Native American Tableaus

To review our new learning of Native Americans, teams of students created tableaus that showed the environment, food, resources, travel, religion, and culture of each region. We hope you enjoy!

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Electricity and Motors

On our second day of studying electricity, we learned how switches affect the flow of electricity in a circuit. As in our previous investigation, students were given a set of materials and asked to discover for themselves. I just asked, "How could you use this switch to make your motor turn on and off?" Using what they learned from our previous experiment, students were able to design a circuit that correctly utilized a switch. It was even more impressive when they were able to explain WHY the switch closed and opened the circuit. They had a great time experimenting and trying out new designs!

We also learned how to draw a schematic diagram. Here's Madison's Science Notebook entry:

Exploring Electricity

We had a great week beginning our study of electricity. I first asked our students to draw a diagram of how electricity flows from a battery to a light bulb. There were many different hypotheses among our kids. To test out our hypotheses, students were given two wires, a light bulb, and a battery. Their task was to make the light bulb come on. After several minutes, Adam and his table were able to light their bulb!

It took a little while, but every student was able to light their bulb. Several teams were able to find multiple ways for their bulbs to come on! Here is Elizabeth's drawing of the different ways we found to light the bulb...

We learned that electricity travels in a complete circuit, from one end of the battery to the other. If there is not a complete circuit (or circle), the electricity cannot flow through the receiver (in this case, the light bulb). Most of our students revised their original ideas, coming to a clear understanding of how electricity flows.

Different Ways to Add

Last week we focused on learning various strategies for adding large numbers. We reviewed the traditional algorithm, and we also learned the partial-sums and column addition algorithms. Each of these strategies forced us to gain a deeper understanding of what happens when we add. I want our kids to develop conceptual understandings of how numbers work, and these algorithms helped accomplish this. On this Friday quiz, you can see how Emily used all three of the algorithms to add numbers. Many of our students did the same thing, and I'm very proud of their mathematical thinking.

Base Ten Blocks

This week we're focusing on addition. It's important for students to have a good conceptual understanding of what happens when we add. A lot of students say, "I carried the one" when adding. But do they know what that means? Today we pulled out the base ten blocks to gain a better understanding of what happens when we groups ones, tens, and hundreds together.

Here's a great website we used to understand what's happening when we add: http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/frames_asid_154_g_2_t_1.html

Room 241 News - September 17, 2007

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While Challenge was out today, we decided to try out some new technology. We used our webcam to create a newscast of the current happenings of Room 241. Enjoy!

Podcast - Week of September 10-14

Click here to hear this podcast. You can also right-click on "here" and download the podcast directly to your computer.

On Friday afternoon, we had a few minutes before we left for the weekend. I pulled a few names from the random cup and those students shared their highlights from this week. We hope you enjoy!

Close Observations

Writers are people who make close observations. We read the picture book NIGHT IN THE COUNTRY and hypothesized that Cynthia Rylant's notebook was probably filled with very close observations before she wrote that book. We decided to practice this strategy by visiting the playground. Each student found a quiet spot and set out to make really close observations. Here's what Amy wrote on her first day...

Don't you love how she wrote that "the sun was sitting right next to me"? What a great example of personification! Everyone in the class also liked how she used strong words like "sway," "crinkling," and "gentle." We also noticed how she used a simile comparing the sky to a blanket.

After studying Amy, Justin, and Caroline's writing, we set out to the playground again to make more close observations. Here's what Virginia wrote today:

I love the way Virginia takes risks in her writing. Her closing sentence is incredible - comparing two opposite ideas that bring home a solid feeling (just like Amy did in hers!). I also love the way Virginia focuses on the light. She's noticing things other people wouldn't notice, and the words she uses to capture her surroundings are poetic.

Encourage your kids to be noticers of the world. A writer's notebook gives us a place to slow down and notice. I think you'll be surprised at all the ideas that are around you.

Magnet Strength

On Friday, I posed a question to the class - How could we test the strength of a magnet's attraction? I handed out materials to each science team, and I asked them to design an experiment that would answer this question. The teams began brainstorming and trying out various experiment designs. Justin, Jonathan, Madison and Virginia quickly came up with a really great idea. They showed it to the class, and everyone quickly began designing similar experiments. Here's some pictures of them working:

Here's Atticus' notebook entry where he describes the set-up of the experiment

After finding out the strength of our magnets, we posed a new problem - How does space affect the strength of a magnet's attraction. We began by adding a plastic spacer between the two magnets and conducting our experiment again. We added two spacers, three, spacers..all the way to six. After adding each spacer we tested the strength of the magnets. We found that space DOES make a difference. As the space increases between the magnets, the strength of the attraction decreases between the two. It was a fascinating experiment!