Weekly Reflection: November 30

Reporters: Charles and Grace      Photographer: Lucy

This is Mrs. Cioni with a static balloon. Opposite charges attract. 

She is stuck to a static balloon- opposites attract.        

 His balloon is stuck to his head- Opposites attract.

 Negatively charged balloons repel each other.

Spelling by Charles
This week we are doing a new spelling program. We did a speed sort and put our spelling words in the right column. We tried to beat our time each day.We also did a blind sort. This is when a partner says a word from our spelling bag and we try to spell it and sort it.

Poetry by Grace
This week we started our new poetry unit. We learn different kinds of poetry every day.  So far we learned about acrostic poems, alphabet alliteration poems, cinquains, and color poems.
Here is a student sample:

Black by Charles 

Black is dark as in a empty closet.

Black is lonely.

Black has evil and anger.

Black is the color of my hair.

Black smells like Oreos.

Black tastes like dark chocolate.

Black sounds like a black cat meowing.

Black looks like hungry crows that are waiting for its meal.

Black feels like freezing in the freezer.

Black makes me gloomy.

Black is not my favorite color.

Weekly Reflection: November 16

Reporters: Erin and Patrick     Photographer: Zach

 In class we wrote about something that reminds each of us of Thanksgiving.

We colored the paper with colored pencils and crayons.

When we are done we are showing them to our parents.

If I Ran the School by Erin
This week we took a survey. We went on a site and took a survey. We would fill in ten boxes on what our hobbies are and soon we will be partnered up with some one to help us learn about our interests.

Thanksgiving by Patrick
This Week we wrote about things that remind us of Thanksgiving. We also had to write why they reminded us of Thanksgiving.

Weekly Reflection: November 9

Reporters: Zach and Conor   Photographer: Ben

 Whatzit?

 When you do a quick jab, the Whatzit? acts like a solid.

When you do a slow poke, the Whatzit? acts like a liquid.

Whatzit? by Zach and Conor
 This week in science we made Whatzit. You might ask what is Whatzit? You mix cornstarch and water. We experimented to see if it is a liquid or a solid. We thought it was a liquid at first but, it was both. When we felt it we only felt the top, it felt like a liquid, but when we jabbed hard it felt like a brick.

Explode by Conor and Zach
Have you ever mixed vinegar with baking soda? Well this week in science we did, IT WAS AWESOME! When you mix baking soda with vinegar, BAM, IT EXPLODES! We observed what it would do in a bag. The bag puffed up with carbon dioxide and, IT WAS AWESOME! This was a example of a chemical reaction. I wish we could do that again.

Weekly Reflection: November 2

Reporters: Ben and Nathan    Photographer: Maura

Happy Halloween!

This is a picture from the Halloween parade. 

This is a picture of cups that have different materials in. We are seeing which one evaporates the fastest.

Halloween Party by Ben
At our Halloween party we played a game called Taboo. One person picked a card out of a paper bag. That person could only say one word. That person's team had to guess what it was. We also played a game called Bingo. At first we played 3 in a row. The mom showed two pictures and someone said Bingo already!! Then we played full board Bingo.  Thank you, room moms, for organizing this.

Evaporation Experiment by Nathan
We did an evaporation experiment yesterday.  We were supposed to find out if more evaporation happened in different sized opening containers.  We figured out that the larger opening container had the most evaporation.

Weekly Reflection: October 26

Reporters: Maura and Lauren     Photographer: Will

Orchestra Hall

Waiting for the concert to start

Watching the Symphony of Doom perform

Symphony of Doom by Maura

Today our class went to Orchestra Hall. We listened to some pieces of music that we have listened to in music class. There was very pretty architecture on the ceilings and walls, and the music was great. There was acting and the music helped us picture what the mimes and actors were doing. We got to sit on the balcony and had a great view of the show! I thought that is was a very fun and exciting field trip!

 Testing to see if air takes up space

 Using the scale to measure soap in different states

What the soap looks like as a solid

4th Grade Science by Lauren

This week on Tuesday we had a science morning.  We spent the whole morning learning about matter. We were trying to prove that air takes up space, and that if you change the state of matter then it will not change its weight.  We found out that it won't because you are not adding or taking away from your solid, liquid, or gas.

Weekly Reflection: October 19

Reporters: Lachlan and Will      Photographer: Madison

Matter Investigations

Mad Scientists!

 We carefully recorded our observations.

 Working together, we discovered properties of matter.

In one investigation, we observed how different materials responded to being stirred.  This is dish soap.

What's the Matter? by Lachlan
In science this week we learned about matter. We had balloons filled with different things. We were identifying how it felt and what it smelt like. We opened the balloons and we found out what was in them. We looked at the color of it and we tried to see the little pieces of what made it. Then we stirred them and piled it in a cup. We tried to see it it would stay like that. We tried to see if it was like a solid, liquid or a gas.

The Year of The Dog by Will
This week for the Year of The Dog we finished reading the book. We wrote on the blog about whether or not Pacy would have found her talent if she had not got the award for the book she made. If one thing in the story hadn't happened, she might not have found her talent. I think that The Year of the Dog is a really good book and everyone should read it.

Weekly Reflection: October 12

Reporters: Madison and Hannah    Photographer: Josh

Wacky Robot
(Pictures/Video taken on our new iPad2)

Wacky Robot Video

Wacky Robot by Madison
In science we made directions for a sandwich so we could see how exact a scientist has to be. We were supposed to make directions for a robot so we had to be super specific. Mrs. Cioni and Ms. Ford pretended to be the robot reading the instructions. If you didn't say in your directions "open the bread bag"they would go to the next set of directions. Only one person's directions got all the way through!  We wrote directions twice to make them better.

Field Museum Field Trip by Hannah
All the 4th graders were learning about Naive American tribes. So then we had a little fun at the Field Museum. We went inside a cool Pawnee Lodge and also saw a huge bison. We learned a ton.  See pictures of our field trip to the Field Museum of Natural History by clicking on this link.