Friday, May 24 is our date to investigate Light and Shadows! We are looking forward to the many hands on activities, and appreciate the assistance from all our volunteers. Here is a collection of some sites students will be using:
On Monday our class had a Mystery Number Skype with Keephills School. It’s like trying to guess a favorite food but it’s a number. You Skype with someone and guess their number. The rules were it had to be a yes or no question and the number had to have meaning. They had AMAZING questions. It was a fun and challenging activity. We could feel the energy surging in the air.
First we did a warm-up round to practise, so the number was between 0-100. It’s really easy to keep track if it’s 0-100 because you can use a hundreds chart. It gets harder when it’s over 100 because you have to use a number line. Eventually we guessed it. It was 47 because they have 47 students in their school. It was shocking when they were getting closer to our number! Ethan picked 560 because that is the number of students in Millgrove, so our number was meaningful.
Our advice is to start off practising with 1-100. Hundreds are quite easy, when you are done practicing you can go to 1-1000.
The better the questions are, the closer you’ll get to the number. A good question dominates a lot of numbers so we can get the number faster. Just for a heads up, here are some good questions to ask:
We learned
The hardest part was keeping track of the questions we had already asked and figuring out their number. We used the 100 chart on the SMARTBoard at first, and then a number line. All the questions we heard were useful. The good part was when both of us found the right answer, and everyone says “Yay”, and gets so excited.
Everyone had a job. We all had to draw a number line and take out numbers on the number line on every guess. Some people had other jobs, like people took pictures, some were the askers, two wrote down the questions, and one did the number line. We had two people at one SMARTBoard keeping track on the hundreds chart of what number it could and couldn’t be. We are still figuring out more jobs for everyone.
I know our class and Keephills were inspired by other classes and now inspired other classes to try. You should play this game! We would totally want to do it again because it helps us grow better in math. It is exciting and fun because you get to talk to and meet other people. We would love to do it again! If you would like to play with our class, you can contact Mrs. Holden on Twitter at @KelliHolden.
The students in 4GH are Millgrovers and math masters. We know that Math is awesome and we find it everywhere! We love to learn new things every day. We like a challenge, and trying to solve everything. It’s great to learn from other classes and other people. Skype is a blast! You can find us on Twitter at @millgrove4gh
Did you know that Commander Hadfield returned to Earth this week? When he returned home he had to sit in a special chair because he couldn’t walk. His legs and bones probably felt like jello! He was the first Canadian Space Commander, and he was on the International Space Station for a five month mission.
Singing with Commander Hadfield on Music Monday
Commander Hadfield is the very first astronaut to do a song that connected to Earth and he helped with music education for kids. I loved singing on Music Monday. Our class filled the skies with music!
If you search up “Commander Hadfield returns home” you will be able to see pictures and videos. He took beautiful pictures of the Earth from space. We got to see almost all of the Earth. It was a special point of view. I learned that you can cry in space but the tears won’t fall. Instead they will just make a blob. It is really cool how surface tension turns water and tears into a glob like Jello. Because there is no gravity the water balls up and stays on your cheek and eye. Hygiene is the most important thing. I learned that all of the waste burns in the atmosphere and they dehydrate it so it doesn’t smell.
It is very important that they use their water wisely. You know that’s really hard, not using very much water. It reminds us to think about it too. Did you know that when you brush your teeth in space you have to eat the toothpaste and water? They had to do lots of planning. If they hadn’t thought about how to go to the bathroom they would have needed to pack lots of pants!
Watching left us with some questions - I wonder if a dog could live in the Space Station? I wonder if your head would explode if you went in space with no helmet?
Would you like to go to space? Here’s some of our thoughts:
Commander Hadfield is my role model because he is a Canadian astronaut. He is a cool and funny man and his partners probably had a blast with him!
Did you know that London Drugs is up for an Emerald Award because they are doing a favor for the environment? They are doing something great and respecting the environment. London Drugs is up for an award because they are going to take 95% of their garbage out of the landfills by 2015. Emerald Awards are given when a group helps by being green to help the earth, and celebrating things that are eco friendly. London Drugs is not just going for the award, they are also trying to be green.
London Drugs are doing Earth friendly things. How are they doing that you might ask? Well they are transferring batteries and electronics that people don’t use to GEEP (which stands for Global Electric and Electronic Processing centre). Did you know that you can go to London Drugs to drop off your old electronic waste? They let people come in and drop off the electronics and batteries, then transfer them to GEEP. When they drop of their stuff, the customers can pick up more if they want. London Drugs pays GEEP $100 to take each pallet of old electronics from people that bring them in.
Look at all the different materials that come out of electronics!
GEEP is a place that has broken electronics like batteries, computers and other things go to get recycled and then reused. They take out the steel, copper, brass, glass and much more. Most people’s parents don’t know about GEEP, but we do because we went there when we went to the Edmonton Waste Management Centre.
London Drugs and GEEP are trying to clean up the landfills. This is important because if the acid in batteries leak in the landfills the bad acids could get into our clean water and make us sick.
Grade 4, please make a comment below. Some things to think about:
Do you think London Drugs can reach its goal of keeping 95% of its waste out of the landfill?
