Miss Liefer's 4th Grade Class: May 2011

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

100

Celebrate! This is our 100th post on the blog!

Henry "BOX" Brown

Have you read the book "Henry's Freedom Box" by Ellen Levine?
It is a terrific book! Check it out!

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Smokin' Sam

Today the school nurse came to talk to us about smoking and cigarettes.
It was very interesting!

jar of tar

Comparing a healthy lung and NOT healthy lung

advertizing

Wow! All of those chemicals are inside!

We also watched a video about Smokin' Sam. He's the MVP of the hottest new roller hockey team, sponsored by Trophy cigarettes. Two young fans discover that Sam smokes, and they try to convince him to quit and stand up to his sponsors who are using him to sell cigarettes to the next generation of smokers.

To learn more on this topic, click here
http://pbskids.org/itsmylife/body/smoking/article3.html

Greenhouse Effect

What is the Greenhouse effect?

Click on these to learn...
http://climate.nasa.gov/kids/bigQuestions/greenhouseEffect/

http://www.clean-air-kids.org.uk/globalwarming.html

http://eo.ucar.edu/kids/sky/air1.htm

Tim and Moby also have a video on this topic!
http://www.brainpop.com/science/earthsystem/greenhouseeffect/preview.weml

Interjections

There are 8 parts of speech.
INTERJECTIONS are one of them!

School House Rock:
http://www.gamequarium.org/cgi-bin/search/search.cgi?st=5&nd=10&keywords=Grammar%20Rock&cat_search=CST_SqoolTube_Videos

Our video collection of interjections:

*VIDEO DELETED DUE TO LIMITED SPACE*

How well do you know the parts of speech?
Play Grammar Gorillas and see what you know!
http://www.funbrain.com/cgi-bin/gg.cgi?A1=m&A2=0&A3=0&AFUNCT=1&ALEVEL=1

Geometric Solids

In math we've been learning about polyhedrons!

Here are just a few of the topics we've been discussing:

What's the difference between a prism and pyramid?

What is a tetrahedron?

How many faces does a triangular prim have?

How do you contruct a rectangular prism or cube? That's easy! Use straws and twist-ties!

To learn more, check out these links:
http://www.learner.org/interactives/geometry/3d.html
http://www.learner.org/interactives/geometry/3d_prisms.html
http://www.learner.org/interactives/geometry/3d_pyramids.html

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Illinois State Capitol

It was a busy day at our capitol!

When we were there, the Senate was in session (We got the opporunity to listen from the Senate Gallery). They were discussing bills that had already passed in the House of Representatives. Now the senators were going to vote on the bills. Lobbyists gathered together under the dome trying to persuade the congressmen to vote their way.

Here's the House of Representatives. They were scheduled to go into session at 1:00. So we had a chance to view the empty room. We also got to meet Representative Dan Reitz.

Link to the House: http://www.ilstatehouse.com/house.htm

Fun Fact: The doors of the House and Senate Chambers are 12 ft. high and weigh 300 lbs. each.

Senator Luechtefeld was busy while we were there, but his secretary told Miss Liefer thanks for visiting. He was sorry he couldn't meet up with us, but he did get a chance to meet with the second bus of Waterloo students.