California song

Welcome to the lab

For this unit we're going to try different experiments. Are you ready? Watch the videos and pick the one you like the most!

Number 1. Density

Number 2. Air has weight

In this one, instead of a ruler you can use a hanger.

Number 3. Floating eggs

Number 4. Solid or liquid?

Number 5. Fill up a balloon without blow up

Number 6. How to make an orange sink in the water

Number 7. Lava lamp

Number 8. Bouncy egg

Number 9. Drops on a penny

Number 10. Floating paper clips

Number 11. Dancing rasins

Number 12. Newtons disc

Number 13. Clay boats

Do you want to see more? This one is voluntary.

You can pick a different experiment as long as it's related to matter and energy. Be creative!

Physican and chemical changes

Mind minutes 4:32 and 4:51 to see the differences between physical and chemical changes.

Solar oven

Our teacher Melanie is going to teach us how to make a solar oven. That is going to be one of our experiments in this unit.

For that we need the following objects:

• Pizza box
• Foil 
• Black paper
• Plastic wrap

Don't forget to bring them by thursday.

Finally, we will cook some traditional american treat:

We hope you will enjoy!! It must be delicious!

European Anthen

Catching up...

I've been behind the past few weeks! I've been traveling and trying to keep my creativity alive in the classroom, so blogging has taken a back seat unfortunately but here's what we've been doing in fourth grade:

Sadly enough I haven't been able to do much in class the past few weeks. We have been working on our oral exams and with this being my first time completing it with them I've had to work through some nerves and anxiety. I assured them that I don't bite but it still seemed to be a little nerve wrecking for them. They are doing well and we are taking our time but I'm ready to get back into the classroom this week and have some fun! They are completing an economy project and will be presenting soon so I'll be helping them with presentation skills this week. Time to do some more acting!

Weeks of February 25 - March 1 and March 4 - 8

These past two weeks were slightly off schedule as we celebrated Andalucia Day on February 28 and International Women's Day on March 8. We've also had some teacher's out with various things going on so these past two weeks were definitely a lesson in going with the flow which is very important! All that said, they were very good weeks and the students had a lot of fun with the activities that were related to these two very important holidays.

In fourth grade we covered a bit about grass, bushes and trees, as well as flowering and non-flowering plants. This activity was very straightforward, the students wrote the characteristics in their notebooks and used a flow chart to break down the differences of the flowering and non-flowering plants...not my most fun activity but sometimes things must be done the old fashioned way.
The following week, I taught about ecosystems and introduced the various types of ecosystems we have in Texas. Spain and Texas share some very similar ecosystems with the exception of the wetlands we have in Texas. I went more into depth with this type and used it to add in the food chain and talk about alligators! Another thing we have (few of) in Texas but not in Spain. We covered the definition of an ecosystem with a breakdown of everything we would find in a wetland. This was a pretty fun activity and I did a lot of drawing, which proved to be comical for the kids!