Thankful List Poem

During the month of November, writers in room 101 kept a list of things we're thankful for, adding to the list gradually throughout the month.

Today, we read some list poems from the poetry anthology Falling Down the Page and we each chose items from our personal thankful lists that we wanted to include in our class list poem.

Our published list poem hanging outside room 101.

Room 101 has so much to be grateful for.

Friction Vehicles by Quinn

Vehicles move because they have force, a push, but if you have too much of it, it will never stop.

That's why you need friction. Friction is important because it makes everything stop or slow down. It is like your rug or couch. It is very rough.

The propeller activity was very simple. You just took a vehicle, made sure that it can move, and then add a propeller, wrap it to store energy, and let it go. But sometimes it could get a little hard because you have to work with your group to find a way it can store energy and let it go. Energy is a very interesting topic.

The video above includes images taken by Quinn during an activity involving building and testing propeller-driven vehicles. Quinn also compiled the images to make the video.

Liberty Science Center by James

Field Trip

On October 11, 2013, Knollwood's 4th grade took a field trip to the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City. The whole grade needed 3 buses. Wow! The buses had TVs and a bathroom.

Hurricane Generator

My favorite thing at the Liberty Science Center was the hurricane generator. A hurricane generator is where you're in a small room and a machine generates 100 mile an hour winds and shoots water at you. You have to wear a rain jacket and goggles for safety reasons.

 In the hurricane generator.

Science

Everybody learned something new at the Liberty Science Center. The most interesting thing I learned was that a windshield can block 100 mile an hour winds. Now tall buildings have window shields to help people inside.

Capture the Flag by Maisy

Capture the Flag is a very fun sport to play. But when it comes to an argument, you have to be honest. Honesty is something you have to have when you play Capture the Flag. If you want to play Capture the Flag, you also have to have speed and agility. Speed is very important. If you want to try to get the ball you have to run across the field and run back.

The video above was created by Maisy from photos she took at recess.

The Debater by Sophie

For the past two months in class we have been doing two or three debates.

In the debates, first we read a book together as a class, having two ideas about the character and collecting evidence about why that character is being that way.

The photo above is of Sophie's evidence for two conflicting ideas, that the tree is strong and the tree is weak. She collected the evidence as we read The Giving Tree.

After that, we share some of our evidence with our reading partner. Soon, after that, we get in a caucus and order our evidence. Later, we get with our debate partner and we both get about two minutes to speak. Then we get with our caucus and figure out ways to fight back. After that, we get back with our debate partner and say what we came up with with our partners.

I think this is a good way to learn about perspectives because it teaches us that there is no wrong or right answer and many people can have different perspectives. Maybe if you get fifty people in a room, maybe they could all have different perspectives about the same thing.

The video above contains images and video from a recent debate. The video was compiled by Sophie.