Best Blog Post Since February!

My best post since February was, “The 3D Spies Of W.W.II“.  I chose this post because, I liked the genre, the research, and the usage of humor.

I liked the genre, because it is historical fiction.  What I like about historical fiction is that you can make your own twist on history.  As a reader, I like historical fiction because if I know about the subject I can read other people’s views on that topic.

Also, I enjoyed researching on this topic because I watched a show about it.  I liked this method of researching because, you can see and hear about the topic.

I thought good usage of humor to keep reader’s interest.  The two funniest parts were when Itamar and Liam were cleaning the planes and when Jamie interrupted Ben in the locker room.  I hope you get a chance to read it and see why I liked it.

Ms. Teitelbaum For President!

The qualities that I think make a good president are leadership, fairness, kindness, patience, a little bit of stubbornness and being an international peace maker.  I think Ms. Teitelbaum has these qualities and she has showes these qualities in her day to day work with us.  Therefore, I think Ms. Teitelbaum would be a good president.

Ms. Teitelbaum shows leadership by getting the students and parents to work together towards being one big “family.”  She shows fairness by letting the people who worked for their money go first at the class store.  She also shows patience by working on the side with students who may not understand the subject or topic that we are learning about.  She has a little bit of stubbornness, and we see that when she doesn’t give in to some other idea unless she is shown the other idea is better.  Finally, she is an international peace maker because she almost always works out our problems with us.

With all these reasons, I hope you understand why I would vote Ms. Teitelbaum for president.

http://mjgds.org/classrooms/4thgrade/2012/04/29/blog-post-for-the-week-of-april-30-may-4/

There’s “Shocking in the Science Lab”

On Tuesday, my class went to the Science Lab where we learned about insulators and conductors.  When we got there, Mrs. Burkhart was waiting for us and taught us the science lesson.  When we went in we saw incomplete circuits on the tables with some other stuff.

When we learned about conductors and insulators, we tested them on “incomplete circuits” to see if electricity would flow through the circuit.  We tested these objects with the following results:

We also learned about what helps a plasma ball light up in such an out of this world way.  The energy that is sent from the middle to the outside is made by a chemical reaction.  This chemical reaction is caused by the types of gases that are put inside the ball.  Those gases can include helium and neon.  The light that comes from helium is blue-purple and neon makes orange-red.  Looking online, I found that other gases that can be used, with widespread different colors, are also nitrogen, carbon dioxide, xenon, argon, krypton, and even oxygen.  A really well known example of a ball made from plasma is the sun.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Plasma-lamp_2.jpg

How To Make A Snare.

In our reading gropes we had to do a project.  Mrs.Kagin gave us a few options, and I decided to design a snare.

To make the snare…

• Take a blake spruce tree root and pull off bark.
• Separate the remaining root into two strands, and splice them together.
• Find two saplings about two to three feet apart and shave off their branches so that they’re forked.
• Find a strong branch and lay it over the saplings.
• Then from the root make a noose and hang it from the branch.

My Spring Break trip to Virginia.

Over Spring Break my family went to Virginia.  When we got there, we had some troubles finding our way, but  we made it.  On Friday the 6th we went to Monticello.  At Monticello we took the house tour. Later on, we went through the basement and found out how the servants got wine from the basement to the dining room.  After that we went to the children activity center where we decoded messages and wrote with real ink.  Then we went on the garden tour.  Anyway I had a great time there.

On Saturday the 6th we went to Shenandoah National Park.  When we got there, there weren’t any parking spots, but fortunately the lady that owns the property next door was letting people park on her land for $10 a car!  Anyway, we started our hike up the mountain.  While we were hiking up the mountain we were thinking about the rock scramble at the top.  When we got to the rock scramble there was a big hold up, people couldn’t get through the rocks very fast.  We ate lunch on the way up, so we had a snack when we got to the top.  When we came down, we took the fire road.

On Monday the 8th, my family went to the National Air and Space Museum.  It’s right next to the airport, so there were planes flying overhead.  When we got inside, we were given maps of the museum.  It was like a dream, there was all sorts of famous planes and gliders.  First, we went to the Imax theater and got tickets to a “movie” called Fighter Pilot, but we had some time before the “movie” started so we went and looked around.  After the “movie”, we took an indirect route through the museum to the space hangar.   There were rockets, moon landing capsules, and a big, low tech computer that could only hold the HTML codes.   Overall, I would like to go to Virginia/DC area again for vacation because there are still a lot of other things to see!

Gears and Dice

Phase 1

1. Mix up the gears.  Then, when you and your opponent are ready, say “go.”
2. Use the sticks to move as many gears into a pile on your side as you can.
3. Use Chart 1 to add up your points.

