough Maps

This week we have been getting our hands dirty with watershed models and salt dough maps.

On Monday, we used soil, food coloring, blocks, foil, and water to simulate what happens with pollution in our Chesapeake Bay watershed. Ask your students what we discovered!

Our rudimentary watershed model

On Tuesday, we used the salt dough that was made at home to make a map of Virginia's regions. The class did a really nice job and I was impressed with the variety of bright colors that came in!

Salt dough can be messy!

We are having a great week so far!

Indoor Recess Successes

As you may have heard, we had an issue with snakes on our playground and had to have an expert come out and help us make sure all is well before opening up the playground again.

While this means we have been bummed to be inside all of this gorgeous fall weather week, we are making the best of it! Look at the tower some of the class worked on today:

As you may have guessed, the tower toppled shortly after the photo was taken...