IPC Powerpoint Presentations

As our exit point (conclusion activity) for our IPC unit Explorers & Adventurers, the students each made a Powerpoint slideshow.  Their slides contained information regarding the different sections of our unit, from maps to geography to searching for new routes to exploring upper north america and everything in between.  They have taken this information and put it into a setting where they could explore their creativity, and learn a new presentation technique technologically based.  Today, we invited parents in to share in our learning and help us celebrate the conclusion of this unit.  I was absolutely thrilled to see how many of our parents and family members were able to come to school and participate in this celebration with us.  Thank you parents and family members for being able to take time out of your day to do this for us.  Also, thank you for ensuring that every child in our classroom got to share in their success.  I'm so very pleased to be part of a fabulous classroom community.

IPC Integration

This morning's language arts pods found students integrating their IPC topic: Explorers and Adventurers, with various language arts tasks.  While we still did our pods with technology (Into the Book) and continuing to work on our novel study final project, the students also did a read and respond activity where they read a nonfiction card about early exploration while the teacher led pod worked on eliciting information from an article we read yesterday, Ancient Adventurers.  I was extremely pleased with the amount of focus and on task work the students showed this morning.

Exit Point Powerpoints

As we work through our IPC unit on Explorers and Adventurers, the students will be collecting data to use for their exit point activity.  At the end of every unit, students partake in an activity to conclude the unit which is what we refer to as the exit point.  For this current unit, students are creating a powerpoint.  They'll use data in the various categories pertaining to this unit for each slide, and then will present these powerpoints at the end of the unit.

Guest Speaker

Our current IPC unit on Explorers and Adventurers has students learning many things about geography and maps.  Yesterday, a member of our school community came and spoke to us about maps and cartography, aspects of maps, the various kinds and how he uses them in his job as a cruise ship captain.  It was extremely informative and we learned that electronic maps have many great features that keep passengers safe while travelling.

IPC Cartography

Learning concepts through reading non fiction and fictional literature is an important skill students need to build on in school.  In IPC we do a lot of reading about our key learning ideas through non fiction articles and books.  Today we read about cartography and various map skills through reading Mapping the Woods which speaks from a child's point of view, and is fun to read.

Explorers and Adventurers

New unit alert!  4th grade purple is entering their final IPC unit of the year: Explorers and Adventurers.  In this unit students will be learning about history, geography and international aspects relating to the topic.  To begin our unit, students worked with partner to brainstorm what they thought geography was, and then terms related to it.  As a whole class we collaborated our ideas, then began applying the geographical terms to describe Genoa.

Animal Adaptations

In small groups, students each read about a different animal adaptation: migration, camouflage and nocturnal animals.  After each group has read about their adaptation, they synthesized information on a presentation sheet and then answered questions based on their adaptation.

Today, the groups presented their synthesized information so we could all learn about the different adaptations.

Research

Students are in the midst of writing an expository essay.  Combing writing with IPC, this essay will be on an endangered animal.  Using our Macs, students have been busy gleaning different information and utilizing a variety of websites and search engines (safe ones found here on the blog) about an animal of choice.  It's been fun to see them discover new information about their animal that has shocked them.  And we've noticed that some predators and preys are sitting beside one another in the class.

Food Chains

4th grade purple are learning about food chains in their IPC unit on Nature of Life.  Over the last couple of days they've done a variety of activities, some of which have included: a vocabulary matching task, a powerpoint presentation, a Bill Nye the Science Guy video, and reading a non-fiction article about food chains.  Ultimately we've learned that all food chains start with the sun and plants.  Plants are very important to the food chain as without them humans would not be alive as we both eat them and eat the animals that depend on them for their survival.

Bill Nye - Food Web

Food Chains

Students used the following link today to glean information about food chains.  In partners, students read through the website, opening and exploring various tabs, and noting information about producers, consumers, and more!

The Food Chain

Città dei Bambini Field Trip

Students in 4th grade went on a field trip today that involved elements and topics from our last unit: Inventions That Changed the World.  We boarded Cairo Car and headed to Città dei Bambini.  Here, the students were separated into two groups: one group did a workshop on Leonardo da Vinci, an inventor we studied in our former IPC unit, and the other group got to explore the science based activities in the centre.  After an hour, the groups switched so that students could participate in all aspects of the trip.  It was a great day!  The students seemed to have a lot of fun and were very well behaved.  I am a proud teacher! :)

The students blogged about their trip on Kidblog this afternoon.  Feel free to peruse our writing to see all that we did and learned today.

Città dei Bambini blogging

IPC - Article Reading

Students do a lot of learning through non-fiction in 4th grade.  One way they do this is by reading articles that fit our IPC units topics.  This week we read articles that pertain to our Nature of Life unit, and did so in two different ways.

The first article we read about was "Monarch Butterflies."  The students listened as I oral read the story and we discussed the information together.  They then partnered up, reread the article and answered questions pertaining to the information found in it.

Next, students were put into three groups, with each group getting an article about an adaptation that animals use.  In their groups they read the article by taking turns aloud.  Some groups started answering the accompanying questions and they'll also do a summary of their adaptation to share with the class.

Butterfly Scavenger Hunt

In IPC students are learning about life cycles of different animals.  One fun learning task they took on was finding out information but doing so through an informational scavenger hunt.  Cards were placed throughout the hallway; each one containing a different piece of information.  Armed with a question sheet, the students took to answering questions by finding the correct information card.

Animal Life Cycles

In our current IPC unit, students are studying Nature of Life: animals, habitats, growth, life cycles, adaptations, etc.  Today we read a non-fiction story about various animals, focusing mainly on differences between birth and hatch.  I love how inquisitive the students are and that they just want to know so many things within our study units.

One of today's tasks was that, after reading, students broke into groups to reread an article and illicit information about aspects of animals life cycles.  The conversations that I heard between students was great as they worked to locate evidence for their answers.