TECHSPLORATION IS TERRIFIC!

The fourth grade is studying electricity, circuits and magnetism. To enrich our curriculum TESPTO brought in Mr. Wahle and his TECHSPLORATION program. It started with a very interactive, interesting stage show where many concepts such as electrons flowing through a circuit and coils of wire wrapped around a metal rod creating an electromagnet were explored with students coming up and demonstrating each. He also showed us a Tesla Coil. (click here to learn more about Nikola Tesla.) Then, each class was able to spend nearly an hour with Mr. Wahle in the lab creating circuits and exploring resistors, various switches, parallel versus series circuits and even telegraphs. 

The students were given a challenge to wire two or more users of electricity with different switches. A few groups were able to do this challenge. Here is what one group produced.

We all learned a great deal about electric circuits.

The physical sciences state standards covered just during TECHSPLORATION are listed below.

#6. Recognize that electricity in circuits requires a complete loop through which an electrical current can pass, and that electricity can produce light, heat, and sound.

#7. Identify and classify objects and materials that conduct electricity and objects and materials that are insulators of electricity.

#8. Explain how electromagnets can be made, and give examples of how they can be used.

THE MIGHTY MIDWEST

We used the app Movie Trailer to "wrap up" our study of the Midwest Region of our country. We took a tour of the region visiting places such as Mt. Rushmore and the Gateway Arch. More than that, we learned that this region is known as "The Breadbasket of America" because it raises most of the wheat and corn we all use.  The students learned a great deal and to show all they learned, they broke into groups to create a movie trailer that summed up the main ideas they gleaned from our unit of study. Our essential questions for this project were:

1. How do you use the Movie Trailer app?
2. How do you summarize what you learned about the Midwest into a Movie Trailer?
3. What are the most important places and ideas to teach others about the Midwest?

Click on the photos below to watch the movie creations of 4K's students.

The Value of the "Place"

It's the place that matters! We have been working on decimals which are part of our base-ten number system. The students were asked to represent mixed numbers as decimals using the base-ten blocks. In this case, the "flat" was used to represent one whole. We used the sticks and cubes for tenths and hundredths. The number below shows 3.6 (three and six-tenths). The students also wrote the numbers in expanded form below the block representation.

Our essential questions for this unit are:

How are fractions and decimals related?

How do we write and show decimals?

How do we write decimals in expanded form?

Here is a site you can use to play some decimal review games. Just click on the words.

COMING SOON TO A THEATER NEAR YOU

We are using the Movie Trailer app on the school i-pads to show all we learned about the Midwest Region.  As our culminating project after touring the Midwest and learning all the states and capitals, students are teaming up to produce a movie trailer that will summarize some key ideas they learned. Our Essential Question for this unit is: How can we use technology to teach others what we have learned about the Midwest?  Keep your eye on this blog to view our creations. Here we are hard at work making movies.

Along with learning more deeply about our country, we are incorporating technology standards in the project. Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. a. Interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media b. Communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats c. Develop cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with learners of other cultures d. Contribute to project teams to produce original works or solve problems

Nothing But Nonfiction

We are diving in to the world of Nonfiction/Informational Text. We have learned that nonfiction uses text features such as boldfaced lettering, colored fonts, photos, and captions. All seen in the photo below.

In addition, we are learning that nonfiction differs from fiction writing in other ways. For example, nonfiction texts are written using certain text structures. The five different text structures are problem and solution; cause and effect; description, sequence, and compare and contrast.   Below is an organizer that summarizes each of the structures. Please go to the reading page of this blog for even more information.

Together we will practice identifying the main idea and the text structures used.

The standards we are covering:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.2
Determine the main idea of a text and explain how it is supported by key details; summarize the text.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.3
Explain events, procedures, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text, including what happened and why, based on specific information in the text.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.5

Describe the overall structure (e.g., chronology, comparison, cause/effect, problem/solution) of events, ideas, concepts, or information in a text or part of a text.