During our last weeks of school, we learned about Tropical Rainforests. One of our activities was this reader’s theater puppet show based on the book “The Great Kapok Tree”. 4R students performed this for our Kindergarten Book Buddies. Enjoy the show!
School
Passion Story Project 2019
We recently celebrated Holy Week, and we’ve been focusing on the story of Jesus from Maundy Thursday through Easter Sunday. The students were assigned parts of the story, and created the people and props that went along with their assigned parts. Then, using a green screen app, they filmed their portion of the story, using green Starbucks straws to move their characters without being seen. Once all the parts were put together into this iMovie, it tells the whole story of the Passion of Jesus Christ!
Here is the finished product:
Rainforest Readers’ Theater 2018
Today we performed a Readers’ Theater version of “The Great Kapok Tree”. They made their puppets this week and performed for our Kindergarten Book Buddies this morning.
Enjoy the performance! And remember…save the rainforest!!
Passion Story of Jesus (Class of 2018)
This week is Holy Week, so we’ve been focusing on the story of Jesus from Maundy Thursday through Easter Sunday. The students were assigned parts of the story, and created the people and props that went along with their assigned parts. Then, using a green screen app, they filmed their portion of the story, using green Starbucks straws to move their characters without being seen. Once all the parts were put together into this iMovie, it tells the whole story of the Passion of Jesus Christ!
Here is their finished product. Have a blessed Holy Week and Easter (and Spring Break!!)!!
(Not sure why there’s a random man as the thumbnail for our video…maybe an ad? I promise if you click play, you’ll see our class project. Technology…gotta love it…)
Tropical Rainforest Readers Theaters 2017
This past week we performed Readers Theaters of the story The Great Kapok Tree for the Kindergarten classes. The 4th graders did an awesome job making their puppets to use for the performances and also did a great job with speaking clearly and using some fun voices for their animals. Nice job, 4th grade!! Enjoy the performances below!!
4th Grade Passion Story
What better time than during Holy Week to share the video the students in 4R made using a green screen app to share the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus!! They did an amazing job. 🙂 Enjoy!!
National Park Service Centennial!
We recently wrapped up a study of the different National Parks in the United States. Since this year is the celebration of the National Park Service Centennial, it seemed like a great time to introduce our 4th graders to all of the amazing sites that are protected by the NPS.
To set the scene in our room, we had camping-style decor (that we actually “camped out” in!).
Our big project was creating a brochure about one of the National Parks. Each student researched a different park (nps.gov is an AMAZING resource!!), and found facts to share about their park. We created the brochures, as well as bookmarks and trading cards, to share with one of the 2nd grade classes, who were studying Yellowstone National Park. It was a blast sharing our research with such a great audience.
As part of our research, we also created fact cards about our parks. While working on our research, we were able to travel (via green screen) to our parks for a visit. 🙂
I definitely enjoyed this short unit, as the National Parks are some of my favorite places to take trips. I hope some of our students were inspired to travel to a National Park someday!! 🙂
Olympics Unit 2016
It’s been one week since we wrapped up our 4R Olympics unit, and I think I’ve finally recovered enough to write a post about it! 😉
We started this unit the first week of school with an Opening Ceremony. Each student picked a country out of a hat, then created their country’s flag and a torch to carry. At our Opening Ceremony, students heard their name and country announced, then did a lap (or two, or three…) around the playground carrying their flag and torch. This Opening Ceremony marked the start of our events competition.
There were 10 events that students competed in over our two week unit. They ranged from artistic (design) events to researching Olympians, and learning about different host cities over the years. Students could choose which events to participate in, and which order to do them. They were not required to do all events. Points were given for each event turned in, and based on how well each event was done, and how many were done, students received a point total at the end of the unit. Medals were given based on how many points were earned (500=bronze, 750=silver, 1000=gold).
During our unit, we were blessed to have two different guest speakers come and talk to both 4th grade classes about their experiences.
Our first guest was Judy Walker, a former fencer from the 1956 and 1960 Olympics. She told us about how she got into fencing, what it was like to make friends with people from other countries, and other experiences she had while participating in the games.
Our other guest was Steve Doudt, who participated in the 1996 and 2000 Paralympic Games, in sitting volleyball. He shared how the Olympics and Paralympics are similar and different, and also talked about the hard work that goes into training for the games.
For our Closing Ceremony, students were awarded their medals or certificates, based on the number of points earned during our unit. We had 5 golds this year, and a pretty even mix of levels throughout the class. Everyone worked hard on the events, and it was fun celebrating together at the end. (Thanks to our awesome room moms who made us Olympics treats to enjoy!)
This is always such an awesome unit to do, and especially exciting because it only comes around every 4 years. Look out, kindergarteners…you’ll be next!! 🙂
First Week of School 2016-2017
Welcome back!!
It’s been a whirlwind first week and a half of school. We’re well underway with our Olympics unit (details to come in a future blog post), and have been busy learning classroom procedures and routines.
Much more to come this year. I look forward to keeping you updated through social media. Instagram is definitely the way I update most often, but will put special events, large units, and other exciting things on this blog from time to time as well.
Catch us on Instagram: @missrenzelmann
Can You Beat Miss R. at AR?? 2016 Outing
Today we celebrated the reading achievements of three students in our class. Each year, I try to read books along with the students and take AR quizzes on them as well. We keep track of the points earned, and on the last day of school, anyone with more points than me get a special prize. This year we went on a bowling outing, where we bowled, played some arcade-style games, and ate lots of greasy bowling alley food. It was a great time, and I’m so proud of these kids!! (Oh, and in case anyone was wondering, they may have beat me with AR points, but I managed to beat them in bowling!) Thanks for a great day. 🙂
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