Native Americans Leaders Project

In case you didn't get a chance to watch your child's Native American project at conferences, here is a link to view them.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Z093HacvsviUFKkydn37ZA98Fa_9e2uB9883V2uVCnI/edit

Tectonic Plates KomaKoma Videos

In order to demonstrate their understanding of tectonic plate movement, the kids made KomaKoma stop motion videos.  See if you can understand how tectonic plates move at convergent, divergent, and transform boundaries after watching these videos.

Tectonic Plate Koma Koma videos

These pictures show you the process the kids use to make these videos.

Cardboard Challenge Games

The kids worked hard designing and building their Cardboard Challenge Games.

They recorded their videos to explain their game and demonstrate how it worked.  They did a great job of using their game to collect data.  They also used the data they collected to make modifications to their game.  They utilized a lot of problem solving and critical thinking skills throughout this project.  I was amazed at what they accomplished!

Cardboard Challenge Game Videos

Veronica & Ashlyn's Ferris Wheel

Olivia, Erik, & Jack M's target balance throw

Ben, Costa, & Gabi's dunk tank

Xander, Sam, & Grant's Angry Bird's game

Henry, James, Jack, & Zachary "What's Inside Silkie?" game

Jadynn, Kylie, Jessica, & Ola Mr. Cookie Toss

Earth's Changing Surface Imovies

Check out our Earth's Changing Surface IMovies!

The kids used the Chatterpix app to explain all the ways that they know the Earth's surface changes.
They demonstrated their learning in such a creative way!  At the end of our unit, we merged all of the videos into one Imovie.

Click here for our Earth's Changing Surface Youtube Playlist

Enjoy!

Scientists at work!

The students in our class have been designing experiments to explore the concepts we're learning in our Earth's changing surface science unit.

Grant and Henry led us in an experiment using baking soda and vinegar to simulate a volcano eruption.  After performing this experiment we analyzed the similarities between this experiment and what happens during an actual volcanic eruption.

Gabi noticed a rock experiment in her book club book and introduced it to our class.  We all closely observed several different types of rocks.   We practiced documenting our observations precisely like scientists by weighing, measuring, and noticing size, color and texture.  We observed quartzite, slate, pumice, limestone, and sandstone and noticed their similarities and differences.

Ashlyn was inspired by that and wondered if rocks would change in water and grow like gummy bears do in water.  We discovered they don't get bigger, but pumice did get heavier.  The students noticed different characteristics of wet rocks than dry.

During these rock observations, we started noticing what happens when rocks rub together.  We noticed that abrasion creates sediment.

Keith is now working on an experiment  in which we're shaking rocks in jars of water to see if that will create sediment.

Just today, the students created a variety of experiments to observe how water, wind, and ice transport materials and build up the earth's surface.  They made some interesting observations and connections to things they've seen in the world.   

Our 1st meeting with our 2nd grade friends!

We're going to partner with Miss Wilson's 2nd grade classroom, periodically throughout this year for a variety of educational purposes. Today was our first meeting!  Miss Wilson and I compared our curriculum that 2nd and 4th grade have both been studying world geography and landforms at different levels of complexity.  So, we put our heads together and completed a world map today!  4th graders labeled the Prime Meridian, Equator, hemispheres, and NE, NW, SE, SW on the compass rose.  2nd graders made the basic compass rose with the 4 main cardinal directions, and labeled the continents and oceans. By the time we were done, we had made new friends and had a great geography of all we've both learned!  Next week, we're going to go on a hunt for basic landforms on every continent.

New Friends & Learning Buddies!

Making Our Mathematical Thinking Visible

We've been approaching math in a very collaborative, cooperative way this year.  In order to encourage metacognition, and the ability to articulate our mathematical strategies, we've been answering open ended questions. Students discuss their thinking about concepts, label what they know, represent their understanding with notes, and help each other build a deeper understanding of our concepts.  It also shows kids that there are a variety of ways to think about mathematical concepts, and we can be flexible in our approaches to solving open ended problems. The thinking and learning that comes out of these discussions is so rich.  Here are some pictures of our latest mathematical discussions, when students were working together to think about what they could do with a set of numbers.  

"We can put these numbers in numerical order and find the median"

We can add them all together (which we later translated into finding the mean by dividing by the total #s in the set).

Each of these students here used a different strategy to add all their numbers.  It was interesting to see the different strategies at work. 

Add caption

We can use the individual digits to make bigger numbers. (That's one of our place value concepts this unit)

After finding all the data landmarks, this student commented that his notes looked like a Cat in the Hat hat.
He later drew a Cat in the Hat for us for homework, so that we can remember all of our landmark data.  I will post a picture of his finished product.

To Plant or Not to Plant

Following our discussion about doing a good deed in remembrance of 9/11, Keith brought in a packet of seeds that are the same variety of wildflowers growing in the field where Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania.  He wrote a letter to Mrs. Beane and Mrs. Sessler asking if our class can plant the flowers at Dryden, as our good deed. Mrs. Beane responded with a variety of questions about the flowers for us to answer, in order to decide if Dryden is the appropriate place to plant these flowers.  So, once again, we began to research.  Keith divided the class into teams of 2, and we quickly  found the answers to all of Mrs. Beane's questions.  We compiled all of our research into a big grid, and used the information to make judgements about how we can move forward with this project.  The kids just broke into new teams, in which they will use the information they learned about the flowers to determine our recommendations for the best place to plant the flowers, a plan for how we will control them from spreading, a long term plan for care, and they will also be studying the impact the flowers will make on the environment around Dryden.  Stay tuned for our decision.

How tall will our flowers grow?(If you look closely, you will see Dawson measuring with a ruler)

Landscape/Landform Book Clubs

We've been studying landscapes and landforms around the world in our Science and Social Studies units.  Why not connect it to reading, as well.  Groups of students read a variety of nonfiction and fiction books and looked for information about landscapes and landforms within them.  In our nonfiction books, students focused on using the index, table of contents, and other text features to find specific information about landforms that might be found in that particular continent, country, or region.  The readers of the fiction books paid attention to the landforms that were involved in the story and how they played a part in the setting and the events of the story.  Each group is currently working on a way to share the information they got from their book.