Self-Portraits, Giving Feedback, and the Twist-O-Matic Tester!

This week we completed our first science experiment with the Twist-O-Matic Tester.

We discovered that the thick rubber band can store more energy and can make the rollercoaster complete more spins at a higher speed.

Ask your 4th grader what they learned about energy!

We shared our writing with a partner and learned how to give feedback.

We read a picture book called Ruby's Wish.

"Ruby is unlike most little girls in old China. Instead of aspiring to get married, Ruby is determined to attend university when she grows up, just like the boys in her family. Based upon the inspirational story of the author's grandmother and accompanied by richly detailed illustrations, Ruby's Wish is an engaging portrait of a young girl who strives for more and a family who rewards her hard work and courage." -LibraryThing Review

We completed our very own self-portraits following a step-by-step guide.

These will be coming home later this month.

The self-portraits turned out amazing!

We also worked on "Writing Long."

This strategy calls for us to write down jots of what we are thinking, wondering, or predicting as we read. Then, we write down evidence we have gathered to support what we wrote down.

In the near future, we will be pushing our thinking. This is where we add elaboration prompts like "This gives me the idea" and "This connect to..." This is where our writing about reading really takes off!

We continue to work on our typing skills as we play fun games on typing.com.