4th Grade Biography Wax Museum

Travel back in time with us... All sixty-two 4th graders at Skillin created a living timeline through their Biography Wax Museum project. For the past month or so, each student has been researching the life of a famous person who has made a positive contribution to the world. They each read a chapter book about their person, along with two other sources of information. Students wrote a five-paragraph essay, drew a portrait, created a timeline, and wrote a poem. For the actual wax museum, students took the main parts of their report and wrote a 1-2 minute speech that they delivered whenever someone pressed the button on their poster. We presented the wax museum in the afternoon for the whole school, and again at night for families. Check out our slideshow! Students lined up in the order of when their person was born, so you may see multiples of the same person because someone in one of the other classes may have studied that person too.

If you enjoy our slideshow, we'd love to hear comments from you!

Slideshow generated with Smilebox

Water Poster Contest

Many students in our class chose to enter a contest sponsored by The Maine Stormwater Association about why clean water is important. Check out the fabulous entries! Good luck everyone!

Maine Statehood Day!

March 15 was Maine Statehood Day. It has been 192 years since Maine became a state in 1820. To honor the day, we had a special snack of Maine foods. This plate shows just a sample. We had B&M Baked beans, brown bread, blueberry muffins, potato chips, pretzel  logs, Swedish Fish, and apple cider.

Dahliya shows us what may be the world's largest potato chip!

Of course, we had to try Maine's own soft drink...Moxie!

As you can see from the almost empty bottle, it was a hit!

For the non-fizz fans, we had a choice of apple juice or apple cider.

We played two games. In the first one, students took turns trying to guess what the picture on their back was by asking yes or no questions. In keeping with the Maine theme, the pictures were a variety of Maine people, places, animals, or plants. We were having so much fun playing that I forgot to take a picture!

The second game, Pin the Tail on the Moose, provided us with lots of laughs. 

Brenden shows us how it's done!

Looks like everyone was pretty close...

...until you look around at the big picture.

Thank-you families for sending in food, drinks, and paper goods! We had an awesome time!

Maine's First Residents

Last week, we were fortunate enough to have a visit from James Francis, from the Penobscot Nation on Indian Island. He came to teach us how the Penobscot Indians met their needs through the seasons by using what they had available in their environment.

Through a very detailed map, which Mr. Francis drew, we learned how the Penobscot tribe got food, shelter, and clothing, using what was available in nature.

Students were fascinated by how the Indians used different materials, depending on the season.

 

Mr. Francis also drew examples of the various things the Native Americans made, as he told about them. 

Thanks, Mr. Francis! You are an awesome artist,

and we learned a lot from you!

Skillin Iditarod

We learned about the Iditarod race, which recently finished in Alaska. We tracked the mushers' progress, we watched videos, and we read about the history of the race.

On Tuesday, March 6, as part of ABL, we held our second annual Skillin Iditarod race. Fortunately the weather cooperated and we had a perfect amount of snow. As you will see in the slide show, we had a blast!

Thanks to Mrs. Murray and all the adults who helped us out!

Slideshow made with Smilebox