Fourth graders have had an excellent first few weeks back in gifted class! We began our first day reviewing our "Daily Menu" and got right to work. First on the menu was our "Brain Boggler." This is a critical and creative thinking sheet we will do each day to exercise our brains. Be sure to check out your child's brain boggler sheet in their binder. We talked about our school "Recipe for Success" theme and after discussion about ingredients for a great year students wrote their own personal "recipe" for their school year. Ask your child what ingredients they chose. What day in the "kitchen" would be complete without making tasty treats? We created our own trail mix and we talked about what ingredients each item represented (goldfish=teamwork; marshmallows= kindness; pretzel sticks=we stick togther, m&m's=fun, etc.) What a yummy and fun activity!
We've begun a forensic/detective unit study and we are really enjoying it so far. We learned to document evidence properly by sketching the scene, labeling items, and measuring their location from fixed points in the classroom. We conducted a "crummy cake chemistry" lab in which we tested various chemicals to solve a mystery in which one chef sabotaged another's cake by adding too much baking soda. We used the scientific method to test several "mystery powders" until we were able to identify the powders, and used our results to pinpoint the culprit.
Along with our detective study, we also work on a series of logic puzzles entitled "The Great Honey Robbery" each week. We use our critical thinking and deductive reasoning skills to solve a new puzzle each week. As we figure out the solution to each puzzle, we are provided with new clues to help us to ultimately solve the mystery of "who stole the honey."
