We had a blast once again this week in 4th grade.
First, as promised, we retried our Elephant Toothpaste experiment and this time it was a success! This was proof to students that F.A.I.L is okay and if we keep trying we will succeed! 
To start the week off in social studies we created kindness cloths with Native American symbols. The students created a story on their cloth that told about a time they were kind. This also was integrated within our current PBL on "Choose Kind" so the students could really relate to how the Native Americans thought that being kind was very important in their culture. We are currently putting them all together to make a kindness quilt.
The next day, our scientists were at it again....to review process skills students tested gummy bears in 4 different liquids (vinegar, water, baking soda water, salt water). Students made qualitative and quantitative observations of their findings Before putting in each liquid they measured the length of the gummy bear and made predictions on what they thought the bears would look like in 24 hours..when we returned the next day students were astonished at what they found.
Students also visited stations to practice their prediction, observations, and inferencing skills. They communicated with each other with their opinions on each picture posted. Students really learned the importance of the 4 C's this week (creativity, collaboration, communication, and critical thinking).
We discussed bullying and to facilitate classroom discussion we completed a "table texting" activity. This allowed students to see different responses to the question: "What is your definition of bullying?"
Then we came together as a class and created our own definition to bullying.
We also met our new reading buddies this week from Mrs. Hyder's 1st grade class. The students were so excited to meet their new friends and read together!
In math we are learning about place value, on our blog you can find different videos to help you with this and songs to help you remember the place value positions. We had a place value race where I gave students a number and they had to race to see which group could construct the number the quickest using place value blocks and nonverbal communication. These kiddos were pros at this!
To end our week, we created heart maps and the students will use these throughout the year when they are in need of writing ideas.
Thank you once again for allowing me to love and teach your children! I have been extremely blessed to have 23 students who are curious and have a love for learning. Have a great week!
-Mrs. Gault
