The Marshmallow Spaghetti Challenge

It was the day before Thanksgiving vacation, excitement was high in the classroom.  What's a teacher to do with all that energy?? 

 Time for a group building activity!!  The challenge was to build the highest free-standing structure using 20 pieces of spaghetti, a yard of tape and string, and one marshmallow which had to be on the top of the structure.  Students were not allowed to eat or break up the marshmallow in any way.  Oh and by the way, they only had 18 minutes to do this. 

 Competition was fierce, and for a while it looked like we might have lots of little spaghetti all over the floor and no standing structures!  I don't think any of us realized just how delicate those pasta pieces are.  Winners are pictures on the left.  congratulations to everyone, great TEAM  work!

Field Trip to the Audubon Nature Center

Last week, the 4th grade went to an Audubon Nature Center. We learned about landscapes, wind, water and lands. We were divided in to 4 groups. One group looked at a huge piece of granite which was carried there by a glacier. All of the groups went in to mini-groups and made ravines, lakes, islands, and peninsulas on the beach of Lake Michigan. Then we all collected rocks and looked at them to see if they were sedimentary, metamorphic or igneous rocks. Potter78 found four pieces of granite and named them all Mr. Granite(haha). We all had lots of fun except for when we got sand in our shoes.

Dear 4th Grade Families,

We have started division but our curriculum begins by teaching it in a slightly different way than you may be used to. Here is a video that explains one of the strategies we will be using for division.

Student Book Review

Among the HiddenbyMargaret Peterson Haddix

Reviewed by Potter78

Among the Hidden is a book that takes place in the 31st century. The problem in the book is that the government has passed a law that makes having three or more children in one family illegal. Sadly, Luke is a third child that must stay in the attic 80 percent of the day.  

One day he sees someone in a window where he knows two kids have gone to school. Does he dare find out more about the third child?  

I enjoyed this book because the author always has something interesting happening all the way to the end of the book. I recommend this book for kids who like futuristic action books.

Haunted Houses, book 2

Another group of great descriptive writing pieces about scary houses we might have visited...

Haunted Houses a lesson in descriptive writing

Read about our very creepy visits to some horrid haunted houses!

Rocks

I like rocks because they have different kinds of rocks and they have colors like blue, red, and beige.  Rocks are kind of cool because some rocks have diamonds inside of the rock. Some people don't like rocks because they think rocks are beige, but rocks are interesting because they have diamonds.  There are sedimentary rock, igneous rock, and metamorphic rock.  That’s why I love rocks.

by SilverT

Classroom News from this week's Class Scribes

Yesterday, was Monday. In science class some people in our class shared their Rock Projects. There were three things we could have done for our Rock Project. First, we could have taken 8-10 photos describing how the photo explains whether it changed by weathering, erosion or deposition. Another choice was creating a rock collection where we get 12 rocks and find all of their names, number the rocks and give a 2-3 sentence description. The third choice was to write a story about a rock who goes through the process of the entire rock cycle. The 4th choice was to explain the rock cycle.  Everyone did it a different way, and it was nice to see all the different projects.  Here are some examples...

Rock Cycle Prezi

by Bling Dog and Potter78

Mystery Skype

     

Last week we had our first Mystery Skype.  A Mystery Skype is where we skype with another class somewhere in the country and try to guess where they live before they guess where we live. This week we guessed where they were first.  They live in Maine and it was a nice activity to sharpen your geography skills.  We asked yes or no questions like "Are you south of West Virginia?" then they answered yes or no.  We had jobs like using maps to come up with the next question or keeping track of what we already know.  We had a puzzle map of the USA and we took the states off the map that we knew they couldn't be.  We got down to the last few states and we asked, "does your state border another country?"  They replied, "Yes" so the only state it could be was Maine.  That was our first class Mystery Skype. 

written by Sparkle12 and Potter78

Hello

"Hello," I say, walking by.

"Hello," he says, saying hi,

"Hello," I say to someone.

"Hello," she says, I'm twenty -one."

"Hello," I say, searching round.

"Hello," he says, "Look what I found!"

"Hello," I say, entering work.

"Hello" I say, "My name is Gerk."

"Hello" I say, to my boss.

"Hello" he says, (he likes to floss).

"Hello" I say, humming loudly.

"Hello" she says, singing soundly.

"Hello" I say, leaving work.

"Hello" he says, "Don't forget I'm Gerk."

"Hello" I say heading home.

"Hello" I say ready to roam.

"Hello" I say to my wife.

"Hello" she says, she's had a good life.

"Hello" I say to my kids.

"Hello" they say,

their names are Tim and Lid.

"Hello" I say to my baby.

"He-woh," he says.  His name is Aby.

 written by All-Star28