JMOCA anyone?

JMOCA at first glance sounds like something that you would order at Starbucks, but it isn't! It is actually the Jacksonville Museum of Contemporary Art, the location of our last field trip. We had a great time looking at art in motion. This worked out very well for us as we have been looking at the way artists (Degas in particular), embed a sense of motion in their work. After attempting to paint motion into our pictures, and create wire sculptures that show motion, we were eager to see examples of artists who had done the same. We saw some very interesting works in the gallery, then got to paint some watercolor pictures based on written instructions, and best of all...we got to play in the interactive, hands on loft. Included are some pictures from our trip-enjoy!

Rock and Roll is here to stay!

Today in class we looked at some videos of the original singers singing the songs that we are practicing for the musical. It was a lot if fun to see the different singers' unique styles of performance and dress! Here is A clip of Mrs.Zawis' favorite band of all time!

Footprint Fiasco

Today in gifted we did footprint fiasco which is footprint crime scene investigation.We went outside and split into two teams.Criminals and investigators.Then the criminals made footprints in the sand.Next the investigation team covered the footprints with plaster.Finally we picked up the plaster and had to match them to the bottoms of the shoes.
Preston

Exciting Field Trip!

We are thrilled to report that we were able to reserve seating for the ONLY matinee performance of Cirque de Soleil coming on January 17th. We even got orchestra seating...so we're all going, K-5. Mark your calendar, permission slips will be coming home soon and we'll need to get them back to pay our deposit. I can't wait. I have always wanted to go to one of their amazing productions. I hope you'll be excited too!

Extra! Extra! Blog all about it!

I am so excited to work with this fantastic group of 4th graders and hope that you (parents and students alike) have taken the time to check out our class blog. Each time that we have gifted, a different student adds a post to our blog about various activities that we worked on in class that particular day. I can't help but to join in on the fun and will be adding my own posts to update everyone on our classroom events as well. Over the past few weeks, we have been working as detectives throughout our own CSI unit. We have examined our fingerprints and are working on solving a logic puzzle mystery about some missing honey. We have also been studying various artists and composers including Edgar Degas, Georges Seurat and Frederic Chopin just to name a few. Has anyone ever played Tetris? Looked at an Escher painting? Well mix the two together and you'll get an idea of another project that we have been working on over the last few weeks-tessellations! After a selecting s shape, many rotations and turns later, they are all glued down on a piece of paper and are in the process of being colored in. Whew- and our field trip to JMOCA is just around the corner. We are having such a great year and I'll continue to keep you "posted" about our class!

Gifted MAGIC

Today at gifted, Mrs. Zawis complimented to everyone in class because they were doing a woooonderful job!! Today we tried to find out who`s fingerprints was who`s in "Fingerprint I.D." In "To Code or Not To Code" we had to come up with a code to cover Mrs. Zawis` saying.

WHAT A MAGICAL DAY!!