Well hello there. I have missed all of you! I hope you had a fabulous time just relaxing or doing whatever you did! I know a few of you were traveling, so I hope you made it there and back safe. The Grewell's had a wonderful break. We branded calves(in the picture below you can see all three brands belonging to the Grewell family...CH is grandpa, RK is brother Ricky, and ZlazyT is Zach's...it took me FOREVER to get this picture!), got our 4H bunnies, built a rabbit hutch, went to church, had a family/neighbor ranch hot dog roast/picnic, and finally relaxed on a rainy day!
I promised you a fun slideshow showcasing our fun PLTW restraining device egg/car exploration. Well...here it is. Kids went all the way through the design process from asking what it is they need to do, to writing down what they know from all of their experiments about speed, direction, potential and kinetic energy, force and backward force, transferring energy in a collision using an absorbing object, and having wiggle room to move a little in a collision. Knowing all that, they each wrote down a design/model that they wanted to build as a test car. They had certain supplies that they could shop for (they could only shop once per trial so they really needed to plan)(it was a bummer for some that forgot items like tape and cotton balls). Then, they got together in their groups and explained their ideas one at a time. The kids then had to rate each idea on a matrix asking questions like, is it realistic, will it take too long to build, will it protect the egg, and does it use supplies listed? After evaluating each design they had to decide which one to actually build and test. Then, they build and explored. That its the part you see in the video. Each time, they would have to go back and reflect on how the test went. If it went poorly, they had to fix the problem. If it was successful, then they had to go back and try another one on their list. Each group got at least two trials. It was really fun! Finally, they had to show mastery of their learning one on one. Each child was given some real world situational questions and they had to select an outcome to that event using what they knew from all their lessons and then tell why. That grade is on 4th quarter's science grades online. We will now move on to a new PLTW unit and start to build a bicycle and take apart a flashlight to see how it works. This second unit will take us the rest of the year. :0)
Our new spelling went great. Everyone did fantastic! We will take the second test tomorrow morning. Those that get two or less wrong will earn a 100%. Those that miss more than 2 will try again on Friday morning. I will give them back their paper to study from with the correct spellings. They must use the word correctly in text as well, so capital letters are a must where needed or it is wrong.
We will blaze on in MT History. We did seasonal rounds on Thursday. We followed two MT tribes up in the NW part of MT through the four seasons. Both tribes, the Salish and the Blackfeet, followed the buffalo through each season and relied on it to survive. Next, the gun and the horse are introduced through European contact. Everything pretty much changes after that.
In SS, we are ready for our SW states and capital's test. There are only four this time. The test will be on Friday. We will also take our open book test on the chapter in the text this week.
In math, we took our big geometry test last week. For the most part it went great. The grades are recorded in 4th grade math online for your viewing. There are a couple of areas that we need to revisit as a class, but overall the kids showed mastery of the subject area presented. So, we will press on. Now, we will go back and begin to review all that we have learned by applying it to real world problems. Kids will be getting hands on assignments where they have to use what they know from day one. This will help them solve the why do I even have to learn this question. :0)
In reading/Lead 21 we will be doing inquiry projects all week. Kids will be using a D2 doc program to showcase their learning about one of the Mid and Southwest States. They will do this all in class, and we will present them on Friday. If they want to work on them at home, they may, but they will have plenty of time in class if they use their time wisely. Check out this picture I took last week while kids were doing rotations. Here is your donation and tax money being well spent. Kids were typing informative essays while I was editing them online at the same time and commenting back to them on what they needed to fix, doing Moby Max math/reading/language programs, and looking up idioms and what they mean in order to do their language work successfully. Three rotations...all using the chrome books you bought! Thank you!!!!
We finished up our unit on struggles in Fly Time last week. Kids discovered the following sequence: struggles create perseverance which creates character which creates hope. We learned to look at struggles as a learning opportunity and find the fun in them knowing that giving up will not help our character form which will then not lead us to hope for ourselves or for others. We talked about how we sometimes struggle so that we can later know how to help someone else going through the same thing because we will have empathy and advise for them. It was a great unit.
Lastly, a happy, happy, happy birthday to Mr. Cayden! I hope he had a great one on his day off on Friday! Thank you so much for the yum, yum, yummy cupcakes on Friday. I sure enjoyed mine while sitting in a great, great presentation on Thursday. Wow! Happy Birthday buddy!
I hope that all of you have a wonderful Monday, and I will see you on Tuesday!
