PJ/Camp/Technology Day

Friday, February 11th was PJ/Camp/Technology Day for Team Gibbas students.

Students earned twelve compliments from adults in the building, from November 1st through January 31st. These compliments were earned for being amazingly responsible and kind students.  Students voted and they decided to have a PJ/Camp In/Technology Afternoon to celebrate.

Keep up the great work!

Nature Exploration

By Guest Blogger - James Bond

It has been 10 school days since we've been at Proctor School.  Since Friday, March 13th we have been staying with Mrs. Gibbas at her house.  We have been having fun playing games....

and getting to know Mrs. Gibbas's cat Cody.

But we really wanted to get out of the house.  Back when we were at Proctor, our Team Gibbas friends would take us on different adventures nearly every weekend!  So, Washington, Professor Snuggles and I decided to ask Mrs. Gibbas to take us some place new.

"Please Mrs. Gibbas," Washington begged.

"It might be educational for us to explore nature," added Professor Snuggles.

"Okay," agreed Mrs. Gibbas, "let's go on a hike."

"Yay!" we all cheered.

So, this afternoon Mrs. Gibbas took us all on a nature exploration!  She secured us into her backpack then set off on a path right outside her house.  We climbed down a steep hill then took a wooded path across a small brook.  There were giant trees everywhere!

"Just like home!" Washington exclaimed.

"Oh look! There's a fallen tree that we can explore," I said excitedly. 

And before Mrs. Gibbas could stop us, we scrambled out of her backpack, jumped onto the path, and shimmied our way up inside a magnificent hollow tree.  

 "Hel-l-o-o-o-o," Professor Snuggles called, "this is so big there's an echo!"

"Hello?" said Washington tentatively.  "Hey guys this is really cool and all, but I think Cody might be missing us.  Maybe we should, um, head home."

I think Washington was a little bit afraid of what else was hiding in the hollow tree.  Even though I wanted to stay and explore, I didn't want Washington to feel uncomfortable so I agreed that it was time to head home.

I hope that Mrs. Gibbas takes us on another adventure really soon!  Exploring nature is fun.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Fabulously-fun Friday!  Valentine's Day - PJ Day - and Global Play Day all in one day!  

What an amazing way to end a week of learning before February vacation.

Check out these creative crafty Valentine Box creations!

Twin-tastic

By Student Blogger Hadia

On Twin Day we got to dressed up like each other and wore the same clothes and hairstyles.

It was so fun!

 Some people were quadruplets and some wore opposite shirts too!

They also matched their dolls!

We had Twin Day because it is Valentine Spirit Week.

Let them explore!

On Thursday, January 9th 4th grade students participated in an amazing enrichment opportunity provided by the generosity of TESPTO called Playful Engineers Traveling Maker Space. In this two hour workshop led by Jay Mankita students first watched demonstrations of how common materials (e.g. blocks, legos, balls, wooden rods, K-nex) could be transformed into simple machines and chain reaction machines in a Rube Goldberg style.  Next, students were able to explore the materials to create their own chain reaction machines.  Students imagined, created, problem solved, and collaborated.  And they failed many times.  But in this workshop students experienced the joys of practice leading to progress and failure leading to success.  

Thank you TESPTO for this wonderful exploration opportunity!

PJ/Technology/Camp-In

What would you want to do if you were in fourth grade and you'd earned a special class reward?  You'd have a PJ/Camp-In/Technology Day, of course!  Team Gibbas students have been working hard all year to be quiet in the halls, and be responsible and respectful students.  Their hard work paid off and students completed their first Class Compliment chart during the last week of November.  Students voted, and they decided to celebrate with a PJ/Technology/Camp-In day on Friday, December 6th.

Thanks for being such a great group of students!  Keep up the amazing work!

The Power of Yet

Poetry Power

By Student Bloggers: Ayden, Emmitt, Natalia, Maddy, Myles

Have you ever heard of the Power of Yet? In this classroom we got tagged in this game called Poetry Tag. And it is a game going around our school. We memorized a poem called The Power of Yet. This is us making tee-shirts for the game. 

We decided to tag Mrs. Obuchowski’s class after  voting. Mrs. Gibbas found out that we could tag two classes so we decided to tag team Highmax. We were all so happy to try on our awesome  new tee-shirts. They looked amazing! We tagged the two classes by looking at their schedule and found the perfect time to strike.

The Power of Yet is something we are trying to remember in our classroom. Just because you cannot do something yet does not mean you can’t ever do it.

Valentine's Day

Valentine’s Day!

By: Student Blogger Maddie

On Thursday, February 14th Team Gibbas celebrated Valentine's Day.

Everybody came to school excited to receive valentines from their friends.

Many students came with specially decorated valentine boxes.

When everybody got to school most people asked, "When are we going to get our valentines?"

Mrs. Gibbas said, “At 1:30 we will all get our valentines.”

The class waited the whole day until finally it was time.

Mrs. Gibbas went over the rules and then people were on their way passing out their valentines.

Once everybody was done passing their valentines out everybody started to do the best part, looking through their valentines!

