We used Padlet by logging into our Google classroom today to begin our opinion pieces! We discussed why it is so important to have really good supporting reasons for our opinions to persuade people to believe what we believe! Students were sharing their opinions about whether fourth grade students should have phones or not.
This is Studio 214, our fourth grade classroom, where I will post cool websites, provide classroom information on upcoming events, and post pics of what we are learning in our class!
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Visible Learning- Hattie
This summer, I read part of a book called "Visible Learning" by John Hattie and I learned so much! I wanted to try out his top strategies this year and so we tried out his number one strategy last week before we took our test. Students looked at our science test and predicted what their score would be based on what they felt they could answer correctly. They wrote down the topics they thought they needed more work with and had the opportunity the next day to complete a task on that topic. Each student chose their own learning task and completed it on their chrome books. Engagement was through the roof and it was individualized based on what each student needed.
Testing our Hand Pollinators
We tested our hand pollinators and boy, did we have pollen everywhere! We compared the results of each pollinator, related to the cost of each as well to see who would get the big engineering contract from the cherry tree farmer! The results were very interesting and we discussed what we would do if we could redesign and test again!
Project Menus- Plants
We completed projects with our first section of this unit on plants. Students were given a menu to choose their project from and the rubric so they could reflect as they worked. They did an awesome job with their projects and were so creative!
Engineering with Minecraft
We had a special treat this week when the "Science Guy" came to lead a task with our fourth graders! They conducted an engineering design task using Minecraft!
Testing Scrimmage
We are having our first testing scrimmage of the year this week! Students will take a timed test over material we have covered so far this year in reading, math, and science!
Friday, September 18, 2015
Internal and External Structures of Flowers
We dissected the blooms of flowers this week and what we found was so COOL! Students found the stamen, pistil, ovary, and petals! Check it out!
Designing and Creating Hand Pollinators!
We designed and created hand pollinators today (to help a cherry farmer pollinate all his cherry trees on his farm, due to a pesticide issue that killed off most the bees) and will test them next week to compare who had the best pollinator at the best price!
Thursday, September 17, 2015
Save the Cherry Pie- Engineering Design
We started an engineering design task today to "save the cherry pie". Students are working hard to design and create a hand pollinator that can be used to pollinate 7 ft. cherry trees because of the bee shortage (a neighbor put out pesticide to kill the bees). We will create and test them tomorrow! Students only have a limited supply of each item and there is a cost associated with each, so after we test our products, we will compare the amount of pollen it transferred as well as the cost of their pollinator to decide which group had the best hand pollinator for the cherry tree farmer to purchase!