4th Grade G&T Tribune
Cross Curricular Connections
In art we have made land forms with clay and dirt. We made an aerial and a side view of our land forms. In humanities, we are writing our rock story like a diary from first person perspective, and getting more information and ideas for our land forms from learning about Krakatoa and Pompeii. In science, we are getting information and researching so we can write our stories with scientific facts. In math, we are measuring the mountains and seeing how tall they are with centimeters for our maps. That is what we have been doing in all of the subjects for our rock story.
Eddie, Kelsey, Kaya
Humanities
In humanities, we interviewed the partner we picked in the beginning of the year. We predicted what would happen in the book by answering questions before we read it. We started the book the Twenty-one balloons.Then we did a presentation about the volcano and the lifestyle about the island of Krakatoa. After that we plotted the character traits of professor Sherman and the Krakatoans from the book Twenty-one balloons. We did a big project about the setting of Krakatoa and Wizard of Oz. We focused on how the setting could affect the characters actions and feelings. Last, we started to learn about how to use context clues. When we read a word we didn’t know, we looked at the sentences nearby to figure out the meaning and how the word is used. We love humanities and the things that we are learning, humanities is helpful and fun.
Joshua, Unique, Eva
Science
In science we learned and explored a lot, and we still are exploring and learning. In the beginning, we first made a hypothesis of what causes landforms to change with natural disasters. In that project we investigated our natural disaster and how it would change the land. We drew how the disaster would look like in action. Next, we did some observations and learning about erosion and weathering. When we first learned about weathering and erosion, we went into stations to act out weathering and erosion with different materials. In the stations, we had a station about gravity, wind, water and glacier and how it could cause erosion. Then we would write down the important information. In one station we had to use a protractor and a “hill” (privacy folder) and we would take any kind of rock available. After we have our rock, we have to set up an angle with our “hill” and get our protractor ready and we would put our rock at the top. We also needed 2 rulers so we could measure how far the rock would go and we needed a timer so we can determine how long it will take the rock to slide down the “hill”. Then we wrote our observations. There was another station where we have sediments (dirt and sand) in this cube like bowl and there was also some big rocks not too big but big. Then we had a cup of water that we had to split between us and our team members to pour in the bowl. We then had to look very closely to determine if we saw any sediments or rocks moving and we would write down our observations on a paper. The last station had some small sediments, medium sediments and large sediments (rocks) and we needed to wear goggles while exploring the station for safety reasons. In this station the sediments were aligned in individual piles side by side. There were rulers aligned at the side edge of the garbage bag that held the sediments. Then with all of this data and information, the conclusion was that weathering and erosion can cause landforms to change.
After we learned about weathering and erosion, we learned about rocks and what they were made of. Then we had to bring a rock to school and learn how erosion can make and break rocks. Then after, we took the rock and make its perspective and who it started on .Then we started the rock story part one out of four. In part one, we had to include how we started on a landform as weathering and erosion happens. Then in part 2 we wrote how we traveled on the land and describe the different types of land and elevation. Then, we learned about the three main types of rocks which were igneous rocks, metamorphic rocks, and sedimentary rocks and we figured out what type of rock we had. When we knew enough, we did a project called Rock Story Part 3. In part 3, we had to include how we turn into a different rock , due to the three main rocks. If we want to turn to a sedimentary rock, we need to go through erosion and weathering. Then, we will turn into sediment. Last, we will need to be deposited through compaction and cementation to become a sedimentary rock. Then we can also become a metamorphic rock. To become a metamorphic rock, it needs to be deep underground in a high temperature that is good enough for magma not to melt it. Then it will go through pressure to contain new minerals, and texture. The last type of rock that we can become is an igneous rock. To become that, we need to form from melted magma which becomes a crystal. It goes through pressure to become that cyrstal which is an igneous rock. After that, we learned how to tell them apart by doing an observation. What we did in the observation was the scratch test. When we scratched it, particles fell out, we noticed the pattern, and the color. Then with all that knowledge, we told the class what we think the rock is. We learned from talking about our observations and comparing our evidence. Then we had to do part 3 of our rock story. In part 3, we had to include how we turn into different rocks based on what we learned. We also do annotations with science passages. Now we are done so now you know all about what 4th grade learned in science class.
Aylanni, Oscar, Jimy, Elias, Mekhi
Mapping Volcanoes
Art
What our class has been doing in art is we have been looking at different drawings of land forms both man-made and natural. We made clay models and then tried to make maps out of them and then we drew a different land form. We are also watching videos to help us with our details.
Library
In library we are not just checking out books; we are also turning into little detectives by looking at real life mysteries. We try to find answers by looking at clues! All the cases are already solved so we find them out when we are done.
Gym
In gym we are practicing strategies to get through hula-hoop tag, like stay away from a clump of people and when we are aimed at run around in a circle to make it hard for them
The rules are:
1.To spread out when the whistle is blown
2.Try to dodge all hula-hoops
3.All taggers must kick the hula-hoops but the hula-hoops must stay on the floor
Music
In music we are learning all the easiest notes on the ukulele, but plucking is really hard!
Katherine, Valeria, Rachel
Math
In math, we have been learning how to work together to solve problems with the students in our groups. We work with everybody! Starting in September, we were first introduced to math anxiety. We learned it’s a worried feeling in math that interferes with math performance . It can be relieved by taking walks or breaths. We went on learning about place value. Place value is about a digit and its place in a number. Regrouping had to do with place value too. It works by identifying the place value and either moving the value back or forward, which means to move one place to the right to make the amount bigger. We also focused on different strategies for multiplication. We are all finding the strategy that works best for us. Don’t forget about mini-lessons and stations about measuring! Measuring was used to find the height and length of our landforms for the rock story we are currently working on. Dr. Monaghan is planning to teach us more on division. Math is a wonderful subject.
Aiden, Kathia, Izzy
