Severe Weather Safety

One of our 4th grade standards is severe weather safety!  Well, with Hurricane Sandy on the horizon as a threat for the entire East Coast, I'd say we studied it just in time.

Hurricane Sandy

So, if you are near the East coast, my 4th graders have some safety tips for you!

And here are some tornado and thunderstorm safety tips as well! 

Color

This summer I promised myself I would keep this blog updated and blog all about our classroom activities.  Clearly, that hasn't happened!  :(  My home life has just been super busy lately!  Of course, my two and a half year old keeps me on the go-go-go at home.  I had a nephew born about 2 weeks ago, my home church in Tennessee was burned to the ground (arson), I went home for the weekend by myself, we've been doing lots of fall fun activities, and I just haven't had the time to blog.  

We began our Light unit in Science last week.  I also like to teach about ROYGBIV!

Students got to use prisms to try to see ROYGBIV.  We got some great views of it and they were SO excited!

We also watched a video segment from The Magic School Bus: Makes a Rainbow.  The segment we watch is called "Colors Hidden in White Light".

I love Magic School Bus!  

Field Trip to Cherokee, North Carolina

Last Thursday our 4th graders went to Cherokee, North Carolina on our field trip!  Out of state field trip, chartered bus, 2 hours there, 2 hours back...yep, I survived!  We left the school at 7:00 am.  On the way there I heard conversations like "Look at that cirrus cloud!", "Whoa!  It's a mountain!", and "Oh my gosh, we are driving through a stratus cloud!".  Can you tell we have been studying clouds in Science?  We also saw 3 hot air balloons which was neat! We had great weather, good chaperones, and well behaved students!  We started out at Oconaluftee Indian Village.

Entrance to the village

A Cherokee man shows us beautiful bead work.

Our tour guide shows us hand made masks. 

Students get the opportunity to go inside a sweat house.

My favorite part was the Indian dances we were able to see.  This is my 5th year to take students on this trip and we've never had time to see the dances.  I was glad we had the time this year.

After the village, we had lunch at a local covered shelter.  Then, we made our way to the Museum of the Cherokee Indian.

Entrance to the Museum

We always take a photo in front of the Sequoya statue.

Clothing from the Cherokee

We had a wonderful time!  Do you take your students on field trips?  If so, where?