Einstein's Riddle

This week before Christmas vacation, I thought it would be fun to work on riddles in class.  It is a great way to focus on our language, reading and logic skills.  One of the student's asked if I had ever heard of Einsteins Riddle.  I had heard of it, but I have never tried to work through it.  It is really more of a logic puzzle than the language riddles I had given the class.  I looked it up on the computer and Thorston decided he wanted to challenge himself to solve the riddle.  He asked me to do the same, but working on logic puzzles while teaching a class in near impossible so I promised that over break I would give it a try.  After bringing the riddle home, Thorston and his mom worked on the riddle and wouldn't you know, Mom solved it!  It doesn't sound like much of a feat, but perhaps you have never read the riddle, it is quite complicated.  It is estimated that 98% of the population can not figure the riddle out.  Now I know where Thorston gets his intelligence from!  Great job Mom!

This however was not enough for Thorston so he brought in the chart that he was using to figure put the riddle, and sure enough, he did it!

I will keep my promise and work on the riddle over break, but I am sure it will take me a lot longer!

Way to go Thorston!

You can google "Einstein's Riddle" and give it a try yourself.
Let us know how you did!

Long Island Children's Museum Field Trip

Here are some pictures from our field trip to the Long Island Children's Museum.  We learned about simple machines and had the opportunity to visit all of the exhibits.  The students built building with blocks, played with bubbles, climbed the hanging "tunnel".  The girls had fun pretending to be news anchors and radio hosts.  Most of my pictures are of one group because the rest were exploring with their parent chaperons.  If anyone has pictures of the rest of our bunch, I would love for you to share.  We had a great day exploring in new ways!

A Lesson in Place Value Takes a Turn

     The other day we started a new unit in math: place value.  At the end of the lesson, we were using base ten blocks and some how we began questioning how many units would it take to cover our classroom floor.  We took our heads out of our books, left our desks and began problem solving.  Students counted the floor tiles and figured how many units it would take to cover one tile.  Very quickly they were able to calculate the area of our classroom in square units.  There were some bumps along the way, and they forgot to take into consideration that our classroom is not a simple rectangle.  The calculations were not perfect, but together we discovered that it would take over 600,000 units to cover our classroom floor!

Students counting floor tiles

Book Buddies Come to 4th Grade

Today our Preschool book buddies visited us upstairs in the 4th grade classroom.  We wanted to share with them some of the technology we use in our classroom.  We used our computer and projector to watch actress Rita Moreno read the story "I Need My Monster" by Amanda Noll.  We used the website www.storyonline.com which features many different stories read by different entertainers.  The preschoolers sat quietly while the story was read and most agreed they liked the girl monster the best.  It was exciting to have them visit us this week, we hope they will have the chance to visit us again soon.

The Love of Reading

     This is what happens to a student who finds a book he loves!  Nothing makes a teacher smile more than when a student finds joy in reading and challenges himself to reach new goals.  Hunter is blazing a trail through the Captain Underpants series.  His goal is reading the entire series by the end of October.  This book he finished in 1 day!  This kid rocks!!!

Independent Learing

  We have been learning a lot about volcanoes in the 4th grade.  We are trying to keep focused on our big question, but sometimes we get distracted by the cool information we find about volcanoes.  Did you know that there are 3 volcanoes on Mars?  Tomorrow we are going to be looking at the fascinating ice caves of Mt. Rainer.  These caves are caused by the heat coming from the volcano.
Look at this amazing picture from the Seattle Times website.

Book Buddies

    Today we finally got to meet our book buddies!  Now that the preschoolers are settled into their routines the fourth grade was able to visit for some reading time.  They had time to read 2 stories to their new friends and then walk them over to Praise.  The 4th graders modeled their best behavior for their preschool friends during Praise and received lots of hugs in return.  Next week I hear they may be making chocolate chip cookies!  

Watching Lava Flow

     We have been continuing our research on volcanoes and have come across, what has become one of the student's favorite videos.  I have to admit, watching lava flowing is extremely interesting.  The second video is of lava flowing onto ice.  These videos, as interesting as they are, make it difficult to stay on task in answering the big question:  How do volcanoes change the land and what effect do they have on humans?  

  We did find out an interesting fact today about volcanoes!  Did you know that there are volcanic eruptions on Mars?  We had no idea.  That brings us to another question...how do they know that?

Lava vs Can of Coke!

Lava flows onto ice

Hey...we know that that is how obsidian is made!

Have you ever seen a volcano eruption or a lava flow?

Please share with us!

What a Great Day!!!

    Today during math, we made sure that we remembered our class rule: Remember to Play!

We practiced our math problems by writing on our desks!  Have no fear, the expo markers wiped right off when we finished.  We even know the secret of how to get permanent marker off!  With that in mind, why not use our desks to write on!

    We also had fun researching volcanoes in class today.  We are trying to find out how volcanoes change the Earth and affect human life.  This group was looking for information on what happens to lava after a volcano erupts.  Did you know that when lava cools quickly it becomes obsidian or that the volcano Kilauea in Hawaii is erupting in 2 places?  One group found out that lava can reach temperatures of over 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit!

Our BYOD policy in action!

Meet the Teacher

   Thank you to all of the parents who came to Meet the Teacher Night last night.  We had a full house in 4th grade!  I can't express how excited I was to meet with everyone to share my ideas for the upcoming year.  It was an evening of chatting with old friends and meeting some new ones as well.  Our school has such an amazing group of engaged and supportive parents that it creates a wonderful atmosphere of learning and mutual respect.  I expect to see great things from my students this year, and I am truly blessed to have the support of their parents as well.

Let the Blogging Begin!

The 4th grade class has begun to blog!  We are keeping it to ourselves right now, using our bulletin board and sticky notes, but we are off to an exciting start.  Why blog you might ask?  Blogging gives us an opportunity to share our ideas with the world.  It gives students a purpose to write and hopefully a desire to write.  Learning how to create a positive digital footprint in 4th grade is essential as soon they will be jumping into the world of social media. Student will be writing about what they are interested in as well as some assigned work.  I encourage you to read our class and student blogs and share them with your family and friends.  We welcome your comments!

Welcome!

Welcome to Emanuel Lutheran's 4th Grade Blog.  This is the place for you to find out what we have been up to.  Soon there will be samples of student work, pictures of our fabulous class, and reflections from the students themselves.  It will be a platform for families and friends to connect with our class.  Feel free to leave comments as we are excited to hear from you.