Assembly Line Cars

We had a great time learning about Henry Ford and his innovations to the assembly line.  Students learned that it was much faster to make a car on an assembly line than working on an individual car from start to finish.  This led to cars being much cheaper to make, and therefore cheaper for consumers to buy!

Chelsey is making the body of the car.

Now it's time for wheels and hubcaps!

It takes concentration to build a car out of crackers and frosting!

Nathaniel and Parker show off the finished product.

Dirt Movers

We had a great time at the college trails investigating fungus, mold, bugs, and other creatures that decompose dead material.  Without these important organisms in our ecosystems, our world would be littered with miles deep of dead leaves, trees, and animal carcasses!

Olivia, Maddy, and Elizabeth check out what's under the log.  We kept track of our findings on our data sheets.

Jayden, Eric, and Nathan search for critters under a big rock.

Are there any decomposers in this tree?

A Sticky Situation

Fourth grade scientists had a great time discovering how to change the phase of glue. After observing the properties of glue in the liquid state, they added water and a borax solution. They were very enthusiastic about stirring the glue and seeing the change. From glue to silly putty in a stirring moment.

Put Down Your Pencils and Walk

Sheridan School took advantage of our warm October days and went for a walk.

Students and staff had a great time hiking the trail at NCMC.

Fraction Action!

Last week we learned about fractions during our Fraction Action morning.
We ate fractions, sang fractions, used fraction pieces, made fraction number lines, and wrote about fractions.  We hope our brains got a fraction bigger!

Fun Learning about the Past

Bringing a sack lunch is always fun on field trips!

Students helped make several ropes and learned they were used on farms and on boats.

Many steps are involved in making baskets.

Watching intently, Alexe' and Aurora learned about making baskets.

Fun at Flywheelers

We had a fabulous time at our recent field trip to the Flywheel grounds.  We learned so much about life in Northern Michigan in the past.  People sure worked hard back then!  But thankfully, they did have the technology of the flywheel to help make some jobs just a bit easier. 

Some of the favorite stations we visited were the blacksmith, Miss Nancy and her Border Collies, the horses, and the museum.  We also enjoyed the sawmill, the scale (our classes weighed around 2500 pounds each!), the veneer mill where we watched them make baskets, and corn grinding. 

When we got back to school, we discussed the ways life has changed for people, and also the ways it has stayed the same. 

Thank you to our chaperones who came with us, and thank you to the Flywheeler volunteers for making this day possible!

Liam sends the cob through the sheller.  This machine will remove the kernels from the cob.

Lizzy cranks the flywheel to grind the corn.  (Sorry the picture is tilted...haven't figured out yet how to rotate.  :)

Sean helps place the veneer strips in the correct order to make the basket.

Veronica gets weighed on the scale.

A New Start!

Welcome to the Sheridan Elementary fourth grade blog.  We are so excited to be back at school.  The students are quickly settling in to their new classrooms and adapting to new routines.  We use this blog as a fun place to share photos and classroom news that doesn't fit into our newsletter.  We also welcome discussion from parents and students!  Stay tuned for more posts coming soon.

Bridge Strength

In social studies we learned about the Mackinac Bridge.  We wondered if suspension bridges really were stronger than beam bridges, so we made a model of each kind.  Then we tested the strength by hanging weighted buckets from each.  The suspension bridge really was stronger!  No wonder that is the design they chose for the Mighty Mac.

Assembly Line Cars

We have been learning about Henry Ford and how he used the moving assembly line to make cars more efficiently.  He also used standardized parts so that cars were easier to build and repair.  All this made cars more affordable.  Thanks, Mr. Ford!