Home Sweet Home

Social studies tests are often a challenge for the 4th graders because this is the first year where they actually need to 'study' for tests. This year has proven to be no different. Thankfully scores have been steadily improving as the year has gone on and the students have learned to study and take notes.

We recently finished studying the midwest region of the United States. The test scores for this chapter were the highest they've been all year. I expected this, not only are the little Einsteins getting better at studying, but we live in the midwest. While the test scores were very good overall, there were a few answers that surprised me. After all, we live here.

Which of these four questions would be the hardest for you?
I'm guessing your answer is not #7. Did I mention this is where we live?

Wow. I'm pretty sure he meant it has good soil. Still, wow.

Run on Sentences in 4th Grade? Yep!

We are reading a novel called The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo in reading over the next few weeks. The students need to write a response log after every five chapters. I encourage them to tell me their reaction to what they've read, not give me a summary. Here's how different writing abilities can be in 4th grade:


One Sentence (out of 8) from Megan's Response Log:
I thought when Pellegrina told the story, that was a very important part because she sort of hinted to Edward that she knew that he was a very cold-hearted bunny..


Colby's ENTIRE Response Log:
I liked the part where Pellegrina told Abilene the story about the princess liked that part because Abilene kept on asking Pellegrina if there would be a story that night and Pellegrina said there will be a story tonight and there was a story that night and then why wouldn’t the boys give the rabbit back.

Some Randoms

It's that time of year right now. January and February can seem to drag on f o r e v e r. Good thing I have 4th graders to help lighten my day when there isn't much light outside. I've been jotting down some comments, questions, and remarks over the last couple of weeks that have helped make my day a little bit brighter.

In religion we've been studying the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. We had just finished reading about the resurrection as a class when Megan volunteered to read the next paragraph about the ascension. She began reading, "The assassination of Jesus occurred ...."

Another religion topic we recently covered is baptism. While discussing baptism I noticed several students looked confused when I mentioned that our baptism cleanses us from original sin. So I asked "Who knows what original sin is?" Alexander held up his hand confidently, "I'm pretty sure that means abortion."

The students were working nice and quietly one day when I overheard John say to nobody in particular, "I wonder what language cursive came from?"

We are studying the midwest region of the United States in social studies. One of our 'tour stops' was Iowa and its vast cornfields. We talked about all of the products that are made with corn. The one that Billy couldn't believe: "I NEVER knew popcorn came from corn. I guess it makes sense though!"

My students often come up to me while they're working and ask me questions that have nothing to do with what they should be doing. Today's question from Crystal: "Mr. Pajak, what's your favorite subject to teach?" A good question, albeit a tad random. I replied, "Well, I guess it depends on the day." Crystal, still very interested asked, "How 'bout on Mondays?"

Not Just for Smoking

The other day we were talking about Jamestown, Virginia in social studies. We are studying the southeast region of the United States, and one of our tour stops was the first permanent English settlement in the United States. The discussion started with the difficulty the settlers had surviving. The students were amazed that people kept going to live in Jamestown even though so many people died. I then explained that growing tobacco changed the outlook of Jamestown.

As soon as I mentioned tobacco, 20 out of 23 hands were up. the first question was, "Isn't tobacco that stuff people smoke?"

I replied, "Yes, people smoke tobacco. It's in cigarettes, cigars, and some people use pipes to smoke it. Back in those days they used to grind up tobacco leaves and shove it up their noses."

I got the expected reaction on that one. Lots of "eeeeew, grooooosssssss, and really?"

Then someone asked, "Why do people do that anyway?"

Before I had a chance to respond someone else blurted out, "Oh I heard it's kinda like drinking or something."

At this point I tried to reel the kids back in to our discussion, but then I made the mistake of calling on Alexander. "Well can't you, like, chew, it or something."

I said, "Yes you can chew it too. The settlers were able to sell the tobacco to the people in England because they enjoyed doing all these things."

