Weekly Reflection: December 6

Reporters: Bob and Colin     Photographer: Noah

We were testing static electricity with balloons and a wool cloth 

to make it attract to other objects.

Static electricity 

This week we started our elecricity unit. Our first lesson was on electrical safety.  We  had to find all the unsafe things in a picture. Today's lesson, we got to test what would happen when we rubbed wool on a balloon and made static electricity.  See the picture above!

Poetry
This week we skipped WEX and started our unit on poetry. Each day we've learned how to write a certain type of poem, (cinquain, alphabet alliteration, etc.) wrote a poem as a class, and written our own personal poems. Mrs. Cioni has played classical music, and it's been a relaxing way to end the day. This unit will continue next week,

Weekly Reflection: November 8

Reporters: Ila and Maeve  Photographer: Sarah

PASTA FOR PENNIES

A person from Pasta for Pennies came to tell us about how 

we should raise money to help people who have cancer.

We watched a Charie Brown video about people who have cancer. 

Charlie Brown was visiting a friend in a hospital who has cancer.

This week:
In history we have been learning about the Native Americans. The cultural regions are Plateau, Great Plains, Eastern Woodlands, Southwest, California-Intermountain, Southeast, and the Northwest Coast. They made tools, clothing, and houses made out of their resources.

In writing time we are working on publishing our Personal Narratives. We are going to type up our stories. We will also record our voices narrating the stories. We will make a comic life to tell our stories without words, only pictures. We are probably going to be done by next week.

Weekly Reflection: November 1

Reporters: Colin and Paige      Photographer: Bob

     Art Moms

 Mrs. Stanhope showing where Spain is located.

"Persistance of Memory" by Salvadore Dali

Celebrating Halloween
     Thank you to the parents that came in to be part of the Halloween party. We had so much fun. I'm very sure that we all treasured it dearly. We all had fun and goofed around while doing the mummy wrap. When we had the donut eating contest, it was a huge contest to be first. Making t-shirts was the best because we got to show what we wanted to do. Bowling was challenging, especially when classmates made it a little bit too hard. The end was amazing. We got to pick spiders out of jello with chopsticks!    Again, as we said before, we want to thank the parents that made the best Halloween party possible.
       We had lots of fun costumes, such as a movie theater floor! One person was a rock star with a huge green mohawk! We also had more traditional costumes such as zombie.

Weekly Reflection: October 11

Reporters: Octavio and Harry

SCIENCE
This week during a science lesson we did an experiment with corn starch and water. We mixed them together and made a new material.  What happened was it turned into a mixture of the solid and liquid. When we made no movements at all it fell through our hands like a liquid. When we did make quick movements, it stayed in our hands like a solid. Also this week we discovered that if you put baking soda in a bag with vinegar,  it will make crackling and popping noises. The baking soda bubbled with the vinegar. The two materials made another material called carbon dioxide.  This was a chemical change!

Weekly Reflection: October 4

Reporters: Lucy and Ila   Photographer: Maeve

This group is studying the effects of location on evaporation- upstairs and downstairs. 

This group is studying the effects of moving air on evaporation.

 This group is studying how different types of liquids evaporate.

This group is studying the effects of location on evaporation- inside and outside.

We were running evaporation experiments in science class.  We were looking at different types of liquid, how moving air affects evaporation, and how temperatures in different places affect evaporation.  This is what we learned: Sometimes experiments don't work out the way you think they should.  In that case, we should try it again.  In one experiment we had too many variables. It was hard to keep track of the temperature in different experiments because the temperature changes throughout the day and we are not always here to check.  

Weekly Reflection: September 27

Reporters: Paige and Luke

This week we learned about evaporation and condensation. We made some estimations about what container would lose the most. Evaporation is where water  turns into water vapor. Condensation is when the water vapor turns back into water in the clouds. 

We also worked on our new story about being lost. We couldn't say if we were lost in a store, on the road, or just lost in school. We had to use details to show it. Mrs. Cioni wrote all of our ideas on the board. 

