Pioneer Fourth Grade Lessons and Activities 2006-07
Meet Our Fourth Grade Classes!
Mrs. Barnard's Class ~ Mrs. Chandler's Class ~ Mrs. Jensen's Class ~ Mrs. Shoemaker's Class
Pumpkin Investigation ~ In October we had our annual Pumpkin Investigation. This is a math and science activity in which an adult volunteer and a small student group are asked to predict, test, and record information about pumpkins. First students begin by examining their pumpkins and recording information. Then they investigated the inside of thier pumpkins. It got rather gooey and messy! Finally, students cut a face into their pumpkins and cleaned up the mess. Many family members assisted. The Pumpkin Investigation was a fun way to learn.
Celebrating Our Heritage
In the fall we featured immigration as our academic theme. Students gathered and shared information about their heritage and shared that information on a bulletin board. Then each 4th grader graphed the information for his/her class in Excel and personalized their specific heritage data.
To celebrate Thanksgiving in 4th grade, we acknowledged and honored students whose families have recently come from another country or culture. On November 21, each student was invited to bring a food treat to share that is representative of his or her cultural heritage. It was a great success! Take a look at our celebration.
Wetlands ~ Pioneer is fortunate to have our own wetlands area.
Integrating Art into Our Curriculum
Vincent Van Gogh - The project was inspired by Van Gogh’s famous “Bedroom at Arles” painting. This is an example of integrated learning where one lesson has several targets. In this case, students learned about Vincent Van Gogh, color, shading, perspective, rectangles, trapezoids, parallel and diagonal lines. Some of the students got so carried away with the project, that they drew several—of their future remodeled rooms or even their parents’ rooms! Funny how every single student portrayed each room to be neat as a pin!
Leonardo da Vinci - Fourth Graders applied some of Leonardo da Vinci’s art techniques – careful use of light, shadow and proportion to create realistic self-portraits. They also practiced the skill of writing summaries.
Washington Map Project - Students were challenged create a map of the state of Washington. The map could take many forms: a map made of paper mache, a pillow map, a decorated cake/cookie, mosaic map, stitched map, drawn on a t-shirt with fabric paint or crayon, etc. Students really used their imaginations and created wonderful representations of our great state.
Physical Science: Physical and Chemical Changes - Students depicted Present State, Physical Change and Chemical Change through art.
Smokey Point Concrete Field Trip
On May 31th, fourth graders visited Smokey Point Concrete in Arlington. Sand and gravel is an important Washington State natural resource. The students rotated through five stations observing the process of mining rocks and producing concrete. Students share their thoughts about this activity.
Everett Arts Field Trip
Pioneer fourth graders were the fortunate recipients of a grant from the Snohomish Council for the Arts so we could attend a multicultural art event at the old Monte Cristo Hotel in Everett. First, students learned about the art on display. Then, they had hands-on sessions with real artists to sample different types of art forms. It was wonderfully presented and we had a blast!
Pacific Northwest Native American Study
As part of our study on Washington State, we learn about the Pacific Northwest Coast Native Americans. A variety of activities help make this study more real.
Pacific NW Native American Masks
Students receive some background instruction in Northwest Coast design and constructs a mask from an empty milk jug and paper mache. Also, in keeping with tradition, we limit color choice to red, white, blue, and black. Finally we add a touch of gold, raffia, shells and/or feathers. The masks require much work and planning on the part of each student and are impressive when complete! Final Display
Whatcom Museum Field Trip
Visiting the Whatcom in fourth grade is practically a tradition in Arlington. It’s a wonderful field trip—fun and educational! Half the program involves seeing, handling and learning about Native American artifacts. The other half allows participants to practice actual skills of the culture. And then, there’s a chance to sample fresh salmon poached in a bentwood box. We also have a session on Pacific Northwest birds.
Pacific Northwest Native American Workshop Photos |
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Slate Sharpening |
Cedar Bark Processing |
Spinning and Weaving |
Bent Wood Box and Hook |
Twining |
Salmon Cooking |
Woodworking |
Woodworking Tool Demonstration Lunch Outdoors |
Physical Science - Energy and Matter Activities ||Whizzball
Environmental Education
Paul Smidansky, Habitat Restoration/Environmental Education Intern
Snohomish Conservation District
Wetlands - It’s not very often that a school is fortunate enough to have a healthy, functioning wetland on campus. However, the students and teachers at Pioneer Elementary are able to enjoy one just steps from their school. When Paul visited Pioneer, he was able to incorporate a brief exploration of the wetlands into his lesson. After introducing students to the scientific definition of wetlands and some common wetland characteristics, the classes observed plants and animals in their native wetlands habitat.
Paul was also able to describe to students how the school utilizes the wetland area to assist with parking lot drainage, which was a great introduction to the second part of the lesson, an experiment. During the experiment students were able to observe the importance of wetlands to flood control and how effective wetlands are at absorbing excess surface water compared to farmed fields or pavement.
Macroinvertebrates - Paul returned to Pioneer Elementary on June 5 to teach students about macroinvertebrates, which are animals without a backbone that are large enough to see with the naked eye. Students learned about macroinvertebrates such as caddisflies, mayflies, stoneflies, and midges, and, through a game of “Pollution Tag”, determined which species were most sensitive to pollution and which were more tolerant of low water quality.
With this knowledge, students returned to the classroom and identified some actual macroinvertebrate samples provided by Paul. Once the samples were identified and classified into a pollution tolerance group, the students were able to use a special formula to grade the water quality of the stream where the samples had been collected.
Persons of the Year
All our fourth graders created mock magazine covers featuring their parents as Person of the Year. The drawing instructions for this lesson were based on actual facial proportions, in contrast to an earlier art project. It is amazing how closely many of these resemble the parents! What great artists!
Miscellanous Projects
Close Friends || What's A WASL? || Jackie's Wild Seattle || Snowmen
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Contact Paula Barnard at Pioneer Elementary School, Arlington Public Schools, Arlington, WA, USA
Updated 06/18/2007