Connected to the Grid

On Thursday, March 29th Change is Simple visited our classroom to teach us about electricity.  We learned that electricity often comes from power plants which burn coal, natural gas, or oil (fossil fuels).  We also learned that power plants produce pollution so it is important for us to use electricity wisely and not waste electricity because pollution is often a by-product of energy production.

We also learned that different types of light bulbs use different amounts of energy.  For example, students were shown an incandescent light bulb that uses 60 watts of electricity and an LED light bulb that only uses 11 watts of energy, a savings of 49 watts. 

Yankees and Immigrants Field Trip

Yankee and Immigrant Field Trip

By Student Bloggers Annalisa & Eva

On March 22nd, Team Gibbas went to the Lowell Mills.

We learned about the Yankees and immigrants. An immigrant is a person who travels to a different country permanently. A Yankee is a native of New England.

We learned the challenges of an immigrant and how the immigrants traveled to America. We also learned that the young Yankee girls worked in the Lowell Mills for fourteen hours a day! All of us explored the boarding houses where the  mill girls lived. We got to go into the loud mill factory where we saw  the big, noisy machines that produce a funny smell.

Click video below to hear the weaving room in action.

Later, we role played immigrants and Yankees at a town meeting discussing whether or not the citizens of Lowell should build a school for the Irish immigrants using their tax money.

We also all got passports and acted as immigrants getting off a ship to New England.

We were all from different countries, and got together with our fellow immigrants. We saw the luggage that the different immigrants would bring to America, and made a mini-museum with the objects.  

We loved our educational field trip a lot. Thanks a lot to the Lowell Mills!     

Midwest Kidpreneur Exhibition

On Wednesday, March 21st Team Gibbas students participated in the first annual Midwest Kidpreneur Exhibition.  Students were tasked with the job of increasing tourism in the midwest by designing an innovative tourist attraction.  The tourist attraction needed to draw upon the state's natural resources and take into consideration the area's geography, climate, physical features, history, and landmarks.

Each entrepreneurial team needed to design a physical prototype of the tourist attraction, create a logo for their attraction, show their tourist attraction on a map, and create a persuasive oral presentation explaining why their tourist attraction would be profitable for the state.

Students were knowledgeable, creative, and very convincing!

Click on the picture below to see the tourist attraction proposed for Kansas.

Click on the picture below to see the tourist attraction proposed for Indiana.

Click on the picture below to see the tourist attraction proposed for Iowa.

Click on the picture below to see the tourist attraction proposed for Michigan.

Click on the picture below to see the tourist attraction being proposed for North Dakota.

Click on the picture below to see the tourist attraction being proposed for Nebraska.

Thank you Mrs. Lacourciere, Miss Cahill, Miss Gallant, Mrs. Marrotta, Mrs. Budrose and Mrs. Klipfel for your help with this project.  This was truly a community effort!

Grade 4 Learning Standards
Social Science Curriculum:
4.10 Identify the states, state capitals, and major cities in each region. (G)
4.11 Describe the climate, major physical features, and major natural resources in each region. (G)
Common Core Writing:
W.4.1  Write opinion pieces on topics or texts supporting a point of view with reasons and information.
Speaking and Listening:
SL4.4  Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience in an organized manner, using appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details to support main ideas or themes; speak clearly at an understandable pace.

Life Cycle of Stuff

"Where does that pencil you are using come from?"

"How did that t-shirt you are wearing go from being cotton to a finished t-shirt in a store?"

These and other questions were answered as students explored the "Life Cycle of Stuff" with Change is Simple.  Change is Simple is an organization dedicated to instilling lifelong social and environmental responsibility.

Students began to look at items in a new way by thinking about what natural resources are used to create products.  Students were first tasked with matching a product with a picture of a natural resource that was used to create it.

T-shirts are made from cotton.

Cans are made from aluminum.

Trees are used for making the paper in books.

Wool from sheep is used for sweaters.

Bee's wax is used for candles.

Next students learned the steps that it takes for natural resources to become finished products in stores: natural resources, processing, manufacturing, packaging, distribution, and usage.  Students played a memory game whereby each group was given a product and the group needed to find the cards that represented the steps needed to create their finished product.  

Congratulations goes to the t-shirt group for finding all of their cards first!