Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Climbing Colors

Today in Science we talked about absorption.  We did an experiment where we used different kinds of liquids (plain water, soapy water, glycerin, and cooking oil) to see which liquid is absorbed the fastest and the most by a piece of blotter paper.

Plain water got off to a very quick start and moved up the blotter paper the fastest.  Soapy water was in second place.  Glycerin and oil had a hard time moving up the paper.





Your student bloggers,
Class of 2023

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Reading Rockstars

We are enjoying the humorous novel Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing during Reading class.  We spend a lot of time focusing on comprehension and vocabulary while reading our book.  The students have read the first four chapters and are hungry for more.

Today we had our first Reading test.  In the days leading up to our test, we practiced answering comprehension questions together in class.  We discussed the difference between "plain vanilla" answers versus answers rich with details.  Hopefully the students took this to heart while working on their tests this morning.  

To help the students during the test reminders were posted on the Smartboard.  Although I orally stated these helpful hints before and during the test, some students benefit from a visual reminder.



How can you help your child at home? 

-read the nightly chapters with your child
-ask one or two questions after reading each page
-discuss characters, setting, problem, and resolution
-review vocabulary a few minutes each night
-challenge your student to use their new vocabulary words in everyday conversation





Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Hello World!

Welcome to our fourth grade blog for the 2014-2015 school year.  Check back often to see what's happening in our class.  This is our first entry of the school year.  We hope you enjoy our pictures, and maybe you'll even learn a little.

In Science today we learned that plain water has more cohesion than soapy water.  Cohesion is when similar molecules stick together.  Soap reduces the amount of cohesion in water.

In this experiment we filled plastic cups with plain water and soapy water.  We wanted to find out which liquid heaped higher over the brim of the cup.  Plain water heaped higher because it has more cohesion.






Your student bloggers,
The Class of 2023