Holiday Traditions

From America to Finland, to other parts of the world, people celebrate holidays with special rituals and festivities.  To learn how America's holiday traditions are similar and different from Finland's students created cartoon images depicting one of their holiday traditions.

Spreading cheer both far and near

Last Friday Team Gibbas students crafted a surprise for their Finnish friends.  Each student was paired with a student in our partner class at the Ojanpera School in Liminka, Finland.  Then, students created a holiday greeting card for each Finnish friend as a holiday surprise.  We mailed our cards on Monday and we can't wait to hear from our friends in Finland when our package arrives!

Data Collection Through Class Challenges

Essential Question:  What is the best way to display data?

While learning about bar graphs, line graphs, and picture graphs Team Gibbas students experienced some fun, hands-on, and authentic opportunities to collect and display data.  Students participated in two class challenges.  The first was a dice challenge where students and teachers balanced as many dice as they could on a popsicle stick that they held in their mouth.  The second challenge was a time test to see how long students could hold a wall sit in the gym.

After collecting the data, we decided as a class how best to display our data.  Students chose to display the dice challenge data with bar graphs.  

A line graph was chosen for the wall squat data as the number of students holding the squat changed over time.

How well do you know the United States?

Today Proctor School fourth graders were treated to a captivating, interactive geography lesson.  Students participated in The Geography Gameshow whereby they learned facts about the United States as Cape Cod artist Neal Nichols drew a map of the United States from memory.  Then at the end of the program some students were chosen to come up to the map and challenged to see how many questions they could answer about the United States using the map.

It was amazing to see how much students learned from this fun and engaging program.
Thank you TESPTO for making this curriculum enrichment experience possible!

How do you teach someone from a different country about your culture?

Team Gibbas students are so fortunate to have the opportunity to learn from and learn with a classroom of fourth graders in Finland!  We have been given an amazing opportunity through JDO Foundation to collaborate with a classroom from a different country for an entire school year! Our class has been partnered with a school in Liminka, Finland at the Ojanperan Koulu School.

Ojanperan Koulu School website

In September we exchanged slideshows introducing ourselves to one another.  Our next task was to try to teach each other about our culture.  Team Gibbas students decided to create a slideshow about the things we like to do in the fall as a way of introducing our culture to Finland.  Embedded in the slideshow you will see videos with anecdotal stories about the things we love about fall in Massachusetts.  We are looking forward to receiving our slideshow from Finland and learning about the things that are Finland friends do in the fall!

Friends, pjs, and a classroom campsite...

Tuesday, October 30th was a day to stay in pjs and hang out with Team Gibbas teammates under self-constructed blanket tents.  Blanket tents were built using classroom materials, collaboration, and lots of creativity.  Who knew that a meter stick and a binder clip could become the perfect tent pole? 

Great job Team Gibbas for earning your first, well-deserved, classroom reward.

PJ Twins!

Are egg drops all that they are cracked up to be?

Egg Drop

By Student Blogger Sam

We are doing the egg drop, will your egg survive? The egg drop is actually supposed to be a science experiment of what happens to a egg when it hits the ground from up “high.” We are supposed to be  dropping it from six feet that's not very high so the teachers decided we should actually drop it from a crane sixty feet up in the air.

Everybody in the classroom, including teachers, participated and had fun in this experiment, which turned out to be sort of a STEM challenge. On Tuesday, October 23rd we built our egg holders. We used many, many feet of bubble wrap, we also used cardboard boxes, trash bags and much, much more. Not every group used the same materials. I can say one thing, EVERYBODY used some bubble wrap because one group had over 50’ of it.

Then on Thursday, October 25th we were ready to test our egg holders to see which eggs would survive.

Here are some interviews that we conducted before the big drop.

 
And then it was time for the eggs to be dropped from the crane.

We had two teams that their egg survived! One group that survived had  a lot of bubble wrap and a big parachute.

The other group had paper packing material, bubble wrap, socks, a gum container, and three parachutes.

The other eggs weren't so lucky.

