September 1, 2021

4th graders started their first Social/Emotional Learning unit this week on Ethics. Our question of the day was "What is Fair?" Students journaled about what how they would explain the concept of fairness to a kind visiting alien (who just so happened to be named Zolorb.)

They then played a game where they placed themselves on a scale of Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree, and Strongly Disagree with the statements: 1) There is always a right and wrong choice in every situation; 2) If I believe something is wrong, then it is wrong; and 3) If someone breaks a rule/law, they should always be punished. Some students practiced explaining their choices using the Claim-Evidence-Reasoning model used in science class. The final ethics activity of the morning had students read, discuss, and sort different scenarios to decide if they found them fair on unfair. What a rich block of learning!

The 4th graders also experimented more with columns, building off their paper tower challenge from last week. They tested designs of circular, square, and triangular columns to see which could hold the most weight and what factors go into engineering a successful design and reliable testing methods. Many students were very interested in the concept of "averaging" or finding the mean of a data set. We talked about if it is ever appropriate to remove data from a set when calculating averages.

We finished up the day with a round of OuiSi, a drone selfie, and celebratory popsicles! 

Today's new word of the day was nuance, meaning a very small, subtle difference.