Grandpa Phil and the Gold Rush

Grandpa Phil came back to Sibley for his annual Gold Rush presentation last week!

We've been reading about the California and Klondike gold rushes in Reading class while studying the West and Northwestern regions of the United States in Social Studies.  These topics fit perfectly with Grandpa Phil's passion for gold prospecting.

He demonstrated how to pan for gold by hand, and also how to do it with his mechanical panner using the dirt he ordered from Alaska.  

Since this was Grandpa's last gold rush presentation for us, we got to open and pan ALL THREE bags of his Alaskan dirt!

We were VERY excited when we found a few gold nuggets as we panned!

4th graders got a chance to see the larger nuggets he has found during his prospecting.  They also got to see and hold the gold nugget necklace he made for my grandma so they could understand how heavy gold really is.

Grandpa Phil also brought along his metal detectors and the students got a chance to use them to find coins and other metal objects in the grass.

We had a fabulous time during your gold rush presentation!  

Thanks again, Grandpa Phil!

Star of the Week

Our star this week was Leah!

Leah did a fantastic job presenting her information.  We learned a lot about her through her poster, poem and photos.  

She shared that she has seven brothers and sisters and it seems like she helps out a lot at home with her younger siblings.  Her favorite movies are the Twilight series movies, her heroes are her parents, and her dad is currently in Sudan helping build a school.

Leah chose Malaney and Jaiden to take a picture with her.

Thanks for being such a great star, Leah!  You were awesome!

Star of the Week

Tanner was our star this week!

His presentation was quite entertaining!  We learned a lot about him while he shared his poster, poem, and photos with us.

Tanner told us that his favorite movie is Scream 4, his favorite book is Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and his hero is 'The Miz'.  He also really likes the dance troupe The Jabbawockeez, and he even demonstrated a few of their dance moves!

Tanner chose to have his picture taken with Ben, Anthony, and Caden.

Thanks for being our star, Tanner!  We really enjoyed your presentation!

Star of the Week

Chase was our star this week!

It was fun to listen to Chase present his poster, poem and photos.  We learned a lot about him during his presentation, like how he is a big fan of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, his family has a lot of pets, and his hero is his dad.

Chase's special guests were his mom, dad, and his sisters.

Thanks for doing such a fantastic job, Chase!  You were awesome!

Star of the Week

Jack is our star this week!

Our class learned a lot about Jack during his presentation.  We learned that sports are very important to him, and that his baseball team won the state championship last year!  He also shared that his hero is Joe Mauer, and his favorite book is Where the Red Fern Grows.

Jack's special guests were his grandpa and grandma.

Thanks for sharing, Jack!  Great job!

Star of the Week

Our star this week was Ian!

He did a fabulous job presenting his poster, "I Am" poem and photos.  

We thought Ian's pictures were great and the class had a lot of questions about all the trips they represented.  He and his family really enjoy traveling together!  We learned that Ian's favorite book is Hatchet, his favorite TV show is Yukon Men, and he really enjoys archery and hunting.

Ian's special guest was his dad.

Thanks for being our star, Ian!  Great work!

Native American Studies Posters

Here are the posters our class created for our Children of Native America Today project!  They did a great job representing each tribe using symbols on their posters.

The 4th graders had a chance to look at the posters made by the rest of the class and were asked to reflect on them by answering the questions, "I See, I Think, I Wonder."  It was interesting to read the different observations and questions they wrote on their graphic organizers.  It led us to have another great conversation about perception and understanding other points of view.

Native American Studies

This week we have been studying various Native American tribes from across the country.  Students read sections of the book Children of Native America Today in groups and then worked in their group to create posters with symbols that represented the tribe they studied.  

When they're done we'll have a classroom gallery walk to learn more about each Native American group they researched.  Then we'll discuss the similarities and differences between those ten groups, and then talk about the similarities and differences between our own culture and the groups we studied.