Phase 2

1. Roll die and move the gears to a second pile on your side according to Chart 2.
2. Add up your score from the second pile according to Chart 1.
3. Use the points from both phases to tally up your final score.
4. Whoever has the most points wins!

Strategies

1. Move more than 1 gear to your first pile.
2. When replacing gears while rolling the die, use as little gears as possible. Use factors and multiples to help.  Use addition too.

My Quad Blogging Reflections.

My class and three others from other countries did a quad blogging assignment.  The four countries were the USA, Switzerland, Thailand, and the Czech Republic.  Quad blogging is made up of four groups.  Each week, one group writes blogs and the other three make comments on those blogs.  Then, the next week there is a new team that blogs and the other three take turns making comments.

If I could enhance this activity I wouldn’t do anything to change it.  I liked this because of all the comments you get.  I also liked it because, you get to know other people from their posts.

I think that I improved as a blogger and a commenter.  I also think I learned and taught at the same time.  Finaly I think I gained experience from this.

 Here is team Czech Republic’s reflecion.

Rules for effective communication are an area we can work on our entire lives. This week for our QuadBlog exchange it was our turn to receive comments from the other 3 classes. As we did the week before, our friends read and viewed each child’s work and responded with compliments accompanied with specific information, connections to their own lives and experiences and sometimes provided further information, links and ideas that related to our shared work. We were impressed with and noted how our friends read or viewed our art in postings before writing their comments, showing that one key tool of effective communication is listening and reflecting on what the other person is sharing. We will take this into next week when we are again readers who provide comments.

Here are some comments from Room 109 students after reading comments from our friends:
• Sophie liked McCauley’s (ISB) question, “Was it scary almost falling off Linda (her horse)?”
• Sahil liked Jasper’s comment (ISZL), “This really gives people a lot of information about you. It doesn’t matter if you’re scared, I’m also scared.” Sahil liked this comment because “it was really positive.”
• Anezka liked the way Jamie (MJGDS) shared 10 things about herself in response to Anezka’s list because she learned about things they have in common.

And from our whole class, “What we Liked About Our Comments:
-They wrote nice comments.
-They didn’t go off to a different subject.
-They wrote with details and said they can’t wait to read more from me.
-They gave us links.
-He shared information and a poem that he wrote.
-They asked me questions.
-They made connections and make positive comments.
-They made compliments.

A,B,C Advice for The Classroom.

A: always respect other’s ideas
B: bullying is bad
C: come to class prepared
D: do your business before class
E: everyone has their strengths and weaknesses
F: fairness is a good personality
G: good habits make for good grades
H: happiness is a state of mind
I: integrate others ideas
J: jump rope is good for you (but do it in gym class)
K: kindness is a good trait
L: listen to your teachers
M: money helps you with math
N: never take advantage of a substitute teacher
O: open minds are heard
P: prepare before class
Q: Quality results are worth the effort
R:Respect your teachers
S: speak only when recognized
T: try your best to do well on every test
U: unleash your thoughts
V: Value your education
W: work efficiently
X:  x out bullying
Y: you always want to be a little bit nervous before a test
Z: zzzzs are not allowed in class 

My Personal Assistant.

If I had a Personal assistant I would pick Benjamin Franklin. I would pick Benjamin Franklin to be my personal assistant because he would help me with my writing assignments. He was the editor of a newspaper so he would use his skills to help me.  I also picked him because we share the same name.  We also like to invent stuff. We could discuss our thoughts with each other.  These are some of the many reasons I chose Benjamin Franklin.

The Journal of Scott Pendleton Collins.

The Journal of Scott Pendleton Collins-A World War II Soldier

     The title of my book is “The Journal of Scott Pendleton Collins-A World War II Soldier.”  It was written by Walter Dean Myers.  The genre is Realistic Fiction.  It is set in Normandy, France in 1944 from May 25-August 24.
I used “CI#5” witch was to make an illustrated timeline.  Here is my time line.

The main character is Scott, who is 17, and is from Roanoke, Virginia.  He was in the 116^th Infantry Division which was thmade up of people from that area.  He was in the army because he wanted to serve his country.  Also, his dad and grandfather were in the army.  Another character is Bobby Joe who becomes Scott’s friend.  He is also in the 116^th Infantry Division.  He changes a lot during the war.

When Scott and Bobby Joe first arrived on Omaha Beach on D-Day, there was much confusion.  Almost nothing went correctly.  Scott and Bobby Joe went from platoon to platoon because people kept on dying.They were split up on D-Day but were later reunited.

Scott told about some French civilians who invited the soldiers to their house even though they had no food themselves.  They invited the soldiers to their house to feel safer.  The soldiers gave them their food to cook.  This was important because, it showes the cindness the soldiers had for the French civilians.