Hot Air Balloons vs Zeppelins: Disasters just waiting to happen

Today we watched two videos: one was a news report about a hot air balloon that caught on fire while in flight and the other was about the Hindenburg disaster.  We were divided into two teams, one for hot air balloons and the other for zeppelins, and challenged to research the pros and cons about our method of flight.  Then, in our teams, we conducted a debate to convince the judge (Mrs. Lumpkin) which vessel of flight is the best.

Katelynn, Karly and Kelsi learned that zeppelins did not drop bombs accurately during World War I.

Will found out that one of the first persons to ride in a hot air balloon was a criminal.

Abigail, Kelsi, Tres and Will discovered that lighter fabric used for the envelope of the hot air balloon enabled the vehicle to move faster and used less fuel.

Abigail, Delaney and Marta learned that the Hindenburg, at 804 feet long, was the 

largest airship ever made.

Dalton, Sam, Karly and Katelynn were doing research prior to meeting with their teams 

to decide best how to debate with the other team.

Team Hot Air Balloons was debating the pros of hot air balloons 

and the cons of zeppelins.

Team Zeppelin was debating the pros of zeppelins

and the cons of hot air balloons.

Got Wi-fi? Yep, Wi-fi and puppets!

Yay, our wi-fi is connected and we are able to use our Chromebooks . . . whoop whoop!!

Today during our unit each one of us chose an inventor
(some we had never heard of before) to research.  Each one of us
created a hand puppet, using paper lunch bags, then presented
 our inventor with a few biographical facts.  (Some of us may enjoy
being in front of a camera more than others.)           :-)

Madison presenting facts about Mary Speath who invented the 

re-sealable boxes for cereals (and now other food products) 

when she was just eight years old.

                                    

Hunter chose Thomas Edison, whom we all recognize as the inventor of the light bulb. 

Mr. Edison applied for more than 1,000 patents in his career.

Elisabeth's inventor was nineteen year old Yuanchen Zhu who invented faster and 

higher quality three-dimensional computer graphics.

                                    

Jack taught us about Jeanie Low, who invented the foldable kiddie step stool, 

while she was still in Kindergarten!

Hanna presented information about seventeen year old Ryan Patterson who invented 

the Braille Glove which translates sign language into text.

                                    

Justin's inventor of choice was Spencer Silver who, by accident, invented Post-it Notes.

Madison introduced us to Margaret Knight, a child inventor, 

who created the flat-bottomed paper bag.  We used those type bags 

to create our puppets.

Blue Jeans Go Green

4th grade's unit of study is inventions and innovations.  One recent innovation (2006) that has the potential to make a major impact on our environment is the Blue Jeans Go Green initiative. This recycling effort takes anything made of denim that is destined for the dump/landfill and turns it into insulation for housing.  Bill Nye the Science Guy gives a great demonstration of the effectiveness of insulation made from denim.  So, what does that have to do with us?  We collected several pieces of denim that is no longer being worn and repurposed them into useful products.  Check out our denim masterpieces!

Madison, Madison, Hunter and Jack creating and illustrating their designs for

 an item repurposed from the denim.

Justin, Colby and Elisabeth working on their creative designs.

Jack cutting out his pieces of denim to create a hat for his cousin.

 Justin braiding his hot pad, Colby working on his coozie, Madison filling her stuffed baby toy, 

and Elisabeth cutting out pieces for her stuffed animal.

Madison filling her stuffed animal and Hunter assembling his patchwork lap quilt.

                                         

                                        

                                        

Emma is working on her small handbag, Mary is cutting out the pieces for her wallet, 

and Cole is planning his knife holder.

Katie decided the floor was a better workplace for cutting out the pieces for her puppets.

Camille is working on this pair of jeans to create a handbag 

and Jozie is busily cutting out her denim to create a pillowcase.

Cole and Haven, who is designing a muffin carrier, are measuring and cutting the denim.

                                         

                                         

Learning about the Hindenburg

Our objective today was to learn about zeppelins.  What better zeppelin to study than the Hindenburg?  The Hindenburg is the largest man-made object ever to fly.  In order to get an idea of just how big the German zeppelin was (804 feet!), we brainstormed various methods of measurement, decided on a method for each of the two groups, calculated how to figure the distance, then put our plans into action.

Sam, Abigail, Abigail, Tres, Karly and Kayli Jo decided to use a long piece of PVC pipe to measure the length of the Hindenburg.  The pipe was 7 ft 4 in long so we divided that into 804 feet.  We determined we would need to lay the pipe, over and over, 108 times. 

