It's the Monday after our last day of school, but it's hard to believe summer vacation is underway. My brain is still very much in "school mode"...and I'm still not entirely ready to officially label this year's kids as fifth graders. To say they're a special crew is an understatement. This past school year, Mrs. O'Keefe and I were fortunate to have such a kind, responsible, supportive group of students. Their enthusiasm for learning was contagious, and I felt myself eagerly anticipating their reactions to the various units, lessons, assignments, and activities I introduced to them throughout the school year. Even more importantly though, they are nice to each other. It was impossible to keep track of the number of times I would look up to find a student helping his or her classmate without my prompting to do so. I love how happy they are for each other's successes and how well they work in groups and teams. I hope they hold on to that camaradarie as they continue to progress through the grade levels, and although I won't be their official teacher anymore, I look forward to seeing them grow as students and people.

So, to my wonderful 2017-2018 fourth graders:

       Thank you for being your wonderful selves. Thank you for a successful school year and so many special memories. Have an action-packed (and reading-packed...) summer, and I can't wait to hear about it when we return to school in August. Yes, that's right- I expect visits galore. :) 

                                                                                                   Love,

                                                                                                   Miss Hanly

2017-2018 4th Grade Slide Show

Our last week of the school year is upon us! It is so very bittersweet. While summer vacation is always a welcome break from the go-go-go of the school year, I'm definitely going to miss these guys. We had a lot going on this week. We had the drama club showcase on Monday, with our very own April, Mckayla, and Isadora representing 4th grade. It takes such guts to get up there and perform in front of the school, and I was very impressed with how well everyone did with all the memorization that goes into a play! We had our field trip to the Museum of Science on Thursday, which was a lot of fun. That place has sooo many cool exhibits, and the kids were very well-behaved during all parts of the trip. On Friday we had our staff versus students basketball game. Unfortunately both Mrs. O'Keefe and I felt our basketball skills weren't quite up to par with the middle schoolers...maybe next year? Although, I'm thinking that maybe a staff versus students volleyball or kickball game would be more up my alley...

We finished our aquarium writings on Friday, and the kids shared a little bit about their animal to the rest of the class. Mrs. O'Keefe's homeroom also finished their editorial writings, and the social studies project is on its finishing touches. We'll be making some neat collages for our front and back covers to our journal. I'm pumped for that!

Our Bucket Fillers were James and Tommy. It's pretty ironic that those two guys were our last Bucket Fillers of the school year, considering I had both of their brothers. I was so excited to get the two of them this year, and they have certainly lived up to my expectations. Both boys are kind, respectful, funny, and just all-around awesome. I guess it runs in the family!

We're doing lots of writing in room 210 these days! Between our road trip journal entries, our editorial writing, and our aquarium writing, we're covering all of the bases. Our social studies project has taken a lot longer than anticipated, but the kids are doing a really nice job writing creatively while incorporating facts about their states and landmarks. In addition, on Wednesday Jordyn and Will led a social studies lesson and activity focused on different types and features of maps. They spent a lot of time outside of school gathering information and creating a Google Slides presentation. My homeroom completed their school editorials this week. These persuasive essays were five paragraphs in length, something that the kids scoffed at when we first started the school year! In ELA and science, the kids have been researching their aquarium animal, specifically noting how their animal's physical and behavioral adaptations enable it to survive in its habitat. On Friday, we deconstructed an exemplar essay I wrote on great white sharks, and students used our takeaways to group and organize the research they found on their animal. Many students have finished their research and started planning their writing. It's neat learning so many interesting facts about the various creatures that we'll get to see at the aquarium!

On Friday, we had field day out on the front lot with the third and fifth graders. We spent about fifteen minutes at six different stations, ranging from relay races to a homeroom derby to four corners. We got lucky in that it was a beautiful, sunny day. It was so nice being outside!

Jayden and Eleanor were our Bucket Fillers this week. It feels like it was just a week or two ago that Jayden was Bucket Filler, which isn't surprising considering how sweet he is. I can always count on him coming on into the classroom, handing in his homework, and taking a seat quietly. Eleanor is my girl. Not only does she have a wonderful personality, her social studies journal entries are absolutely fabulous. Only one more week of Bucket Filler...who's it going to be?