Do you think the Emerald Awards are a good idea?
What do you remember about our visit to GEEP?
What does your family do with its old electronics?
Would your family use the drop off at London Drugs?
Friday April 12th from 1-3 is our BIG day to reveal all our hard work on our Science fair projects. We will be presenting our projects in our classrooms and welcome parents and staff to come and check it out ! Some pictures will be posted on our blog and we will be featuring some projects during our open house in a few weeks. We hope you can make it !
Not too long ago 4GH had a amazing time. Milena from Inside Education came and told us about fossil fuels. It was great.
She taught us about Natural Resources. Some are renewable and some are non renewable. If it took 350 years to be replaced it would be non renewable. If it took 1 year it would be renewable. Then she passed around examples like coal and oil. We each got to smell it – it smelled like burning plastic to me. She brought out a pin wheel to represent wind. It was a incredible experience.
Chef Jordan
Some of the ingredients needed in fossil fuels
Milena showed how to play fun games. She told us it takes 350 years to make fossil fuels and we should not use it all up really fast. She taught us a new recipe called Fossil Stew. Jordan was the chef who cooked with the ingredients. Maddisyn was salt water and Olivia was bacteria. The lid for all the ingredients was rock (which was Adam).The rest of the class had to do the actions. For example, for salt water we said “Splish, splash” and for the strong we acted like heavyweight champions. You can see all our ingredients in the picture. Then we had to cook it in a sizzling hot oven!
Set the oven to Sizzling Hot!
We learned that it is important to not use to much of anything. We know we have to replant, reuse, reduce and recycle. Some of our ideas were to turn the water off while you are brushing your teeth, use both sides of the paper, don’t throw books away and eating all your lunch.
What is your favorite way to save our resources?
By Karson, Nic and Brayden
#1. It’s a wonderful book because it has lots of interesting words.
#2. It is true that the ending made Mrs. Holden cry.
#3. This book gave us a lot of chances to practice visualizing.
#4. We love that there are lots of animals in the book.
#5. The characters are unique and we really care about them.
#6. Winn Dixie has an amazing personality and you can’t beat a dog that smiles!
#7. Everyone uses great expressions. Whooeeee!
#8. It’s a HILARIOUS book.
#9. It’s a story that touches your heart.
#10. It’s a book that just tells a great story!
What better way to celebrate the arrival of spring than with a winter walk? Grade 4′s headed out to the field in the forest this afternoon. We ran and jumped and played in the snow, and enjoyed living in Alberta! We heard lots of stories on our way back to school – Grade 4, what was your best part?
The Millgrove Science Fair is underway! This year we will be focusing on our Grade 4 topics of :
Each project has to solve the problem of building a model/experiment with moving parts based on any of the topics. The project must consist of a visual display (poster) and a model/experiment.
We know that scientists have to consider their materials, procedure/method, observations, and modifications so these must all be presented in the display. We’ll also need to include some information on your poster based on your research. Students will also be required to present their projects to the rest of the school and guests during the Science Fair on APRIL 12th.
Many books and other resources are available for use in researching our topics. In addition to the class time spent gathering information, students are encouraged to continue their research at home during the spring break.
On Tuesday April 2nd students start to bring their materials and begin assembling their display posters and model/experiments at school. They will have access to supplies from the art room and are encouraged to reuse and recycle items whenever possible. Additional materials can be brought from home to school, but not preassembled. The completed projects will be displayed in the school for our Science fair from 1-3 on April 12th. Guests are welcome.
Remember, your project/poster should include the following components:
| Project Title: | Student: | |||
|
Exemplary |
Proficient |
Approaching |
Beginning |
|
| Visual Display | Contains all required partsProblem
Materials Procedure Observations Modifications Resources Complete descriptions for all items Uses 3 or more labelled diagrams |
Missing 1-3 items
Problem Materials Procedure Observations Modifications Resources
Descriptions for most items Uses 2 labelled diagram |
Missing 4-5 items
Problem Materials Procedure Observations Modifications Resources
Descriptions for some items Uses 1 labelled diagram |
Missing more than 5 itemsProblem
Materials Procedure Observations Modifications Resource No descriptions for items No diagrams |
| Research | More than 10 facts written in sentences.References listed in proper format (title, author, year) | 7-9 facts written in sentencesSome references listed | 5-6 facts written as simple sentences/jot notesSome references | Less than 4 facts as jot notesNo references |
| Model | More than one movable part | One movable part | One or no movable part(s) that may not work | No moveable part |
| Oral Presentation | Clear voiceLook at the audience
I know a lot about the topic |
I know some things about the topic | I know very little about the topic | Isn’t able to recall information about the topic |
| Originality/ Creativity/ Organization | Meaningful graphicsShould look like Grade 4 work, not your parents
Colorful Organized |
Some meaningful graphicsMade with some assistance
Some color |
Few meaningful graphicsMade with lots of assistance
Little care put into project Little color
|
No graphicsMade with care
Needed a lot of assistance to complete |
We were all excited to hear that 4GH was featured on Global News again! Emily Mertz enjoyed our reflections about having her and Charles visit our classroom, and highlighted some of the comments during the early news. You can see it here (our piece comes at the end).
