Character Counts!

Wednesday was the last class in our Character Counts program. We were sad to see Mrs. Wiggam leave after our lesson. The students loved having her visit each month. She always motivates the students to do great things! She is an excellent teacher. We appreciate all of the volunteers and their commitment to the program. Our last pillars of character were caring and citizenship. We had a visit from Queen Alia. She was thrilled by the 'Haley' welcome we gave her. She was able to meet all of our caring citizens and was pleased by their behavior. We finished the surfer themed character books and Mrs. Wiggam presented each student with a certificate. Thank you, Mrs. Wiggam!

The science test over weather will be next Friday, March 26. The test will be multiple choice and will feature some review of past quizzes as well as analyzing and predicting weather maps. The students read all about weather systems today. The packet they received contains information we will use for the next week. The students will have to apply their weather skills for the assessment.

Famous Ohioans

We had the Ohio Wax Museum today and the students did an excellent job. I was so proud of them for their hard work. We positioned ourselves in the library and welcomed the second, third, and fifth graders, as well as our fourth grade parents, to learn about the famous people that hailed from the 'Buckeye State'. It was a great morning for all of us. We celebrated the accomplishments of the students with an easy afternoon. We started to create posters about ourselves and I learned a lot about the students including: favorite books, songs, and movies. They wrote about special events in their lives, their heroes, and designed cartoons about themselves. Maybe someday Mrs. Miglich will have her future students writing famous Ohioan reports about these students. I am going to try to post a slide show with pictures from today. Enjoy!

Quilts and the Water Cycle

Today we had a demonstration of the water cycle. Mrs. Shultzman used a model to show the students how the water cycle works. We got to see the whole cycle by the end of the day. Our concentration was on learning the three important processes of the cycle: evaporation, condensation, and precipitation. We reviewed how important the sun is to our weather. It provides the energy for the water cycle. We used a lamp to show how the sun heats up water and then condenses to make clouds. Eventually the clouds get so full of water they explode producing precipitation. The students were able to relate the water cycle to many real life examples including our own dew point experiment. We also read about the water cycle and reviewed the steps with a diagram.

We continued to work on our mini-quilts in social studies. Many students were able to complete the project and I got to display some of them. They have done a really nice job. I noticed it was very difficult for some students to put their ideas together to form a paragraph connecting the vocabulary words. We did a lot of brainstorming and sequencing to help organize the paragraphs. The students have worked very hard. I was able to really see how much they learned in this unit.

Clouds

Today we read, It Looked Like Spilt Milk as an introduction to our cloud study. We learned that people have been using clouds to make weather predictions for many years. The students focused on these four types of clouds: cumulus, stratus, cirrus, and cumulonimbus. They created collages based on the shape, location, and names of these clouds. They are displayed in the hall for the students to see. We also completed a study guide with the cloud and the weather it brings. This should be in the students' science binder.

In social studies we are working on a quilt project. The students are working in groups to make a mini-quilt with four key vocabulary words from Chapter 4. They are to create a quilt square for each term and then write a paragraph about how all of the terms are connected. They will share their projects with the class. We will post pictures of the finished quilts later.

What is the Dew Point?

Today the students became meteorologists. They created a class barometer to measure air pressure and reviewed the type of weather that is associated with high pressure and low pressure.

We also discovered the dew point for today by adding ice to water in a soup can. We recorded the temperature of the water before we added the ice. We added the ice and stirred the water until condensation formed on the outside of the can. We recorded the temperature when the drops formed and found out the dew point. We discovered that our temperature was very close to the dew point on the weather channel website.

We heard the story of Gnadenhutten and how the American Revolution affected the Christian Delaware Indians. It was a very sad story and one that we will remember for a long time.
We reviewed fact and opinion and completed a worksheet about facts and opinions from our Revolution reading. The students really remembered this skill and were very confident in their abilities.