Weekly Reflection: September 20

Reporter: Lucas      Photographer: Sophia

We met Steve Cotler, the author of Cheesie Mack. 

Science Morning!
On Wednesday morning,  we spent a good amount of time doing just science.  In Ms. Miller and Mrs. Koenig's class, we learned that solids can turn into liquids by warming it up and liquids can turn into solids if you freeze it. In Mrs. Goumas' class, we learned that gases can expand or compress. In Mrs. Cioni's class, we learned the phrases cubic centimeters and milliliters. If you put a 10 cc rod in a graduated cylinder with water, the water will go up by 10ml.      

Weekly Reflection: September 13

Reporters: Ryan and Octavio   Photographer: Elise

Very fun science project discovering different properties of matter.

Discovering Properties of Matter:
Last week we learned about matter. We did an experiment with balloons which were filled with stuff that could represent matter. We learned that solids have their own shape. When you drop a dot of water, it would'nt spread. It will stay in a bubble.


Student Council Elections:
During last week we saw a video of all the people running for student council president in order to know who to vote for as our student council leaders.

Weekly Reflection: September 6

Reporters: Lucy and Breckan   Photographer: Ila

The VIP of the week is when someone makes a poster. 

It is a poster about them and they share it on Friday afternoon.

Matter

We are learning about matter in class. Matter is anything that takes up space and has mass. Matter can be a solid, a liquid, or gas.

Geometry

Polygons are shapes that have no curves, no intersecting lines, and no openings. It has 3 or more sides. A type of polygon is a rectangle and a square.  They are alike because they both have four sides and four right angles.  They are different because the rectangle does not have four equal sides.

Weekly Reflection: August 30

Reporters: Luke and Kacper      Photographer: Paige

Mrs. Cioni read Morris Goes to School.

Getting to know our reading buddies.

Reading Buddies
On August 30 we met are reading buddies. Reading buddies are buddies that we read and work with. They are in Mrs. Litberg's 1st grade class. Today we read Morris Goes to School with our buddies. After we did a worksheet that makes you tell about yourself.

Map Skills
This week we learned about the lines of latitude and longitude. We also took a test on social studies test. And we also learned more about the compass rose.

Weekly Reflection: May 17

Reporters: Madison and Sakurako  

Slavery by Madison Slavery
This week in history we've been studying slavery. I've learned about the trading in West Africa, the journey on the ship, and when they got to America. I find slavery a very bad thing in our history. But it is interesting to learn about. Slaves made some very hard choices (though none of them were good) I would never want to make.  I am glad slavery ended long ago.

Heroes Project by Sakurako                     
This week we read Harry the Tarantula to learn how to ask "juicy" question of our guest speaker. We learned from the book to ask add on questions to the "skinny" questions to make the person think a little, to help us get more details in the person's answers.

Weekly Reflection: May 10

Reporters: Josh and Susie   Photographer: Grace

This volcano's eruption was made from Coke and Mentos. It was very explosive as you can see!

This volcano erupted very smoothly going down.

This volcano also erupted very smoothly and slowly like the one above it. 

Model Volcanoes by Josh

This year our class was given the chance to build model volcanoes. Mine was made of dough, and the eruption soaked the dough, so mine didn't work well. The first picture shows a volcano made by Zach. It used a 2-liter bottle with only  1 Mento, not the limit of two.

WEX by Susie

Instead of  publishing books on our own, this year we are allowed to work with partners. I am finding it  very interesting because you can't just assume your partner will be okay with what you type. Also you each have your own characters and you have to fit them together in a story somehow.

Weekly Reflection: May 3

Reporters: Evan and Charles  Photographer: Lucy

Rube Goldberg

We finished the week looking at some Rube Goldberg designs.  Rube created inventions intended to make like easier, but the tasks were more challenging than needed. This is a Rube Goldberg machine we created that is used to open a drawer. The only thing the man has to do is pick up a bowl.

