Friday, September 13, 2013

1-2-3..BLAST OFF!!!

To go along with our unit on  safety procedures and steps of a simple scientific investigation we built our very own paper rockets to launch. Students had to create a testable question for their experiment, make predictions, decide the manipulated variable and finally test out the infamous rockets with the launcher. Here are a few pictures from our experiments....











Wednesday, September 11, 2013

PBL's, landfills, Action Plans.....so much going on in our classroom!!

Last week while researching ways to better our environment we stumbled on the word "landfill." After researching all week  the components of a landfill and ways we can reduce landfills in our area we decided to make an "edible landfill." Here are a few pictures of our edible landfills.
 


The actual edible landfill before it was devoured.


The supplies needed for our landfills.



PBL....REAL WORLD

PBL'S
 
 
We are taking a different approach here at OES for learning. We want our 4th graders to become THINKERS in REAL WORLD situations. The first PBL our 4th grade will be working on is determine how big our Carbon Footprint is and how we can take the information we have learned and better our environment. The first week of school we collected our snack trash to see just how many pieces were accumulated over one week...........Our class collected 54 pieces of trash the first week. The second week we tried to think smart with the trash we used and we cut down our trash to just 30 pieces. We are making BIG changes in our classroom! 

We also participated in the "One Small Square" activity to see how to make detailed observations. We read the book One Small Square:Backyard by Donald Silver and headed outside with our shovels, squares, and pencils to observe. We used our 5 senses to make observations and soon we will determine how we can help our environment one small square at a time.

What will we think of next?????










Friday, September 6, 2013

Final Products

The class worked SO hard on their Native American homes. Here are the finished products!

Jonathan and Autumn built their "Chickee" and made another box for the campfire.
 

 Dayawna and Patrick made the "Earth Lodge."
 Natalie and Alesia worked so hard to build the perfect "Hogan."
 Kate, Anna Leigh, and Shaun made the "Longhouse" they also built their very own front porch, to add an extra touch they added the Native American by the front porch.
Plankhouse" built by Bryce, Brady and Cole
 The "Pueblo"  constructed by Owen and Sydney
 "Tepee" built by Ellie and Emily...notice the Native American outside of the tepee.
 "Wigwam" built by Austin, Wilson and Leilah, notice the land around the wigwam and the small pond they built
PERFECT JOB  EVERYONE!

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Native American Homes

Native American Homes
Today we built our very own Native American homes in class. Each student was assigned a region to research and home to build. Thank you parents for all of the donations to help make this possible!
 
 
Autumn and Jonathan building their "Chickee"

Autumn building her Chickee

Dayawna and Patrick building their "Earth Lodge "

Owen building his "Pueblo"

Emily and Ellie building their "Tepee"