'Cause We Know We Have A Brain

What better way to relieve some test anxiety than to make a video about it!  The entire 4th grade participated in performing for this mashup of "If I Only Had a Brain" and "We're Not Gonna Take It".  Of course, for us, we do have a brain and we are gonna take it!  It was fun to make and now the students and faculty will get to enjoy it as we head into the last three weeks before testing.  Our testing dates are April 25-28.
We are gonna take it!
You know, we're ready to take it!
We are gonna take it, and we'll pass!!!!!

https://youtu.be/NpLMmcfKFPk

A Planting We Will Go!

Thanks to a grant from the Brown Foundation with the Woodlands Conservancy and Chevron Oronite, fourth graders discovered the value of protecting and preserving their environment through planting trees.  Not just any trees though!  They have learned that many invasive species have grown in the place where our native plants should be.  The invasive trees grow quicker and shadow the trees that should rightly be there.  Also, the native trees have the highest nutritional value for the woodland creatures that live there.  Today these fourth graders with a little help from their families, planted about 200 trees that we hope will live and thrive over the next few decades.  Parish officials were invited to see that even the youngest in our community can make a difference and can sometimes remind grown-ups of what is important.  It was a great learning opportunity and one these students won't soon forget.

https://youtu.be/4M3MrlcxnL4

Metamorphosis Complete

Students in 4th grade at BCP observed as caterpillars change into butterflies in their classroom.  Students in Room 410 received five tiny black caterpillars about one inch in length.  Within a week and a half, they grew to twice that size!  They ate a sugary substance that came with them in the bottom of their jar.  Once they were that large,  the next change began.  The caterpillars crawled to the top of the habitat, formed a J, and began twisting and writhing around to form a chrysalis. It was like a thin beige skin around them. Approximately another week and a half, we came in to the classroom to see a new creature...a painted lady butterfly, or rather four of them.  One had not hatched and actually never did. It happens.  The metamorphosis was complete.  The video you'll see is our ceremony to release the little captives into the environment and wish them on their way.

https://youtu.be/j4WYvajT2ig

The Woodlands

These classes got an opportunity to see nature up close and personal on a walking field trip, accompanied by parents, to the Woodlands Park in Belle Chasse.  They went on a scavenger hunt to find leaves of native and invasive species of trees and evidence of native animal life. One creature that we found in abundance, was the golden orb spider.  They were everywhere! One part of the adventure was to make invitations decorated with leaf prints for a future planting to take place in the spring.  Maybe now a new generation will feel the need to preserve and conserve our natural woodlands and parks.  We learned the importance of planting native plants for the native animals to nourish themselves.  We learned how our actions now affect the future of our land and its animals.

Check out our video:

https://youtu.be/Iz4Vws0OgnM

Balloon Car Racers 2015

October 27th will be a day that students at BCP will not soon forget!!! After almost two weeks of brainstorming, gathering material, building, rebuilding, trials and errors, the day finally came to put all that hard work and discovery to the test.  Each class held five races to see whose creation would cross the finish line.  These students learned all about force and motion, gravity, drag, air pressure, design, and working as a scientist by testing their balloon car racers over and over again.

                                                              Morning Class

     
                                                             Afternoon Class

Solar Ovens, Chocolate Chip Cookies, and Baked Apples

To end our amazing year, the fourth grade students in Mrs. Rodriguez and Newchurch's classes put all of their math and science skills together to complete this culminating activity.  They made solar ovens.  In them, the students were going to cook chocolate chip cookies and bake apples with cinnamon and sugar.  Sixteen ordinary pizza boxes were converted into an energy source providing the heating capacity required to cook food, with the help of the sun of course.  Aluminum foil and plastic wrap was used in such a way as to create a convection oven in which heat from the sun was trapped in order to cook whatever was placed inside.  Now, the students learned a lesson in patience as well.  You see, it takes a very long time for items to cook in a solar oven, especially when the temperatures were just reaching the 80's.  We decided that July and August would be the optimal times for cooking in a solar oven in Louisiana.  After the oven were constructed, we used more of our math skills to figure out how many apple slices would we get if the slicer cut the apples into eighths and we had 8 apples.  Then, how many slices would we each get if we had 22 people.  Would there be any leftover to share with the office or other classes? Turns out the wind also played a role in the cooking process and took out one pizza box oven and all of it's contents.  Luckily though, there was enough for every student to enjoy two cookies and three apple slices.
It was an experiment they will not soon forget!

http://youtu.be/zWHvXNZst8k

A Volcanco Erupts in Belle Chasse

Ok, so it's a model of a volcano and we appropriately named it Mount Belle Chasse (pronounced cha-see).  While studying about slow and fast changes to the Earth's surface, we chose to see as best as we could, a fast change to the Earth.  We also discussed rocks formed from volcanoes, whether or not to live around a volcano, and what is going on inside a volcano.
You know, if you can't bring the students to the volcano....bring the volcano to the students!

http://youtu.be/4bGX7BQd-bU

Giving Back to Our Community Through Planting

So our year long relationship with the Woodlands had to come to an end sometime, so we went out with a big bang!  Our two classes planted over a hundred saplings and seedlings to replenish an area of the Woodlands and to give back to our community as good citizens.  We were joined by parents and community officials to mark this momentous occasion.  Years from now or even next week, we can go out there and stand in awe as we admire the new life that we helped bring to our community.  It was hard work too!!! These students pushed shovels in the ground and got down and dirty as they all got into this project in a big way.  I only hope that the milkweed we planted attracts many new butterflies to our area as well. Check out this quick look at what we did...

http://youtu.be/43mEUgFgTqo

The Mobile Mine Comes to Belle Chasse

Shouts of "Rose Quartz," "Crystal," "Tiger's Eye," and more could be heard as the fourth graders at BCPS discovered their very own precious stones and minerals today at the Mobile Mine.  It was just like when the 49ers discovered gold for the first time, this was a day of firsts. The students learned from Carol Rabb, the "Rockstar," that elements make minerals and minerals make rocks. They learned about the three resources that are mined in Louisiana.  They found out about the only rock that floats.  They all even went away with a fossil.  Back in the classroom, each student classified and identified each and every one of their minerals.  The amount of learning that happened today was priceless. It was something these students will be talking about for a  long time.

http://youtu.be/wrU7GxcrPkQ

Happy Pi Day!

How much fun is this?!?!?!?  To celebrate Pi Day (3.14.15), our learning so far, and to relieve some test stress, I let my students throw 'pies' at me.  32 pies to the face and body and I'm still here!  The good news is....these students are ready to PULVARIZE the PARCC starting Monday!  Go Pelicans!!!!!!