The Final Month

As we continue to get taunted by the sunshine and warm weather days, the countdown to summer continues.  With the turn of a new month, some student projects come to an end and others begin.  Poetry packets were a great success and children were all given an opportunity to share one of their favorites with the class during our mini "poetry-slam."  Children were also able to celebrate the completion of another final project when the announcement was made about our Global Virtual Classroom website.  Click here to see the announcement or click the "GVC" tab at the top of the blog to find out more.  It was definitely a great learning experience!

Another great learning experience came from our most recent Mystery Speaker.  He spoke about his career as an engineer and the process of building a structure.  He used good analogies about things familiar to fourth graders to connect planning, designing and construction of a modern building; like one of his most recent projects at Argonne National Laboratory.  Check out a time-lapse video of the work site.  After the presentation students were prompted to write about the planning process of something they have done in their life.  It was surprising to me how many of them wrote about projects they had to develop for school, such as student businesses and performances.  A big Thank You to our Mystery Speaker for taking time out of his work schedule to share experiences and knowledge with our fourth graders! 

A "Mystery Speaker" guides students through the process of constructing a building from scratch.