A trip back in time to the California Gold Rush . . .

 

Now that you’ve had a tour of Coloma, what do you think? Give a review of the field trip. You may discuss any part of the trip or just a single part. A good review will state a big idea about what you think and then have several details to support that big idea. If you have more than one big idea, then you would create more than one paragraph. 

Think of all the things we did on the trip:

• the tour of the mill, the original mill site and the discovery site

• the outside exhibits and a discussion on gold from the park ranger

• the hike to the monument where we saw Marshall’s cabin, the cemetery and the place where James Marshall is buried

• a visit to the Monroe House that Pearley built in 1925

• the gold panning

• the tour of the Pioneer Cemetery where we saw the plot of the Monroe-Gooch family,  a soldier from the Mexican-American War and the headstones for people from all over the world

Is there a part that you like best that you’d like to write about?

Was there a part that you didn’t like that you’d like to write about?

Do you want to give an overview of the entire trip? 

Did you learn something good that you’d like to share with the world?

Those are just some ideas; you may write about any portion of the trip. This is the final blog of this trimester, so make it your best writing yet! Be sure that you check your spelling and conventions and be certain that you have said exactly what you want to tell the world. 

As always, please comment on each other’s work. Everyone likes a nice comment!

What's your favorite adventure?

Pearley Monroe certainly did have many adventures in Marci Seither's book, The Adventures of Pearley Monroe. He even realized in the final chapter that his adventures were just beginning, so there are more ahead for Pearley and the Monroe family!

Now that we have completed the book, the question for you is, what is the adventure that Pearley had in the book that you liked the best? You will get to create your first blog post around that question. In this writing, briefly tell the adventure that you liked the best. Then, take it apart and explain why you liked it the best out of all the adventures in the book. Really think hard and use your own thinking to explain why that entire adventure is the one you enjoyed the most in the book. Maybe there was a part of the plot that you liked, maybe you enjoyed the way it was written, maybe you liked the history behind it, maybe you found it to be touching, maybe you liked the message in the adventure-there are so many reasons why you can enjoy a piece of literature. Put all your ideas together in this piece and really let the readers of the world know what adventure was your favorite in the book.

Be sure to use multiple paragraphs, spell well, and check for good grammar and conventions. Once you have posted your blog, you can comment on other people's blogs, and hopefully, you will get comments on yours, too. Have fun with this, and use strong wording to let others know just how much you enjoyed Pearley's adventure!

What's your favorite . . .?

As we end the 2018-19 school year, there is a lot to look back upon. We started the year making paper tables, we met the author of our first literature book and shared our projects with her. We have gotten to go underground twice on field trips, and we visited the site that started the California Gold Rush. On the same trip, we "discovered" the graves of the characters in our first literature book. We had a smoky Friday where we couldn't go to school because it was unsafe to breath. We got to visit people who spoke with up about being interned during World War II, and we nearly took over part of the presentation. Some members of this class helped Del Paso Manor win the Sacramento Region Science Olympiad for the third straight year! We have had amazing discussions in literature where we talked about Annemarie and her family, we discussed the dances of nature through Gary Paulsen, and we enjoyed Jack and Praiseworthy's adventures in the California Gold Rush. Wasn't it nice that Praiseworthy finally got to marry Aunt Arabella! We read about Yuki, Emi and their families as they struggled for freedom. Mrs. Kurihara and Mrs. Barnsworth can never be forgotten! We have enjoyed reading about Milo and his quest to save Rhyme and Reason and all the crazy characters he is meeting along the way. We had a class meeting on the new blacktop where our entire year began turning around, socially. Human Decency became our rallying cry. We have jumped up and down during math because of the excitement we have had in wanting to share the incredible ideas that were created in class. We wowed the community recently with our science knowledge, and hopefully, we inspired some people to explore that subject a bit more. Of course, no discussion of fourth grade would be complete without mentioning our unbelievable time at Westminster Woods! What a great experience we had together, and hopefully, it is one we will all keep in our minds for a very long time. There is more, but those are some of the highlights that come to mind in thinking back on this school year.

Your task in this blog is to select a memory or two, or three . . . you decide how many memories you want to discuss, and when someone asks you, in the future, "What were your memories of 4th grade?" how would you answer that? This blog is about those memories. Years down the road, what will you remember about your 4th grade school year? Tell us the event(s) you select, and then give us your reasoning as to why you think you will remember those events. Your ideas are what will score you well here.

You know how this works: get good strong INTERESTING topic sentences, good details, a nice conclusion, and use good conventions and spelling. What trend do you think will emerge from our writing? Have fun with this!

Westminster Woods, 2019

We just completed a fun, educational week of environmental education at Westminster Woods. We hiked in the morning, during the day, and in the evening. We went to the tide pools, got blasted in a sand storm, and we saw the tallest trees in the world. We took part in a campfire, watched some funny skits, and sang some great songs. We got to play in the gaga pit, on the playground, and had a lot of fun on the cargo net on Thursday evening. We had incredible naturalists who lead us through our adventures and taught us a ton of information. Best of all, we had incredible fun hanging out with our friends. 

This blog is your opportunity to tell everyone what you thought about your trip. As a writer, excite your reader about what you enjoyed and tell us why you liked those things. Pick as many topics as you wish about which to write, but be sure you explain WHY you enjoyed those things or didn't necessarily like those things. You need to avoid simply telling what you did on this trip; the task is to give proof for your opinions. You need not write about everything, just report the highlights. Think about how you will arrange your ideas, and develop a strong, interesting topic sentence for each paragraph. We all know which word not to use in the topic sentence, right? This is the type of writing where you van get descriptive.

As always, be sure your spelling and conventions are strong. Check that sentence structure, and be sure that you are communicating with precision and accuracy. 

Have fun with this and let's see how many comments we can get! Be sure to check out each other's writings, and let's inform our readers all over the world about our incredible week at Westminster Woods.

Japanese Internment During World War II

During World War II, the Japanese Americans on the West Coast of the United States were removed from their communities and interned in camps spread around the counttry. We have read the book Journey to Topaz, we have discussed what lead up to the  internment, and we have had a field trip where former internees spoke to you about their experience. Additionally, you were able to see many artifacts at the California Museum from the time of internment. 

For this blog post, you get to give your thoughts about internment. Simply put, what do you think about the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II? Think about what happened, form an opinion or two, and let that be your big idea. Then, you can use your own thoughts and factual details to support your opinion. You may write as many paragraphs as you think it will take for you to fully express your thoughts. We also read Number the Stars where there was a call for human decency all over the world. If you wish, you can discuss human decency along with this topic. Be thoughtful, and be complete so that others reading your post will learn something about Japanese Internment. 

As usual, please take some time to read others' thoughts and comment on their work.