Katelynn, Delaney, Kelsi, Dalton, Braylen, Will and Marta decided to use yardsticks to measure the length of the Hindenburg.  We calculated we would have to put the yardsticks down approximately 245 times in order to get the 804 feet.

                                   

Here we are in the process of using the PVC pipe to mark off 804 feet. 

This is us using the five yardsticks to measure 804 feet.

Pun on Puns

What does a clock do when it's hungry?  Why, it goes back four seconds, of course!  :-)   Today we were punning around creating our own puns.  Feast your eyes on our creations.

Anna, Carly, Kaitlin and Daisy

"What happened when the woman asked the carpenter to build a tree house?  He said he wood!"

Will, Camden and Jace

"When I said I wanted to drink some joe, someone put my friend in a cup."

Luke and Cale

"What did the Math book say to the boy?  Boy, do I have problems."

Valerie, Sara and Matthew

"A phone wanted to get married to another phone but the other phone was on mute and said, "If you like it, then you should've put a ring on it!"

Kate, Sydney, Hannah and Samantha

"What do you call the answer of a lot of addition problems?  Sum answers."

Colton, Jacob, Orion, Kadin and Dalton

"What kind of truck uses the bathroom?  A dump truck."

Hot air balloons presentations

Kayli Jo:  "The Montgolfier hot air balloon weighed about 225 kg."

Braylen:  "The Montgolfier hot air balloon was created by the Montgolfier brothers."

Delaney:  "The Montgolfier hot air balloon was gas powered."

Karly:  "The vulcoon hot air balloon could go as high as 1,500 feet into the air."

Abigail:  "The charliere hot air balloon could carry a lot of weight."

Sam:  "The charliere hot air balloon was created originally for racing."

Tres:  "Hot air balloons were used during the Civil War for enemy artillery spotting."

A.J.:  "The first hot air balloon flight was taken by the Montgolfier brothers on June 4, 1783."

Abigail:  "During the Civil War hot air balloons were used for bombing, spying, and dropping telegrams."

Katelynn:  "The charliere hot air balloon was used for racing for entertaining people."

Marta:  "The Montgolfier hot air caught on fire because it was made of flammable material."

Will:  "The charliere hot air balloon is more robust than other types of balloons."

Kelsi:  "In World War II hot air balloons were used to drop bombs on other countries."

Dalton:  "During the Civil War the hot air balloons were used to transport freight, artillery and soldiers."

Wonderopolis "Are all bullies big?"

Our Wonderopolis lesson was about bullying.  We learned that a person doesn't have to be big to be a bully.  We found out that almost 75% of all school children have said they have been bullied in one way or another.  We created a large poster with circles representing each student at our school.  Then we figured out how many circles would be 75% of the total number of circles.  We colored those circles to reflect how many students at our school have been bullied.  Wow!  That was a lot of circles . . . and students.  We talked about what we would do if we knew someone was being bullied then we illustrated those thoughts on paper.

Dusty

Maggie

Amelia

Sara

Gene

Future scholars? researchers? authors? world problem solvers? The sky's the limit with this crew!

We use the Mindbenders Logic program to solve logic puzzles.  There are four levels and the puzzles can really get complicated.  Sometimes, it makes our brains hurt!

Valerie and Matthew

Camden

Kaitlyn, Carly, Will, Cale, Luke, Jace and Daisy

Daisy, Jace, Luke, Cale and Will

Luke, Valerie and Anna

Cale, Will, Sara, Morgan and Daisy

Matthew, Kaitly, Carly, Camden and Jace

We have been using the Common Core Conducting Research Projects book to learn how to effectively conduct research using books and the internet, and learning how to efficiently take notes. One activity we did was to take a lengthy sentence then see how few words we could come up with to get across the same idea.  There was a major competition between us to see who could be a "person of few words!"

Orion, Jacob, Dalton, Kadin and Colton

Sydney and Samantha

Hannah and Kate 

Sydney, Kate, Dalton and Kadin

Samantha, Hannah, Colton, Jacob and Orion

The Invention of numbers and arithmetic

Today's Wonderopolis lesson was about googol and infinity.  We learned that numbers are an invention that probably began around 20,000 years ago.  Marks were made on the Ishanga Bone and those were the first numbers (we think).  Later, the invention of the number one led to the invention of more numbers, which led to the invention of addition and subtraction, which led to the invention of writing, which led to the invention of measurement, which led to the invention of zero, which led to the invention of fractions.  Whew!  Check out the posters we made depicting five interesting facts we learned about the history of numbers.

Emma

                                                                             Haven

Cole

Jozie

Mary

Katie

Camille

Cole

                                  
                                                                             Katie

                                                                           Camille