The children had a go at putting together their own alternative energy toys. They loved the results and challenges.
It happened when?
We were very excited to learn that wind power and other power has been used for a lot longer than we realized.
Field Trip to look forward to…
I recently did a planning visit to the library in order to organize our ideas and trip for next Monday the 9th. Here are a few pictures of the many things your child will be able to participate in whilst we are at the library exhibit. It is truly captivating!
The forever replenishing tower garden!
Last Friday we were able to tap into our tower garden AGAIN and make salad for the whole school. The students found it interesting that it only took 2 weeks for the tower to replenish itself and we still did not use all the lettuce that the tower had to offer. Once again, our students took great pride and ownership of showing Mrs. Parson’s kindergarten class the process of making a salad. Well done 4th grade and kindergarten.
Not only do our students make a good salad, they also clean up incredibly well! I was impressed with the students innovative idea to use the salad spinner to dry all the cutlery and smaller items. Very clever!
Incandescent v/s LED bulbs
So how much money are we really saving when we switch from incandescent Christmas lights to the LED lights? How about any other light source in our home? Well, our class found out today when we ran another experiment with Jerry Francl in the Inquiry Lab. It turns out that the LED bulb uses 6 times LESS energy than a regular incandescent light bulb. Sorry Thomas Edison, your invention has finally been topped by Nick Holonyak from Illinois.
Mr. Francl setting up the experiment.
Excellent note-taking!
So, where else do we see LED lights? Hmmm!
We had a little bit of fun after the experiment and saw how many amps it took to blow up a light bulb. Everyone had a try so if your child comes home with a precious blown light bulb tonight, you’ll know why!
Guided Reading
I love having this time with the children. This is probably the most favorite part of my day: sitting around a table, reading and talking about a book. Heavenly. We tend to lose our days at times and forget this important part of our learning. The children love reading about Thomas Edison and his childhood in this book.
How much does it cost to grow?
Today Mr. Francl came in to help us see how much electricity it takes us to grow our plants in our Aeroponic tower. He had a pretty cool machine to help us measure watts and amps. We used these, along with a math equation, to figure out how much energy we used a day. Then we multiplied that energy by $.11. We don’t know if this what we really pay per kilowatt hour but it is pretty good guess. It turns out that we use $.59/ day to run our tower. We also learned that they measure electricity by kilowatt hour.
By Charlie and Lily 
This took a lot of Math! 
We had a fun time measuring our skin resistance. 
Thank you Mr. Francl!
What is it and how is it divided?
I brought a strange fruit into Math class this week. The Math students had an inquiry into what it could possibly be and how it was divided. We had several guesses and the children deduced that it was definitely a citrus fruit. The guess of fractions ranged from 8ths to 12ths.
Well, it was an ugly fruit and it was divided into unit fractions of 1/14! Ask your child how their 1/14 tasted!
State Testing Schedule
Our state testing begins next week. What can you do to help?
- Please make sure that your child gets an adequate amount of sleep each night for these next two weeks so they can perform to the best of their ability.
- Make sure they have a healthy breakfast.
- Make sure they are to school on time. All of our testing begins at the very start of the day. If they are late, they cannot interrupt the class to begin the test. They will have to make up the test on another day.
- Encourage your child to do their best and be super positive with them! :o)
Here is our testing schedule:
April 19th: ELA test 4th: 8:30-10:00
April 21st: ELA test 4th: 8:30 – 10:00
April 25th: Math test 4th: 8:30 – 10:00
April 26th: Math test 4th: 8:30-10:00
April 27th: Social Studies test 4th: 8:30-10:00
April 28th: Social Studies test 4th: 8:30 – 10:00
Mapping Disasters
Our class attempted to draw a world map this week and map 4 major disasters on the map using a key. Not only does this cover cartography skills, geography knowledge and applicable maps for particular items; it also showed us just how hard it is to draw a map to scale. We enjoyed the challenge.
Also, do you know how a tornado is formed? Allow our experts to explain!
Fabulous Fourth Grade! 