Fourth Grade PEAK
September 18, 2014
Special Announcement:
We voted on our "official" class symbol and slogan. Congratulations to Olivia Davolt. Olivia's artwork was selected as our official class symbol. All artwork will be displayed but Olivia's work will be our official symbol.
THEME: Kids CAN
KIDS CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE:
- We reviewed how to access information from print and online resources. Our online resource focus: Databases, Search Engines, World Wide Web ( especially truth in the internet).
- Today we continued to build background knowledge on possible humanitarians to study --- students looked at websites & books and took notes highlighting the humanitarians' impact on humanity. We spent the majority of our time narrowing down our list of humanitarians discovered to a list of top 3. Students turned this in through Google Classroom ( a handful of students need to complete this at home - please ask your child). Next, students filled out a Google Form to tell me who they want to study and WHY. If your child did not finish this Google Form ( a few did not - please ask your child), he/she needs to finish this at home. It can be accessed through student email. Today was a big day to read and gather information - students want to select a person/ organization to study that is really interesting!
Centers
Enrichment Centers:
- Topic Study: Students are busy taking notes. Some students wrote an essential question. I will look at these to give feedback to make sure the questions are deep and require research and original thinking. Some students started a presentation to share key vocabulary words and concepts in the topic study. Many students want to use Powtoons to develop an eye-catching topic study presentation. Our challenge is to make sure that there is depth of knowledge that accompanies this fun app!
- Math: We continue to solve problems. We have some excellent math problem solvers.
- Science: Today we finished our conclusions, follow up questions, and graphs for our second experiment. We successfully finished their first science lesson in Google Classroom! Next week, we will conduct another paper towel experiment ( the battle of the generic brands). This week Bounty clearly beat out Country Fare brand. It held true to its advertising --- it was 2 times more absorbent than other brands. As we conduct science experiments, we will revisit the theme: Truth in Advertising. We are using the scientific method to test advertising claims.
Note Taking Tips
PEAK "Selfie" Spotlight
Email: kturner@liberty.k12.mo.us
Website: https://sites.google.com/a/student.liberty.k12.mo.us/peakturner/
Location: Alexander Doniphan Elementary School, Clay Drive, Liberty, MO, United States
Phone: 816-736-5400 2674
Twitter: @PEAKturner
Technology Buzz:
Google Drive:
- Students are actively using their Chrome books
- We have organized our Google Drives
- Practiced sharing and saving documents
- Bookmarked important websites
- Actively working in Google Classroom
Powtoons:
- Set up a PEAK Powtoons account - we should have fun with this! All students should have joined the PEAK Powtoons account. If your child has not done this, the invitation can be found in his/her student email.
Edmodo:
- We introduced Edmodo another online learning tool! In a few weeks, we will send out a few "at-home" assignments on Edmodo.
Twitter:
- I have begun to tweet more frequently - if you are on twitter, please follow PEAKturner. Also I set up an online "tweet" form for the kids. It is found on my webpage (under student resources). Students can send a 150 character tweet to me anytime. This does not tweet live but sends a tweet to me that I will post on our classroom Twitter board. Five tweets per week will be selected. This may evolve with time into a live class twitter feed... still experimenting with this!
Create a Graph:
- Learned how to make graphs online
Answer Garden:
- We brainstormed character qualities of humanitarians through the online web tool: answer garden. We will push out another question next week. This is a great brainstorming tool - students can contribute as many as answers as they want to the class "garden".
Padlet:
- Online note taking application used during Topic Study