Exploring Simple Machines

On Wednesday, January 21st fourth graders learned about Simple Machines with the help of a local scientist, Mr. Woodley.  Mr. Woodley showed the students levers, gears, a large screw that pumped water, an inclined plane, and gears.   Students were excited to try lifting a cement block first by using one pulley then using two pulleys which made the lifting much easier.

Martin Luther King Day

In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  students in the fourth grade listened to the famous "I have a dream" speech and created a word splash with words that they felt were important to his legacy.

Exploring Simple Machines - Levers!

Today students had the opportunity to explore levers.  Students were challenged to find as many different ways as they could to make their lever balance.  Students changed the number and positions of the weights in order to make it balance.

Learning Standards:  Technology/Engineering Grades 3 - 5

1.  Materials and Tools

Central Concept:  Appropriate materials, tools, and machines extend our ability to solve problems and invent.

1.3 - Identify and explain the difference between simple and complex machines.

The Gibbas Book of Class Records

Before our Thanksgiving break, Team Gibbas was learning about bar graphs, tally charts, line graphs, and picture graphs in math.  We were working on Chapter 4:  Tables and Line Graphs in Math in Focus.   To give students some fun, hands-on & authentic opportunities to create tally charts, tables, bar graphs and line graphs we had some classroom challenges.  Using Minute-to-win-it type activities students competed in four challenges then used the data they collected from the challenges to create line graphs and bar graphs.

Challenge 1:  Wall Squats

Students (and teachers) were challenged to see how long they could maintain a wall squat.  We started with 17 students and 2 teachers and as time progressed through 2 minutes more and more students dropped out.

Students then created line graphs to display the data.

Challenge 2:  Balancing Dice