Blog Report- Dynamo Torch

 

 

 

Introducing our blog reporter, Miss Kaylee, as she shares about our recent science experiment with the Dynamo Torch!

It's ELECTRIC- Discovery Lesson

We had our first discovery lesson with electricity this morning and it has been so much fun (we listened to "The Electric Slide" too)!  Students were not given any background information or instructions, but were asked to use the materials at their stations to make the light bulb light up!  They are synergizing!

 

 

 

 

Renewable and Nonrenewable Resources Card Sort

          We are studying natural resources in science and how using clean energy is best for our environment.  Students sorted the words into three categories: renewable, nonrenewable, and man-made products.  There were some great discussions happening!  We then watched a brain pop video and students got to change their answers after the video was over.

Courtyard Fourth Grade Service Project

We have started working on the courtyard for the year by pulling weeds last week.  Fourth grade has been taking care of the courtyard as a service project, since we reconstructed it three years ago by collaborating with the high school agriculture department.  They worked so hard and the saying "many hands make light work" is very true!  We enjoyed popsicles after our hard work!

 

Writer's Circle

We have a brand new writing curriculum at CCES and we love it!  On this day, we were sharing our "small moment" stories with our partners and boy, are we off to a great start with our narrative ideas!

Clean Energy Projects

          Scientists in the fourth grade science lab this week have been researching about clean energy sources, including geothermal, hydroelectric, solar, and wind energy.  They worked together to research in their groups about their energy source and then individually, they created a poster to display their information and then scored themselves as a self-reflection of their work.  Tomorrow we will present them and students will use a four-square organizer to take notes on each type of energy explained.

 

Dynamo- Energy Transfer

     This week we have been learning how energy of motion can be transferred into energy of electricity and used to light our light bulbs.  We read "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind" to learn about how a teenager created a windmill to provide electricity for his small village in Africa. 

 

Human and Natural Features around CCES

     We went on a scavenger hunt in social studies recently to locate physical and human features on our school campus!  There were so many of each!

"My Partner Said"

     We have started practicing how to do "My Partner Said" which is where students read an article together with a partner and they make text connections in each section of the article.  They write their connections in the margin of the article and this teaches them to slow down and comprehend what they are reading.  It's fun too because students get to pick where they sit, so many of them sat in the floor!

Remind 101

Be sure to sign up for Remind 101 for our homeroom to receive DAILY text message reminders!  I am posting a picture each day of what our kids have for homework that night and upcoming tests so you can stay connected with what is going on in Studio 214 and at CCES.  We will send home another note Monday for those who have not signed up yet.

 

 

Solids, Liquids, and Gas- Oh My!

This week in science, we focused on learning about how to create a hypothesis and how chemical changes can cause energy to be created.  We learned about how all matter is made of particles and is either a solid, liquid, or gas.  Students began Monday by creating a group hypothesis, after we observed what happened when water was added to a mystery solid substance, and what we think should be combined to have the largest transfer of energy in another trial on Tuesday.  There were some explosions on Wednesday! 

 

 

Shades of Summer

The crew of Studio 214 shared what they did this summer by completing this art project and writing piece.  They each designed their own hair and faces and wrote about what they did over summer break.  They turned out really cute!

 

 

Now Hiring

This is a poster of our classroom jobs that students applied for last week.  They got to pick
their top three and explain why they should be hired for that position.  We have three shifts this year and every student has a job in our classroom!  We will still have our regular jobs of leader, clipboard/messenger, and light person that will change weekly so every students gets to do those things throughout the year.  I'm really excited because they will take care of keeping our classroom running!  Their names go along the outside of the job and are yellow so it looks similar to a movie board and matches our class theme.

 

 

Special Lunch!

Our new superintendent, Dr. Biggerstaff, ate lunch with the crew from Studio 214 today and they were so excited!  I love our new signs hanging in the background too that teaches our kids how to "LEAD" in the lunchroom!

 

 

Stage in Use!

We used our classroom stage on the very first day of school!  I look forward to the many presentations in Studio 214 on our stage!

 

 



CCES School Song- We Are FAMILY

 

 

 

Here is our CCES school song with the words!  Our school theme is "We are Family" and we are a Leader in Me school this year, so I wrote this song for our students to sing during our morning assembly each week.  I wanted it to be to the tune of something they would hear on the radio for awhile, so that's why this song was chosen- it's current and on the hit list.  Sing along!

 

 

 

 

 

Classroom Stage!

We now have a classroom stage for our skit productions and for our "open mic" readings!  My students from last year suggested during the last week of school that they thought it would be cool if we could add a stage to our classroom for future students.  I brainstormed this summer and came up with this!  It's a sturdy table top that I painted- this is from start to finish.  Once it was moved into our classroom, we removed the legs and added lights around the bottom.  I think it turned out great and is a cool addition to our movie studio production theme in "Studio 214"!  We will add a microphone later for our performances!

 

 

Table Top Twitter

Students traveled in groups to each station to "tweet" their responses to the question posted.  The questions were used to find out their ideas about what makes a good student and teacher, why rules and procedures are important, and what their ideal classroom would be like.  It was very informative!

 

Team Building Task

We watched a couple of funny commercials to talk about team work and why it's important in our classroom.  Then we divided our class into two groups and had a little task to complete together as a team!  The first team had more difficulty getting the pipe to the floor only using their two finger tips, but the second team watched and learned from the first team and made it all the way to the floor.  It was a fun learning experience!

 

First Day!

Students in Studio 214 were hard at work as soon as they got everything put away this morning!  We had such a wonderful day and I know it's going to be such a wonderful year!