Our internet server has been having problems so we haven't been able to write our blog for a few days. Here are some highlights of what we have been doing.
Last friday, we built towers. When we saw this on the schedule, we had no idea what it could be (it had also been on the schedule three times but we'd not had time to do it). In the activity Ms Chown challenged us to build the tallest tower we could with nothing but paper clips, 10 sheets of paper and some tape. The biggest challenge was that we weren't allowed to speak to each other at all. We had 10 minutes to build it!
Different people started planning in different ways, some of us wrote to each other. Some tried to communicate using nothing but gestures.
Damar and Josue took an early lead after they hit upon the strategy of rolling the paper. They soon built a very tall tower indeed. Here they can be seen pondering what they could do next.
Unfortunately for this fantastic duo, their strategy of joining the paper with tape proved to be too unstable. Despite trying hard, they could not add that vital extra layer.
Unfortunately for this fantastic duo, their strategy of joining the paper with tape proved to be too unstable. Despite trying hard, they could not add that vital extra layer.
Across the room, others were inspired by Damar and Josue's building style. The two teams on this table soon noticed that they could tuck each rolled sheet inside each other for added stability. Britny and Elijah's tower even made it into the Explorer News email!
After we had spent 10 minutes building silently, we measured the towers. In order for them to be measured, they had to stand up independently for 3 seconds.
Once we had our winners, we moved on to our next challenge. This was exactly the same as the one before, but this time we were allowed to talk. Our new towers were all taller than in round one. However, many people preferred our first round. When we hadn't been able to talk!
At the end, we tidied up pretty quickly so Ms. Chown didn't even mind a little silliness. See below for the fabulous moustached 4th graders!
After we had spent 10 minutes building silently, we measured the towers. In order for them to be measured, they had to stand up independently for 3 seconds.
Once we had our winners, we moved on to our next challenge. This was exactly the same as the one before, but this time we were allowed to talk. Our new towers were all taller than in round one. However, many people preferred our first round. When we hadn't been able to talk!
At the end, we tidied up pretty quickly so Ms. Chown didn't even mind a little silliness. See below for the fabulous moustached 4th graders!
We have also been reading some excellent books, including Sitting Ducks, Baby Brains and Robomom, and Millie's Marvelous Hat. We have loved them all.
Baby Brains and Robomom was an unexpected treat. On Friday we found it in our school library and checked it out for Ms. Chown (who was incredibly excited to read a Baby Brains story that was new to everyone).
Below is a picture by the artist Edward Hopper. Our challenge is to see if we can find the illustration in Sitting Ducks that is based on this painting. Ms. Chown thinks that it is incredible to see how this painting has clearly inspired an illustration - just like the way we love to use great ideas (like rolled up pieces of paper in tower building) from others in our own work. What do you think?
Baby Brains and Robomom was an unexpected treat. On Friday we found it in our school library and checked it out for Ms. Chown (who was incredibly excited to read a Baby Brains story that was new to everyone).
Below is a picture by the artist Edward Hopper. Our challenge is to see if we can find the illustration in Sitting Ducks that is based on this painting. Ms. Chown thinks that it is incredible to see how this painting has clearly inspired an illustration - just like the way we love to use great ideas (like rolled up pieces of paper in tower building) from others in our own work. What do you think?
The California Times - Junior
Last but not least, on Tuesday we decided that we would write a newspaper for Room 15. We brainstormed a list of class news and chose what we wanted to work on. The next day Ms. Chown told us about how we could use alliteration, exaggeration or word play to create eye-catching headlines. We discussed then voted on the name of the newspaper, chose our journalistic names (Ms. Chown was Editor in Chief) and interviewed each other for our front page spread on our class talents. Our teams worked really well but already we are thinking about what we could do next time - from interviewing speciality teachers, including different languages (our class knows Spanish, Swedish and some Greek as well as several other languages), creating illustrations, longer articles etc.
The California Times Junior is available from the Room 15 noticeboard. Please stop by to get a copy. Our next edition will be published in October.
The California Times Junior is available from the Room 15 noticeboard. Please stop by to get a copy. Our next edition will be published in October.