Some valentines that people in Team Gibbas got were candy, fun shaped straws, and fun activities such as tic-tac-toe or word searches.

Everybody was having a fun time. Some people brought an extra snack to school to eat during our time for looking at our valentines.

Sadly soon the day was over and it was almost time to go home so we had to stop and put all our valentines back into our boxes and go home.

But Team Gibbas had an awesome time on Valentine’s Day.

A couple weeks later Team Gibbas received a special valentine from our penpals in Finland.

Kindness

The Great Kindness Challenge

By Student Blogger Nicole

Have you ever heard of “The Great Kindness Challenge?”  If you haven’t let me tell you a little bit about it. The Great Kindness Challenge is a global challenge were there is a list of 50 acts of kindness. This year Proctor School decided to participate. We also had a kindness themed spirit week. On Monday we had crazy hair, on Tuesday we wore sports clothing, on Wednesday we wore neon colors, on Thursday we wore pjs, and on Friday we wore tie dye that we made in school.

And, Team Gibbas won the Kindness Spirit Cup for having the most students participate in spirit week in fourth grade!    

Would you be able to break out?

Growth Mindset Breakout EDU

By Student Blogger Braden

Have you tried breakout EDU? You might want to! Growth Mindset Breakout EDU is a puzzle where you are supposed to find clues and work as a team to unlock boxes. You have one hour to do this task. There is a smaller box with one lock on it and a big box with three locks so you have to unlock four locks in total.  Of course there are breakouts on other topics but last week we did this one.

Inside the final box there was a paper that said, “We broke out,” or “We escaped.” Both of our teams escaped before one hour was up!

The good thing about breakouts is they keep your brain running. You should try a breakout EDU to test your skills!              

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!

Author Skype

Team Gibbas students and students for Mrs. Kelleher's class joined together on February 28th to Skype with authors Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver the writing team behind the beloved Hank Zipzer series of books.  The Hank Zipzer series of books is based on Henry Winkler's life growing up with undiagnosed dyslexia.  The co-authors shared many writing tips for their young readers.

One viewer asked, "How can you be a great writer?"

Henry Winkler responded, "Don't edit until you are done.  Get all of your ideas out first."

Another viewer asked, "How will I know if what I want to write about is a good idea?"

Henry Winkler told all viewers, "What you have and are good at is what the world needs.  Have the courage to try your ideas.  You are smart and you are powerful whether you have learning challenges or not."

Another question asked was, "How do you begin a story?"

Lin Oliver gave this advice, "Try beginning a story on the day something changes for the character."

Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver have written and published 31 books and their 32nd is coming out in September.  Their books are printed in a special font called dyslexic font to make it easier for people with dyslexia to read their books.  This special font was created by a father in Holland whose child has dyslexia.

Thank you Mrs. Klipfel and Mrs. Kelleher for sharing this meaningful learning experience with us!

February Vacation Fun

Team Gibbas students had many different ideas about how they wanted to spend their February vacation.  Students and families were invited to write about and share pictures about what they learned or did for fun over vacation.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Team Gibbas students brought creativity to the classroom with many unique designs for their valentine collection boxes!  Students voted for the "Most Creative", "Prettiest", "Most Valentiney", "Best Theme", "Coolest", and "Best Overall" using ipads and a google form.  Results were tabulated instantaneously, prizes were awarded, and fun was had by all.

100 years old?

February 11, 2016 marked the 100th day of school for Team Gibbas students!

To commemorate this special day, each student was transformed into a one hundred year old by using the Aging Booth app!  Students then practiced their creative writing skills and wrote to the prompt, "Imagine that on February 11th you woke up and you were one hundred years old!  Write a story about your day as a fourth grader in a one hundred year old body."

Stay tuned.  Student hundred year old writing samples will be coming soon.

The Gibbas Book of Class Records

Before our Thanksgiving break, Team Gibbas was learning about bar graphs, tally charts, line graphs, and picture graphs in math.  We were working on Chapter 4:  Tables and Line Graphs in Math in Focus.   To give students some fun, hands-on & authentic opportunities to create tally charts, tables, bar graphs and line graphs we had some classroom challenges.  Using Minute-to-win-it type activities students competed in four challenges then used the data they collected from the challenges to create line graphs and bar graphs.

Challenge 1:  Wall Squats

Students (and teachers) were challenged to see how long they could maintain a wall squat.  We started with 17 students and 2 teachers and as time progressed through 2 minutes more and more students dropped out.

Students then created line graphs to display the data.

Challenge 2:  Balancing Dice

DASH - Disability Awareness Starts Here

Today Team Gibbas got the opportunity to learn about invisible disabilities in the first of two one hour sessions with DASH volunteers.  Students investigated four different activities where they applied their people smarts, math smarts, word smarts, and picture smarts.  Students learned that everyone has different strengths and what one person found easy was difficult for another.




Students had to use their people smarts to try to get someone on the other side of a divider to build a Lego configuration.  They learned the importance of asking very specific questions.

Students practiced their word smarts by constucting sentences.

Students tested their memories,
and their abilities to decipher optical
illusions at the picture smart station.