Representative Andrew McLean Visits the 4th Grade

On Friday, May 16 Gorham's State Representative, Andrew McLean came to school to visit the fourth graders. He discussed Maine government and the role of a legislator. 

The students learned more about the three branches of government and what they look like in Augusta. He discussed how a bill becomes a law and how the House, Senate and Governor are all part of the process. He said his favorite part of his job is helping people. The students asked lots of great questions. 

Thank you Representative McLean for coming to visit us!

Blueberry Day

On May 9 David Yarborough from The University of Maine visited the fourth grades at Great Falls.  
He taught us all about wild blueberries. 

Here are some things we learned...

*Blueberry plants and certain fungi have a symbiotic relationship.

*Maine produces the most wild blueberries in the world!

*Wild blueberries are only found in Maine and Canada.

*Blueberry bushes turn red in the fall.

*There are many diseases that can harm wild blueberries.

*Blueberry plants need about an inch of rainfall each week during the growing season. 

*Bees are very important to the growth of blueberries. 

*Frozen wild blueberries are actually fresher than many fresh berries found in the store as they are frozen very quickly.

Cool huh?

Then we had a blueberry snack with blueberry muffins and blueberries with whipped cream!

We would like to thank Mr. Yarborough for coming all the way down to Gorham to talk with us!

A Classroom Visitor for Autism Awareness Month

We have been talking about autism a lot throughout the year, but we really focused on it in April. 
We have read parts of this book which offers real advice on how to interact and communicate with someone with autism.

We were very lucky to have Mrs. Barney come in to talk with us last week. 

She answered the students' many questions and told us a lot more about her child. The students loved her visit and offered some cute stories. It is important for us all to learn what we can do to support our friends. 

We Got New Books!

Thanks to the generosity of many parents, family members and anonymous donors, we were able to get about 50 new books for the classroom through a website called Donors Choose. The books totaled $575!!!

Last week we "released" the books and many have yet to find their way back to the shelves. 

Thanks again to all who were able to donate! We love new books!

Poem in Your Pocket Day

Our classes participated in "Poem in Your Pocket Day" on Thursday, April 17. It was a fun day of sharing and celebrating poetry. The students and staff chose a poem to carry with them all day. The poems were shared throughout the day whenever someone asked to hear them. 

Click here to go to our picture page.

Community Contributers!

Recently our class has participated in two charitable projects. 

One project is our Clynk for Cromwell project. The Cromwell Center is dedicated to educating the community on disability awareness. The center came to Great Falls this winter and led third through fifth graders in an interactive class where they learned about different disabilities and discussed accepting differences. Click here to read Allison and Kayleigh's post. 

Following this visit Quentin Wise, from Mrs. McAllister's class, contacted The Cromwell Center asking how he could help raise money for the center. This is how Clynk for Cromwell was born. 4th and 5th graders will be taking home Clynk bags and filling them with returnable bottles and cans. The money will go to the Cromwell Center's Clynk account! 

As some of you may know, Mrs. McAllister has a son with autism. She and her family participate in the Annual Walk for Autism that benefits The Autism Society of Maine. The walk is Sunday, April 27. We also have students affected by autism in our class and we have learned a lot about autism this year. 

The students on the McAllister/Tibbitts team collected change for Mrs. M's walk for a couple of weeks and raised $40 for The Autism Society of Maine!

It is so nice to have such generous and giving students on our team!

Books for Jamaica!!

Recently Mrs. Gustafson asked for our help in collecting books to donate to a school in Jamaica.  Her daughter visited Jamaica and saw that the school had very few books and supplies so she decided that she wanted to help. 

The McAllister/Tibbitts team was happy to help out. 

Our books were combined with those collected at Family Art and Reading Night for a total of 1000 books!

This is what 1000 books looks like in Mrs. G's garage.

The books will be shipped to Jamaica in these barrels. 

We were happy that we could help deliver books to kids that need them in Jamaica!