Owl Pellets

Over the last few weeks, we have been learning about ecosystems. An ecosystem is the interaction between all biotic (living) and nonliving (abiotic) things in an environment. We learned that every ecosystem, no matter where it is located, has four abiotic things. Ask your child what these 4 things are!

Once the abiotic things are in place, the living things of every ecosystem starts with the producers - a fancy name for plants. Plants are called producers because they produce their own food. We learned about this when we learned about photosynthesis. Producers are the key to every ecosystem because they have all of the energy. Once you have producers growing, then you can see consumers in an ecosystem. There are also four kinds of consumers! Ask your child to tell you about herbivores, omnivores, carnivores, and scavengers and what they eat.

With all of the living things in place, we can start to talk about food chains and how energy is passed through a chain so that the living things can survive. We have also talked about what would happen if one part of the chain was broken because a living thing became extinct. That's where the energy stops, and it can have drastic effects on all of the other parts of the chain!

In order to look more closely at food chains, we did a science experiment on Friday to answer the question, "What animals are part of an owl's food chain?" By examining owl pellets, we were able to find out that owls eat a variety of rodents and even other small birds. We had a great time making a connection between what we've been learning and the real world, and we are looking forward to building our own ecosystems the next two week!

Please enjoy this slideshow of us exploring our owl pellets!

Wetlands Projects

Over the course of the last month, we have been learning about the importance of wetlands to people, animals, and the environment. The kids were presented with a situation: should we protect the wetlands at Bear Creek, or should we build playgrounds where the wetlands currently stand. To help the kids make an informed choice, we also researched the benefits of exercise on kids' brains and bodies.

Once we learned about wetlands and the benefits of exercise, the kids chose a claim. Would they protect the wetlands or would the choose to build a playground? The students overwhelmingly chose to protect the wetlands, but we did have some people choose to build the playgrounds. Once they decided upon their claim, they had to figure out how they would get their message across to our audience. Students chose letters, blog posts / articles, books, podcasts, movies, SmartAmp presentations, and posters. They have been working hard to polish these presentations so that they will convince you to agree with their claim.

Now it's your turn to choose! You can follow the links to our kidblog sites or check out the updates to this post, to gather your information. Then we'd like you to vote. Will you choose to protect the wetlands, or will you choose to build more playgrounds? The choice is yours!

Here are the links to follow:

• STEM Students who have Mrs. Horner and Mrs. Bair
• Mrs. Bair's Homeroom who have Mrs. Towsen in the afternoon
• Mrs. Towsen's Homeroom who have Mrs. Bair in the afternoon

You can listen to some podcasts right here!

Check out Gabe's podcast in support of building playgrounds:

Listen to Haley support the wetlands:

Brooke supports saving the wetlands:

Gabe S. threw his support behind the wetlands:

Nick believes we should save the wetlands:

Sarah thinks we should save the wetlands, too:

You can also watch this very entertaining movie by Toren!

And here is an informative and entertaining video by Olivia!

Check back often because more projects will be added throughout the week. Once you feel as though you have the information you need, please cast your vote:

Comparing Numbers - AM Class

Over the last few weeks, we have been trying to answer the question, "What do numbers mean?" To answer this question, we have focused on learning the different places digits can "park" in, how their value changes in each place, and how to tell the differences between numbers.

To demonstrate their knowledge the Bair's Den AM Class used the Show Me app to complete their comparing and ordering assessments. This app allowed everybody to talk about their thinking as they were doing the work. While not all of the Show Mes are posted, you can view several of them by visiting our class's Show Me page. You can find your child's work by looking for their name. Feel free to ask us any questions about our projects.

Comparing Numbers - AM Class

Over the last few weeks, we have been trying to answer the question, "What do numbers mean?" To answer this question, we have focused on learning the different places digits can "park" in, how their value changes in each place, and how to tell the differences between numbers.

To demonstrate their knowledge the Bair's Den AM Class used the Show Me app to complete their comparing and ordering assessments. This app allowed everybody to talk about their thinking as they were doing the work. While not all of the Show Mes are posted, you can view several of them by visiting our class's Show Me page. You can find your child's work by looking for their name. Feel free to ask us any questions about our projects.