4th Grade Performance by Charles
Our performance was about the Native Americans.  During our performance we performed Native American games like the Ma-Koo Ay (Stick Game) and we sang songs like the "Circle of Thanks" and "Dream Catcher". It was pretty fun to teach others about Native Americans through our performance.

An Egg is like the Earth by Evan
This week we learned about the layers of the Earth.  We used an egg as a model.  The shell was like the crust- thin and fragile.  The egg white was like the mantle where magma is found.  The yolk is like the core.  Here it is the hottest.

Weekly Reflection: April 26

Reporters: Erin and Patrick   Photographer: Zach

 We put sediment (dirt) in a ice cube and we did experiments. We watched them melt over the days.  This shows a moraine and a few erratics deposited after our "glacier" melted.

 We hammered certain rocks and we watched what would happen to them after a couple of hits to see which rocks were soft and which ones were hard.

Take a look at what happened over time as the rocks got smashed!

Science By Patrick

This week in science we were experimenting with the hardness of rocks. We ground the rocks together and banged them with a hammer.  Some rocks broke down a lot and some rocks didn't break.

Reading by Erin

This week in reading we have been learning about Amelia Earhart and The Wright Brothers. After reading about them, we had to come up with words that describe their personalities. We also also got to watch videos on each one of these people. We had a good time watching the videos and learning about them.

Weekly Reflection: April 19

Reporters: Conor and Ben   Photographer: Nathan

Poetry Workshop with Bill Buczinsky

Mr. Bill talks about poems

Poetry with Mr. Bill by Ben
During this week, Mr. Bill came in and taught us about poetry. First he presented to the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade. Then he presented to 1st and 2nd grade. After all that he met with some of the classes in the library and our class was one of them. In the library he taught us that in a book you can take one of the sentences and mix it in your mouth, spit it out, and put it on the table to see if the new sentence makes sense.  If it doesn't than you try it again. He also said that there are no rules in poetry and that made us want to do more poetry.


River Tables by Conor
During this week we added things to our river tables like a rock, a dam, and a larger source of water,
as well as changing the speed. My group did the rock in the middle of the river table. Then we watched the other groups do their things. I thought this was a very fun experiment. The dam had all the water added up and never went over. With my group the water just went around the rock. The group with used more water, the water went fast. The group that tested the speed of the water, the water went speeding. This was very fun.

Weekly Reflection: April 12

Reporters: Maura and Lauren  Photographer: Will

The materials we used for the water tables project.

 After we tested the river tables with water  this is what happened. 

River Tables by Maura
On Friday we set up river tables. We put sand on the first 15cm.  Then we taped a cup with a hole on it, on rulers, on the tin river tables. The river tables had holes in the end so someone had to hold a bucket at the end and let the water plop into it. We propped the river table up with a wooden block. Then we got a cup full of water and poured it in the cup with the hole in it. We watched the water flow through forming the river and ending in the bucket waiting for the water to slowly drain into it. To end the lesson we went on an app called Explain Everything, took a picture of our river table and made a video with captions and arrows. It was lots of fun!


Enrichment Clusters by Lauren
On Friday we had a presentation for an enrichment cluster. Mrs. Corley came in to tell us about the  CDW.  She explained how to get into a business like hers. She told us all about the CDW. One really interesting fact about the CDW is that the building is so big that her custumers drive around in golf carts.  When we were done we got to see some commercials that her company made. After that we got a bag full of CDW products.

Weekly Reflection: February 22

Reporters:  Grace and Charles  Photographer: Lucy

Explorer Research

Sorting and organizing our notes

 Turning our notes into a research paper

Explorer Project by Grace
This week we started our explorer project. We are researching our explorers, typing about our explorers  and then we will be making a website at the end. I think the hard part about this project is researching useful information because some of the websites I found didn't have enough information or repeated information I already had.

