Mexico

Hola 4th Graders, Since our Monarchs are migrating down to Mexico, let's track them here  Then check out interesting facts about Mexico at these sites.

• Kids World Travel Guide
• National Geographic
• Kids Stuff Mexico
  

Monarch Movie

Hey 4th grade entomologists - that means scientists that study bugs!
Today you will be watching a movie called the Incredible Journey of the Monarch Butterfly  so put on your headphones - find a comfy place to sit and begin watching this great video. You won't watch all of it today so please write down the time you stopped watching and put it in you math folder.

Washington DC by Numbers

Hey 4th graders, Let's find out all the numbers about some important landmarks in our Nation's capital - Washington DC.

• The White House
• The Capital Building
• The Washington

Hello Fourth Graders! Welcome to your blog. We have been learning about geometry in math this week so let's practice a bit. Check out these websites - Line Shoot  Line Segment and Ray Practice and Line Practice. Estimating Angles  Shape Recognition

Getting to Know You Form

Welcome back guys! I am looking forward to a super great year with you all. Let's get to know each other. Please fill out Getting to Know You form. Don't forget to hit submit once you have finished.

4th Grade Rocks and Minerals

Hey 4th Grade geologists! First, finish all 12 of the Study Jams on geology. Once finished you can explore any and all of the following sites on geology:

• Kids Geology
• Science Kids
• National Geographic Geology 101
• Mine Games
• Rocks for Kids
• Junior Rockhounds
• One Kids
• Rock Collecting
• Search under geology here - Ology

Macro invertebrates

Here are some sites that will help with your Field Guide to macro-invertebrates. First read the following article and make sure to click on all the hyperlinks so you can learn even more - River Ecology.  Kids in the Creek  THEN and only THEN can you do a Wikipedia search on your assigned critter.

Try Your Hand at Coding

Check out some of these sites to understand coding. Crunchzilla  Code Monster   Tynker
Code Academy  Code.org  Code Commander or the ever popular Scratch!

My Life as a Drip

Think about the water you drank from the school fountain today. Where do you think it came from? How far do you think it traveled in a day? A week? A year? How long do you think it's been around? In this Write Away, you'll tell the life story of a single drop of water.
Activity
You'll need:
A six-sided die

What to Do:
In this activity, you'll imagine that you're a drop of water, and write a short story about your life. We'll give you the beginning and the ending; your job is to tell what happened in between.

To choose your beginning, roll the die and take the sentence that matches the number you rolled:

1) "Once I was floating around inside a cloud…"
2) "Once I was just a drop of water in the middle of the ocean…"
3) "Once I was a little flake of snow on the top of a mountain…"
4) "Once I was trapped in the ground underneath a river…"
5) "Once I was part of a huge, thundering waterfall…"
6) "Once I was lying in a puddle in the middle of a parking lot…"

Now choose your ending. Roll the die again and pick the sentence that matches the number you rolled.

1) "…and that's how I ended up in this lake."
2) "…and then some fifth-grade kid drank me up."
3) "…and now I'm just part of an iceberg."
4) "…and then a dandelion sucked me up with its roots."
5) "…and now I'm stuck here in this sewer."
6) "…and I've been floating around in this swimming pool ever since."

Make sure it takes at least three steps to get from your beginning to your ending. In other words, at least three different things should happen to your drop of water in between the beginning and the ending we've given you.

Need more info? No problem! Just see below.
Debriefing
Now think again about that water you drank today. How long do you think it's been around? The answer is, pretty much as long as the Earth has! It just keeps moving from place to place, and from solid, to liquid, to gas.

More Info
There are all kinds of ways that water moves around and changes its form. Here are some of them:

Evaporation: When lakes, rivers, and oceans get heated up, the water rises off the surface as vapor and into the air.

Condensation: If water vapor gets high enough in the Earth's atmosphere, it can clump together and form clouds.

Precipitation: Also known as rain, snow, sleet, or hail! That's when water falls from the clouds in liquid or solid form.

Collection: There are all kinds of places where water can be stored for a long time: in lakes, rivers, oceans, and other bodies of water; in the snow on mountaintops, in the ice of icebergs and glaciers, or in the ground, where it’s known as groundwater. Eventually, the water can escape these places by evaporating, melting, or trickling out to another place.

Animals and Plants drink water (or absorb it through their roots). Later on it comes out, either through sweat, urine, or transpiration (something plants do that’s like sweating through their leaves).

Water can also flow from one place to the next. For example, most rivers flow into oceans. Water can melt off the top of a mountain and flow into a lake. Groundwater can trickle out of the ground and into a body of water.

And don’t forget irrigation: man-made systems of sewers, water pipes, and plumbing. That’s how water gets into your house, school, or a public fountain. Usually the water comes from a lake, river, or man-made body of water called a reservoir.

If you want to learn more about the water cycle, check out these Web sites:

• KidZone's Water Cycle Page
• "Follow a Drip through the Water Cycle" (from the U.S. Geological Survey)
• USGS Interactive Water Cycle
• "Water: A Never Ending Story"

Coordinate Planes

Check out these cool math sites on coordinate planes. Have fun! Stock Shelves  Locate the Alien  Treasure Hunt  Wizard  Battleship

Exploring Volume of a Rectangular Prism

Practice your volume skills on these fun sites. Math Games   Shape Shoot  Geometry Games 

Electrical Circuits

Hey fourth grade electricians, Test you knowledge of electrical circuits with the following sites - Science Zones   Electrical Circuits

Health - Vitamins and Minerals

Hey 4th and 5th graders, We all know that it is important to make sure you are eating the right amount of vitamins and minerals to stay healthy and to grow strong.  You will be creating a 4 slide PowerPoint on a specific vitamin or mineral of your choice. You are to use the following websites for your reference. Teen Health  Vitamin and Mineral Table  The Ultimate Vitamin and Mineral Guide

Choose My Plate

Learn more about My Plate and find some great games.

5th Grade Optical Illusions

Hey 5th grade scientists, You have been working on optical illusions for our science fair. Watch the following videos that will help you understand why optical illusions work. Watch them in the order they are listed.

• Can you trust your eyes?                   
  
• How do optical illusions work?   
• Illusions
• Trick your brain.
• Awesome illusions
• TedTalk

Angle Practice

Hey 5th Grade Geometry Experts, Check out these fun sites for angle practice - How to Measure Angles  Measuring Angles Alien Angles - Finding Angle Measurerments  - Identifying Angles   Angle Practice

Worms

Hey 4th Graders, . Hey wormy creatures! - Let's learn about the worms eating the garbage in the bin in the back of our class! - Check out this video  and then have fun  watching Worms Eat my Garbage and then exploring The Adventures of Herman the Worm   Learn About Worms  National Geographic Worms   Vermi the Worm