Have you ever done something and it turned out to be WAY more complicated than you originally intended?  This week in GATE, we did just that!    Rube Goldberg was a famous cartoonist whose wacky inventions took a simple task and made it very complicated with the use of simple machines.  Each student drew their own Rube Goldberg design.  Above is one of his designs for sharpening a pencil!  Do you really need a kite and a iron to sharpen a pencil?  Well, you do if you’re designing the Rube Goldberg way!   We had students design everything from how to cook an egg to how to blow out a birthday candle.  And you thought those tasks were simple!

We also tried out Fantastic Contraption and WhizzBall to try our hand at designing a contraption that really works.  So our invention unit is well underway and we are looking forward to our big Invention Convention coming up in December! 

No, it’s not Achooo…. it’s Achi.  This week in GATE we are playing a few versions of a popular game.  We played the West African Verson, Achi.   Next, we played the English version, Three Man Morris.   We are working now to invent our own themed version of this strategic game.  We held a discussion about the meaning of the word fair and how to keep a game fair for all players. Students are creating rules, desiging a game board, and when we finish we will upload our games to a gallery here on our website so people around the world can try our versions out! So, stay tuned!  Students used Microsoft Pain, Microsoft Publisher, and some drew their boards by hand.  After we proofread our rules and put on the finishing touches, we will be completing our game gallery!   At least we now know one thing for sure…. when somebody says “Achi,” there’s no need to say “Bless You!” It just means they just won the game!

Here’s a blank version of the gameboard in case you’d like to make your own version of Achi!

Our Parsley plant, donated by our school counselor, Mrs. Payne, was home to five caterpillars!  Since then, they have formed chrysalis and we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our butterflies!   Two of them escaped and attached to the wall of our classroom!  These must be the adventurous little caterpillars!  Hopefully we’ll be at school and in the classroom when they butterflies emerge!  It will be exciting for us all!  The fourth grade GATE students have been spending some time planning a butterfly habitat and thinking about how we could raised butterflies inside our classroom.  We will be gathering information and preparing a proposal for our school’s outdoor classroom committee to see if we can build a butterfly garden.   If you can’t wait for the butterflies to emerge… check out this site about Black Swallowtail Butterflies to get a preview of what they might look like.  Or, if you are interested in raising caterpillars at home or in your classroom, check out Butterfly School.   Stay tuned… we’ll try to post a picture when we get to see our own butterflies!

To kick off the new year and the new classrooms, students joined me for an official Dinner Party in our classroom.    A delicious feast provided by the Hillsboro Hawk Cafe included broiled beef patties topped with delicious cheddar cheese, fresh crisp yellow corn, delightful fruity pears, and a tasty warm cookie to top it off!  Doesn’t that make you hungry?    Well, it was not just an ordinary lunch… it was our first lunch together! 

It was great getting to know each group of students and we are ready for a great year!  I promised my students that they would see my camera A LOT this year, that I like to take pictures of everything we do, and yes, even that crazy pic I took of a lunch tray ended up on our blog!  You never know what you might see here.  (Thanks to J. for letting me snap a picture of his lunch tray.)