Last Friday, we were lucky to have two visitors from USGS to talk with us about hurricanes. The scientists arrived with a huge water table filled with a model of coastal land--complete with homes. After sharing a great deal of information about how hurricanes form, the uncertainty of their paths and the effect they can have on coastal land, they used their model, and a giant fan!, to simulate a hurricane. They students were able to observe the model up close in small groups and witness the effects on the land described by the scientists in their presentations. Students found that spits formed off of the edge of the island, and that the sandy land facing the hurricane eroded with the high winds. One house on stilts even tipped over after the land beneath it began to erode away. The model provided a tremendous, up-close example of the effects high hurricane winds and water can have on coastal land.
Tomorrow we will engage in three hands on activities planned by our parent volunteers, learning about earthquakes, oil spills and tornadoes. And then on Thursday, we will enjoy a science lesson taught by the first graders in Mrs. Owen's class. Stay tuned for pictures!
In math we are wrapping up our study of area and perimeter. Today, a number of students created games that aim to teach players about area, perimeter as well as adding and subtracting fractions. Tomorrow we will spend some time being taught the new games to help secure our skills in these areas. Our unit assessment is scheduled for Thursday, and we will begin our next unit when we return from spring break.
As we read together Tuck Everlasting, students are learning how an author can use setting in many ways other than simply creating a story backdrop. In Tuck, the setting is used as foreshadowing, for helping paint a picture of characters, and to create very important mood in the story. Students are spending time really considering the characters in Tuck, identifying small details that help them understand the characters better. We continue to write long about our ideas we are having about the book, and students' writing is clearly becoming more organized, clear and thoughtful. Our next goal is two-fold: to better support our ideas with evidence from the text and really consider if our main opinion truly matters. We should finish reading the book during the week we return from spring break--and it may be minor torture making them wait to hear what happens over such a long break!
On Thursday all four fourth grade classes will meet for a final time to finalize their group Colony Projects in VoiceThread. Students are using a rubric to determine whether or not their projects meet established expectations. On Friday I should be able to publish a link to the VoiceThreads. When we return from spring break, students will learn about the colonies studied by their peers, conducting another layer of research. As students complete this last round of research, we will continue as a class reading and learning about the main events leading up to to the Revolutionary War.
Click here to link to the glogs the students created during our last round in technology that reveal research about famous American jazz musicians. Students worked with partners to research a musician and then compile that information in a glog. The process included time spent on glog design as well.
Don't forget to help your child remember to wear her/his appropriate Field Day colors on Friday. And keep your fingers crossed for a lovely day. I hope you have an enjoyable and relaxing spring break!
March 9: Field Day
March 12 - 16: spring break
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