Be on the look out for the PM Class's slideshows coming soon!

School Spirit and Word of the Week

This week's word of the week is thoughtful. Fourth grade has been having some trouble at times when teachers aren't around, so we are working together to be more thoughtful about our words and our actions.

On Monday we talked about this quote from Margaret Meade, a famous anthropologist during the 1960's:

We changed the word citizens to students, and we changed the word world to school. And then we talked about how things might change if we were thoughtful about how we talked to each other and if we were thoughtful about our actions. We talked about how sometimes it's hard to do the right thing when others aren't, and we talked about how good it feels when you take the time to do something, like pick up trash in the hallway or help a friend, just because it's the right thing to do. This week we are all focusing on being thoughtful about our words and actions, and hopefully we will be the group to make that difference here at Bear Creek.

Last week, we participated in five different school spirit days to celebrate Red Ribbon Week. These days helped us have some fun, show our school spirit, and also bring awareness to the fact that drugs and alcohol aren't the answer to problems when we get older. Again, we need to be all of our words of the week: Brave, Responsible, Helpful, Adaptable, and Thoughtful. If we continue to live these words, we will be able to avoid situations where we might encounter drugs and alcohol.

Our favorite of the week was Crazy Hair Day! Check out our pictures --- even the teachers got in on the fun!!

School Spirit and Word of the Week

This week's word of the week is thoughtful. Fourth grade has been having some trouble at times when teachers aren't around, so we are working together to be more thoughtful about our words and our actions.

On Monday we talked about this quote from Margaret Meade, a famous anthropologist during the 1960's:

We changed the word citizens to students, and we changed the word world to school. And then we talked about how things might change if we were thoughtful about how we talked to each other and if we were thoughtful about our actions. We talked about how sometimes it's hard to do the right thing when others aren't, and we talked about how good it feels when you take the time to do something, like pick up trash in the hallway or help a friend, just because it's the right thing to do. This week we are all focusing on being thoughtful about our words and actions, and hopefully we will be the group to make that difference here at Bear Creek.

Last week, we participated in five different school spirit days to celebrate Red Ribbon Week. These days helped us have some fun, show our school spirit, and also bring awareness to the fact that drugs and alcohol aren't the answer to problems when we get older. Again, we need to be all of our words of the week: Brave, Responsible, Helpful, Adaptable, and Thoughtful. If we continue to live these words, we will be able to avoid situations where we might encounter drugs and alcohol.

Our favorite of the week was Crazy Hair Day! Check out our pictures --- even the teachers got in on the fun!!

Multiplication Suggestions

Today everybody moved on to practicing multiplication facts. While each student received flashcards for their current level, you aren't expected to do flashcards every night. Here are some fun ways to practice your facts.

1. The Dice Game: Get two dice, and use masking tape to cover the numbers on one die. Write the numbers 7-12 on that die. Roll the dice and multiply the two numbers together. The highest product gets a point. The first person to 15 points wins!

2. Multiplication War: Played like regular war, but you flip two cards instead of one. Every card is face value, while jacks, queens, and kings are worth 10. The person with the highest product wins the cards. If the products are equal, do "I De-Clare War" and add the 4 cards together. The highest sum gets all cards.

3. Egg Carton Game: Get an empty egg carton and number the spots 1-12. Add two pennies, and close the lid. Shake the carton. Open it up and multiply the numbers where the pennies landed.

4. Skip Counting: Multiplication is really all about skip counting the multiples of a number. Have your child practice skip counting in any way. You can actually make them skip while they count by their fact number (2, 4, 6, 8, 10.....), they can write / paint / draw their multiples when skip counting, or if you're looking for some messy fun you can write the skip counting in shaving cream! Skip counting is a great strategy that the kids can use during their fact tests.

These are four simple ways to get started reviewing or practicing those facts. If you have any great ideas you'd like to share, please let me know and we'll add them to the list.