Electrical Circuit Quiz Folders

When I began teaching 4th grade, I inherited a bunch of old science materials (lesson plans, old activity books, tubs of supplies, etc.). I found a really old electricity activity book from 1991 called "Electrical Connections: AIMS Activities for Grades 4-9" with some pretty fun (and relevant) experiments in it.

Today, we did the Circuit Quiz Boards activity on pages 35-37, but I modified it slightly. I didn't use the quiz template, and we only made 3 holes to make it easier. You can find a PDF of these activity pages here.

Our procedure:

• I pre-cut some manila file folders so that they didn't have the tabs at the top and used my 3-hole punch to make holes on each side. Then, I had each kiddo grab one.

• Then, I passed out a box of aluminum foil, a roll of masking tape, scissors, batteries, light bulbs, and wires to each group.

• I explained that they would need to make a quiz folder like my example (shown below) where the question and correct answer completes a circuit to make a light bulb light up. I didn't show them how my example worked. I asked them how they thought it worked, and they figured it out!

• We talked about how the foil was a conductor because it's made of aluminum which is a metal and how the tape was an insulator because it was made of paper. I also had them explain to me what would happen if we didn't insulate the foil. They surprised me with how quickly they came up with the right answer. They told me that if metal crosses metal, it can complete a different circuit possibly making the wrong answer light the bulb.

•  I told them that we would just focus on getting our foil cut, folded, and taped into our folders today and then we would write our quiz questions Monday. I told them that their questions had to be school-related (science, math, social studies, etc.) I also told them they should probably check each foil strip after they tape it to make sure the circuit is completed correctly before they moved on to the next strip.

•  I gave them the rest of our science time (we only have 30 minutes total for science) to work on their circuit folders. They really enjoyed this activity!

Miss Katherine's Spiced Peaches

In my small group for reading, we've been reading Holes by Louis Sachar. It's one of my favorite books, so I decided to have my fourth graders read it and do tons of fun activities along the way.

Anyway, we read about Miss Katherine's famous spiced peaches (Chapter 23) and just had to make some ourselves! I bought a 4-pack of jarred peaches in light syrup from Costco and brought a few spices the book mentioned plus some others that my students came up with that they thought would be good in the peaches. We ended up putting nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, brown sugar, white sugar, and vanilla bean in a crockpot with our peaches. It was so much fun! I let each student add an ingredient (just a dash of each spice and then about 1/2 cup of both types of sugar). Then I showed them how to cut open vanilla bean and scrape out the delicious inside.

We turned the crockpot on around 10:00 on low and ate them that afternoon during science time. They were so good! Some kiddos didn't like the smell of the cloves, but opted to try them anyway, and surprisingly liked them and even asked for seconds!

I forgot to take a picture before I dished out all the fruit, but it looked and smelled fantastic!

Paperclip Compasses

In science, we've been talking about electricity and magnetism. Today, we made our own compasses using a glass of water, a plastic bottle cap, a paperclip, and a magnet. I got the idea from a Bill Nye video about magnetism (Season 2, Episode 1). My students had so much fun magnetizing a paperclip by rubbing it across the magnet for a few minutes and then trying to get it to float on the bottle cap to see if it would spin and face North. (We determined where North was using a real compass and made a label for our glasses that was facing true North.)

Every group got their paperclip to face North and were super excited that it actually worked. We talked about how Earth is just a giant magnet and how it has 2 poles: a north and a south pole. We also talked about how the true magnetic poles aren't exactly in the same geographical location as the North and South Poles. The north magnetic pole is somewhere in Canada while the south magnetic pole is in the ocean near Antarctica.

A Little Background

Hello there! My name is Lauren Francis, and I'm 25. I teach fourth grade in a small town in Missouri and absolutely love my job! I started teaching 3 years ago right out of college. I taught second grade my first year and have been teaching fourth grade for the last two years. It was quite a change, but I couldn't be happier! I honestly love teaching fourth graders. They're such a fun age! They still seem to like school, but they're much more independent at this age. Don't get me wrong, we have our fair share of drama, but I wouldn't trade it for anything!

I wanted to start blogging about all of the things I do in my classroom. I love looking on Pinterest and reading other teachers' blogs to get inspired to try new things in my own class.

I am in charge of science for our fourth grade (we only have two teachers per grade). My partner teacher is in charge of social studies. At first, I was bummed because social studies is one of my favorite subjects (plus, I minored in history in college), but I am so glad that I get to do science. There are endless possibilities as to what I can do in my classroom for each topic in science. It's a very hands-on subject, and I utilize that as much as possible. Science has become one of my favorite subjects for sure!

Even though I love science, I have always loved ELA the best. I love grammar and reading! My dad was a high school English teacher in the town where I grew up, so I grew up with it. There's just something so satisfying about knowing when to use commas, how to punctuate sentences, how and when to use certain words, etc. I have always loved grammar (even though it can seem boring to students sometimes). I have a confession, though: I never liked reading as a kid. I would do anything and everything to get out of doing those book reports. I felt like reading was homework! Once I started reading the books, though, I'd come to find that I actually enjoyed it. However, there was always a negative connotation that went along with reading (at least for me), and I know that killed my dad. He is an avid reader and neither of his kids were bookworms growing up. (My brother still isn't a reading fan and would rather have his teeth pulled than read a book for fun.)

I, on the other hand, have fallen in love with reading because I finally found books that enjoy. I'm a huge fan of dystopian novels (The Hunger Games, Divergent, Taken (no, not the Liam Neeson one), The Maze Runner, etc.) and want to help my students find the books that make them WANT to read. We're reading Holes right now in my small group time, and the kids are absolutely loving it! I have tons of different activities to go along with each section of the book, and they actually give themselves homework so that we can read more and do more in group time! That just makes me so happy!

Finally, I want to talk about math. Math was the bane of my existence growing up (even through college). I was a straight-A student in all areas except math. I never understood it and still struggle with it today. Don't get me wrong, I had wonderful teachers, but I just never quite grasped the concepts (especially fractions and measuring). I actually didn't understand fractions until I had to teach them! I worried myself sick thinking about how I'd have to figure out how to teach something about which I didn't feel comfortable at all! My saving grace was my mentor teacher during my student teaching semester. She is an amazing teacher and taught in such a way that everyone could understand. After observing her lesson over fractions, I was an expert! It was so simple! It had just never clicked before. So, because of that, I'm very mindful of the struggles my students endure when it comes to all subject areas, not just math. I know how it feels to be a naturally good student in all areas except one, and it's frustrating! It also helped me be more patient with my lower-level students because I've been there.

My goal as a teacher is to make sure that each and every one of my students has a chance to succeed and that I provide those chances for them. It's the best when a kiddo has that "Ah-ha!" moment. It's the most rewarding feeling in the world to see a struggling student finally click and understand the content (especially when I see how excited they get).

So, I've decided to keep this blog for myself and for others. I want to keep track of what I do in my classroom and see what others do, too, so that I can constantly improve my teaching. Comments are more than welcome! I love collaborating with other teachers to come up with new, fun ideas! Anything I post on here will be credited back to where I found it, and anything original from me is open to anyone else to use however they feel will fit their teaching.

My TeacherPayTeachers store has only a few things as of right now, but I plan to add much, much more as I continue to blog. (My Holes unit will be up *hopefully* before too long!) Stay tuned!