Archive‎ > ‎2012-2013 Assignments‎ > ‎

4th Grade


Inventor Interviews

posted May 13, 2013, 11:00 AM by mdreyfus@ctkschool.org   [ updated May 13, 2013, 11:02 AM ]

Introduction

A famous director is coming to Christ the King School.  He wants to see how well you can research and conduct an interview.  He is looking for the next great “Not Too Late Night Talk Show” host.  You will need to conduct one interview in character as your famous inventor.  Don’t miss this great opportunity!

As a Researcher and interviewer you will have two main tasks to complete:

1)     First, you will individually use your famous inventor research to create 10 questions that someone can ask you to find out INTERESTING facts about your inventor.

2)     With these questions, you will become this character and present your findings to the class in the form of an interview with a partner.

Process

1. You will write at least 10 interview questions about your famous person.  During your interview, you must include your inventor’s major accomplishments.

2.      When researching your famous person look for many different and unique facts to make your interview interesting for your audience.

3. You will need to write up your questions.  These interview questions will be read to you by a partner. You must then be prepared to give answers with accurate information back to your interviewing partner.


Here is a video to help you get some ideas


10 Steps to Shooting your First DIY Interview from Vimeo Video School on Vimeo.


Evaluation

Your teachers will grade you on your interview and will be looking for the following:

-         Did you tell us about the major accomplishments

-         Did you have at least 10 questions and answers

-         Did you have unique information and interesting facts

-         Were you prepared for the interview

-         Did you use a loud, clear voice so everyone could hear

Thank you and good luck on getting the new job.  We think you all would make great “Not too Late Night Talk Show Hosts.”



Evaluating Sources

posted Apr 22, 2013, 10:59 AM by mdreyfus@ctkschool.org   [ updated Apr 22, 2013, 11:36 AM ]

Different Ways of Presenting Information

Journalism

Opinion


Research


How to evaluate a source

An eight-point evaluation checklist from the UC Berkeley Library.

  • What can the URL tell you?
  • Who wrote the page? Is he, she, or the authoring institution a qualified authority?
  • Is it dated? Current, timely?
  • Is information cited authentic?
  • Does the page have overall integrity and reliability as a source?
  • What's the bias?
  • Could the page or site be ironic, like a satire or a spoof?
  • If you have questions or reservations, how can you satisfy them?

Activity

1. Create a new Google Document
2. Research a conservation topic
  • Find fact based and opinion articles
  • List them and label them
3. Write 3 titles for an article about the topic in different styles:
  • Journalism
  • Opinion Positive
  • Opinion Negative

Drawing with Sketchpad

posted Apr 8, 2013, 9:42 AM by mdreyfus@ctkschool.org   [ updated Apr 8, 2013, 9:42 AM ]

Today you're going to draw a scene from your spring break...using Geometer's Sketchpad.  You can draw anything you like; a place you went, an activity you did, even something you imagined.  In your drawing, you MUST use at least:
  • 1 square
  • 1 rectangle
  • 1 other polygon (a triangle, rhombus, parallelogram, hexagon, pentagon, etc.)
  • 2 acute angles
  • 2 obtuse angles
You MUST also use measurements of angles and lengths to PROVE that you used the components above.

Photo Editing: My Secret Life

posted Feb 12, 2013, 10:44 AM by mdreyfus@ctkschool.org   [ updated Mar 4, 2013, 11:00 AM ]

In this project, we're going to start learning the art of photo collage using PhotoShop.  Photo editing tools can be incredibly powerful, enabling you to make beautiful, hilarious, or just plain weird images like the ones below:

president bush eating a cat
bublé raptor

Here is a series of videos to help you get started with this amazing artform:



Earth Science Lessons

posted Dec 3, 2012, 8:59 AM by mdreyfus@ctkschool.org   [ updated Feb 4, 2013, 12:48 PM ]

For this project, students will become the teachers to share their knowledge of Earth Science Topics.

Day 1 and 2: Planning

  1. Open this lesson plan template
  2. Choose File --> Make a Copy to save a copy to your Google Docs
  3. Share your copy with your partner
  4. Together, choose from the topics under Topic Options.
  5. Using information from your textbook, fill in the template, explaining all the facts you are going to share, what viewers will learn, and how you will explain the topic to them.
Here is an example of the Lesson Plan Template:

Day 3: Building Your Lesson

You will build your lesson using Educreations. 

Day 4: Recording Your Lesson


Day 5: Peer Assessment





Classifying Rocks

posted Nov 19, 2012, 11:17 AM by mdreyfus@ctkschool.org   [ updated Nov 19, 2012, 11:18 AM ]

Intro to Researching Online

posted Nov 5, 2012, 9:12 AM by mdreyfus@ctkschool.org   [ updated Nov 5, 2012, 2:29 PM ]

The Internet is an incredible resource, but it's also a very big and confusing place to navigate!  It's important that we learn good techniques for finding and also saving information.

Day 1: Searching

We're going to do a Google search for Trumpeter Swans.  Here are some things to think about:
  • How should we word our search?
  • How are search results displayed?  Which results are ads?
  • How can we get results that are written for kids to understand?
  • How can we decide which sources are reliable?
When you find a readable, reliable source, bookmark it for use later.

Day 2: Saving information

Make a copy of the spreadsheet below.  Use the Internet sources we found to answer the questions on the spreadsheet.  Be sure to use your own words and cite your sources correctly!

If you answer all the questions, go to the second page and create your own questions about the topics listed.

Trumpeter Swans Research


Day 3: Writing from Research

Now that you've gathered information about the Trumpeter Swan and developed your own questions, we're going to write a few paragraphs about the them.
  1. Go to your Google Docs list
  2. Click Create
  3. Click Document
  4. Click on Untitled Document and rename it to <your number> Trumpeter Swans
  5. Write 1 or 2 paragraphs describing what you learned about trumpeter swans.

How Computers Work: Part III

posted Oct 15, 2012, 9:29 AM by mdreyfus@ctkschool.org   [ updated Oct 15, 2012, 11:03 AM ]

How the Internet Works


What's a browser?


How Computers Work: Part II

posted Oct 1, 2012, 10:54 AM by mdreyfus@ctkschool.org   [ updated Oct 1, 2012, 10:55 AM ]

Today we're going to go into more detail about how computers work, and some things we need to know when working with them.

Start out by reading this presentation

How computers work - Part 1

posted Oct 1, 2012, 10:52 AM by mdreyfus@ctkschool.org   [ updated Oct 1, 2012, 10:52 AM ]

Today we're going to look at how all the parts of a computer work together.  All computers have the same kind of parts, even though they might look very different!

Storage

This where computers store all the information they need to work.  To play a song, for example, they need the MP3 file of the song, but they also need the Application that plays songs, and drivers to run the speakers.  And of course, an Operating System to run all that stuff!

Processing

Permanent storage is usually pretty slow, for a computer.  That's why computers copy anything they're working on from Storage to Memory.  It uses the motherboard to do this, which ties all the parts of the computer together.  The CPU is the brain of the computer, and it does all the processing to move information around.


Power and Heat

Computers run on electricity, so they need power!  Desktop computers use power supplies to convert wall power into the delicate electricity needed by electronics.  Electronics also create heat, so they use heat sinks and fans to keep computer components cool.


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