Another hand up. "Well, did they sprinkle it on their food and stuff too?"

"No. They didn't sprinkle it on their food. Let's get back to what happened later in Jamestown."

Joel's hand shot up and I, against my better judgement, impatiently said, "Yes Joel?"

"Isn't there something called.. tobacco sauce?"

I couldn't hold in a little chuckle, "No, you're thinking of Tabasco Sauce. That's just a spicy pepper sauce. It has nothing to do with tobacco. Aaaaand with that, we are officially done talking about tobacco."

Mmmmm Peanut Butter!

Every morning we have 'snack time' in 4th grade because our class doesn't go to lunch until 1:00. Most of the time the students bring in Cheez-Its, pretzels, or fruit. Today Mark was eating celery that was generously slathered with peanut butter. I was impressed with the unique snack so I commented, "Wow Mark, that looks awesome! What a great snack to bring. I love peanut butter!"

Mark is fairly reserved, so he just smiled and made an awkward comment that was somewhat of a 'thank-you' and 'I like peanut butter too.'

Samantha is not reserved. She immediately jumped at the chance to get involved in a conversation and said to me, "My dad loves peanut butter. He puts it on everything!"

Being a fan myself I responded, "I like to put it on a lot of things too. I don't know about everything though... My favorite is dipping Oreos in peanut butter."

Samantha replied, "I've had Peanut Butter Oreos before, but I never dipped them in peanut butter."

"I didn't know they made Peanut Butter Oreos!"

Samantha's straightforward answer, "Yep they do. They have peanut butter in the middle instead of milk."

"Milk?" I replied.

"Yeah, that's what's in the middle of regular oreos."

"Umm, Samantha, that's not milk in the middle."

"Yes it is. What else would it be? It's white."

I explained, "That doesn't make it milk. Lots of things are white. That's just the creme filling."

"Well creme is like milk. It's kind of the same thing." Samantha was still dead serious at this point.

"No not really, milk is a liquid. This is like a frosting."

Samantha, who didn't seem to be convinced, ended the conversation with, "Well. Whatever..."

You Forgot What?

This morning, before school started, I was walking back to my classroom from the office. Jeffrey, a 4th grader from another homeroom, was walking towards me with a 'where am I' look in his eyes. He looked as if he had just rolled out of bed. Disheveled hair, shoes untied, wrinkled clothes, and a face with bits of breakfast still sticking. I noticed that he had his school uniform pants, but was wearing a very wrinkled brown t-shirt instead of the school uniform red polo.

As we neared each other, I could tell he wanted to say something so I said "What's up Jeffrey?"

Receptive, but far from understanding Jeffrey replied, "Um. Mr. Pajak? Do you know if they have extra...shirts. Here?"

I replied "Where is your shirt?"

"Uh. I dunno. Well, uh. I kinda forgot it." This was followed by a shame-filled downward glance.

Luckily we have a a collection of shirts in the nurse's office. Although, most are for the little kids who spill on themselves at lunch. I informed Jeffrey that there were plenty of extras and we could go take a look.

As we walked into the nurse's office, I asked him, "How did you forget to wear your shirt?"

A more focused Jeffrey replied, "I was in kind of a run this morning I guess."

It took a bit, but we did find a shirt that fit. It was a little tight though.

Vocabulary Words, Take Two

This week we are reading some stories about ancient China. To help the students understand the stories we reviewed some vocabulary words before reading. The vocabulary words were:
temples
dynasties
heritage
preserve
overjoyed

We talked about the definitions of each word and also read some sentences that included each of the words. Then it was their turn to show me how well they understood the words. I had the students write five sentences using each word in one of the sentences. Here are some of the sentences that were handed in (all from different students!):

I wish I could be a dynasties.


I preserve shark teeth.


I got a little overjoyed on my birthday so I had to sit in my room.


My bed is preserved for me.


I preserved my bed.


My dynasties are to blow peoples minds.


Tomorrow we will be working on vocabulary words again.