Teamwork Challenges by Charles
At gym we are doing challenges using teamwork. For one of the stations 2 people walk on 2 paddles and walk at the same time. Another station is that you walk on one island ( which is just a wooden box)  to a another island but you can't jump to the other island. So you use 2 wooden board  and connect them to the other island. Don't run because I did and slipped and felt hard on the ground. :-} :-)

Weekly Reflection: February 15

Reporters: Lucy and Patrick    Photographer: Erin

Valentine's Day

 Ice cream sundaes  

Having fun 

Valentine's Day  by Patrick

On Valentines day we had a party, played games, made our own ice cream sundaes, and ate pretzels. We played Pictionary. The boys who won got pencils. The girls who won got highlighters. It was really fun!  

Art Institute

The Grand Staircase 

Posing with the Art 

Learning about Pollock 

Paperweight Art

Art Institute by Lucy
Fourth grade went to the Art Institute and we saw lots of art from the artists we studied in Art class. We saw pointillism, marble sculptures, The Thorne Rooms and the paper weight collection. It was so fun!

Weekly Reflection: February 4-8

Reporters: Erin and Zach  Photographer: Conor

Heroes Project: Multiage Research

                                                     This is a photo of Jackie Robinson.

                                                     This is photo of Albert Einstein.

This is a picture of Martin Luther King Jr. .

Heroes Project by Erin
This week we were with our 3rd and 2nd grade friends. We were studying many heroes, and had to learn about them. We had to make a Prezi about them. We got to present the Prezi in front of the other groups. We all had a lot of fun!

Enrichment Clusters by Zach
In class this week we did an enrichment cluster. In my group that I am in we are doing animation.We are supposed to do a PSA or a commercial. Some people are doing a PSA about recycling or about Patton. Maybe something that makes us learn like reading.

Weekly Reflection: January 28-February 1

Reporters: Conor and Ben   Photographer: Nathan

 

Making Prezis about Amerigo Vespucci.

Enrichment Clusters by Conor
Enrichment clusters are all about your interests and what you like. My cluster is Deep Sea Discovery. We've been finding out ways to save sea life.  Our project is trying to put buckets around the school to collect  money in them, to save sea life.

Laura Ingalls Wilder Assembly by Ben
When we went to the assembly we watched 4 actors act out Laura Ingall's books. They acted as if the were traveling to different places on the prairie. At the end one of the girls goes to a blind college because she is blind. Also on the very end the other girl goes off to be a teacher and the mom and the dad are stuck at home all sad that there children are gone.

Weekly Reflection: January 18

Reporters: Nathan and Maura    Photographer: Lauren

Exploring a Sunken Ship

 We got to pretend that we were swimming to a ship wreck from a long time ago and pick out artifacts.

Students swimming to get artifacts.

 After we got the artifacts we got to look into our History Alive books, look for the artifact, and write down why this artifact was important.

This is our History Alive book it was a very important part of this activity.

Enrichment Clusters by Maura
The whole fourth grade is doing different clubs. There are different categories that you could've gotten into from doing a survey: sketching and drawing (art), under the sea discovery, sports, and computer animation. We can learn about the different jobs that people do in these categories. We are learning a lot and it's so much fun!


Artifacts by Nathan
In Social Studies we pretended we were scuba divers and "swam" to get artifacts from when the New World was discovered.  Then we found out more about them and how the explorers used them.  We found out about an astrolabe and other artifacts.

Weekly Reflection: January 11

Reporters: Lauren and Lachlan(substitute reporter)    Photographer: Lachlan

TASK: DESIGNING A CIRCUIT

 Drawing the schematic

 Building the circuit

The circuit worked

Building a Circuit by Lauren and Lachlan

This week in class we got to plan and make a schematic of the circuit we were going to make.  We needed three batteries, two light bulbs, two switches (or one) and wires.  We hooked up the wires to the batteries and bulbs and we had to turn the switch on and off to make it work.  We could build a series circuit or a parallel circuit.