Everybody had fun and we all hoped we would do it again in fourth grade or we could do it again in fifth grade!

Because he could write...

Today fourth grade students were fortunate to be able to learn writing tips from a professional author, Steven Krasner.  Steve, or Papa Stevie as the students came to call him, is the author of several children's books and a retired sports writer that covered the Boston Red Sox on a daily basis for twenty two years.

Papa Stevie worked with each fourth grade classroom to collaboratively write the beginning to an original mystery.  As ideas were flowing Papa Stevie offered numerous writing tips to the students on how to sound authentic, hook your audience, and paint a visual picture for your reader.  One memorable tip he offered was to provide the reader with details, details, details...

Papa Stevie also told students that many of his memorable experiences were offered to him "because he could write."  Because he could write, he got paid for watching the Red Sox.  

Papa Stevie left students with a bit advice, "Whatever your passion is, writing is a way for you to stay connected to it."

Thank you TESPTO for funding this wonderful learning opportunity!

The newest members of Team Gibbas

The Team Gibbas lineup for 2018 - 2019 is complete.  This year we have 23 students and 3 bears!  You might be wondering what three bears are doing in a fourth grade classroom.  These furry friends named Ginger, James Bond, and Buttercup enjoy traveling to new places with students and learning about the places that they visit.  While traveling, each bear writes in a travel journal about what they experienced.  So far this year our bears have visited California, Cape Cod, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Lake Placid.  They also experienced the Topsfield Fair and the wonders of a giant candy store.  We believe their next adventures will be to cheer on some friends at a cheering competition and to visit The Great Wolf Lodge.

Welcome to 4th Grade!

Hello to the newest members of Team Gibbas!

Are you starting to think about "Back to School"?  I know I am!  It is hard to believe that we will be starting school in less than two weeks!  I am very excited to meet you all and start our fourth grade learning adventures together.

Here are a few things that you can do to get ready for school.  

• First, there are some supplies that you will need to be a successful fourth grader;  click here for the Grade 4 Supply List.  
• Collect 5 items for your "Me Bag."  During the first few days of school we will be sharing "Me Bags."  The items you choose for your bag should say something about you and your interests.  You may want to include pictures of your family and/or pets and items that show your passions, hobbies, important events, or places that you have traveled.  
• Collect pictures that remind you of happy memories and people and places that you love.  We will be using the pictures to decorate our writing journals.
• You may also want to bring in a reusable water bottle to keep under your desk so that you may stay hydrated.

Enjoy the rest of your summer.  And if you have any questions please email me at agibbas@topsfieldps.org.

Warmly,

Mrs. Gibbas

Here's to a bright future

The future looks bright for these new 5th graders!

Happy Summer!

Take me out to the ballgame

On Wednesday, June 5th Proctor Elementary got to go see the North Shore Navigators collegiate baseball team play in Lynn, Massachusetts.  Team Gibbas was happy to be able to see the Proctor School band play a few songs before the game and then start the game with the national anthem.

A fun time was had by all as we watched the game, saw dog tricks, and tried to catch frisbees and soft baseballs being thrown into the stands.

And then it was time to head back to school....

Endangered Animals

Change is Simple

Today Team Gibbas students learned about endangered animals and what students can do to help them.  First students were given picture cards of endangered animals.  Students were asked to make a connection with the endangered animal and make a statement, "I am like the lizard because I like to climb on things."  Then students switched cards with three other students.

Next, students worked with a partner to write about their animal.  Students included the name of their animal, where their animal lives, and two adjectives to describe their habitat.  Finally, students made a guess as to why they thought their animal might be endangered.  Reasons that animals are endangered included habitat loss, pollution, over-hunting, and disease.

Later students played the Shrinking Resources game. This game is similar to musical chairs but instead of competing for chairs students competed for land or water resources.  As the game progressed it became more and more difficult to find the land and water resources that are necessary to live because oil spills, pollution, and building projects kept taking away land and water.

Thank you TESPTO and Change is Simple for another great learning experience!