International Bazaar

Below are the links for the performance and iMovies.  Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/mrOkwNekjmI

https://youtu.be/RhojgD7bj1Q

Google Expeditions

Students in grade 1st-5th explored augmented reality through Google Expeditions.  In fourth grade, students observed the planets in our solar system.

Wonderful Water

What is necessary to life, is used every day, and is taken for granted in the USA? The answer is water. Learning that people in other countries do not always have access to clean, healthy water has made us appreciate our ability to turn on the faucet and have immediate access to it throughout our country. But how is the water cleaned and how does it get to us? That was the question we pondered in science. We learned that Baltimore's water is piped from a reservoir to two water treatment plants, where it is cleaned, filtered, and disinfected. From there it travels through more pipes to all of our buildings.

After learning about this process, we were given a challenge. A new city was being built and we were asked to design the filters for its water purification plant! Each table of girls had the opportunity to design a filter column that the water could be poured through so that the impurities would be removed from it. Considering the way the river water looked when it reached the new city, this was quite a challenge!

We were given large gravel, small gravel, sand, charcoal, and cotton to use in our filter columns. It was up to us to decide which materials to use, the amount of each, and the order in which to add them. First we drew the design that we wanted to plan.

We made prototypes and tested them to see which were the most effective at cleaning the water.

Then we tested the different prototypes to see which design removed the most impurities. With this information, we were able to design and build new columns which were extremely effective at purifying the water.

Look at the water below each column to see how different it is from the original river water. Don't you think we did a great job?

French: Haïti

The girls have been learning about Haïti in French class. We discussed the geography, history, food, climate, languages (creole and French, of course!), and more. In pairs, the girls then created a quiz show using the app Tiny Tap to put their classmates to the test. Their projects were very creative and your girls did a wonderful job writing and answering questions en français.

Author Visit

On Friday in the middle of the windstorm, the Fourth Grade welcomed author Natalie Standiford to our classrooms! Ms. Standiford grew up in Baltimore and includes some Baltimore neighborhoods in her books. She spoke to the girls for an hour, talking about her writing process and how she gets many of her ideas and also answering questions about her books. Many of the girls have read her middle grade novels, Switched at Birthday and The Only Girl in School. Her first novel, The Secret Tree, is now on many of their "To Be Read" lists!

Thank you, Ms. Standiford for a wonderful afternoon!

Here is the link to her website if you are interested:
http://www.nataliestandiford.com/index.htm

Electricity: Light Up Your Life!

We started our study of electricity when we were given a battery, a small bulb, and a wire and were told to make the bulb light. We soon found that this was easier said than done. After lots of experimentation, we figured it out and brightened the room with light from the bulbs!

We went on to test different materials to discover whether they were conductors (materials through which electricity flows) or insulators (materials through which electricity does not flow.) We discovered how light bulbs work. We also found that a short circuit can cause wires to heat up, but fuses and circuit breakers can stop the flow of electricity and prevent fires. Did you know that appliances and cars have fuses for this reason?

We used our knowledge about conductors and insulators to create some original math games to play with the 2nd Grade students. 

We had fun and the Second Graders did, too! They showed their knowledge of their math facts and we demonstrated our creativity and knowledge of electricity!

Did you know that there are only 2 kinds of circuits? They are parallel and series circuits. We learned about the difference between them and realized that we would not want to wire our houses in a series circuit. We used our knowledge of circuits when we worked with some Snap Circuit games to create circuits of our own.

However, we had the most fun when we had the opportunity to light up the dollhouse rooms that most of us had created for French class last year in the 3rd Grade. In preparation for this, we had to solder wires onto the switches that we would use. We learned how to do this in Technology Class.

After our switches were wired, we were ready to start work on our dollhouses!

We enjoyed working on this project and are so proud of our dollhouses!

Empty Bowls

The fourth graders are glazing their bowls for Empty Bowls. The Empty Bowls Dinner event is Thursday, February 15th from 5-7pm. It is a very popular community event, so sign up today!