Mrs. Swenson's 4th Grade Toothpaste Experiment
Posted on 10/01/2018
Mrs. Swenson's 4th Grade Class has spent a lot of time the first month of school building "community" in their classroom. During this particular activity, each group was given a tube of toothpaste, a plate, and two popsicle sticks. The first part of their assignment was to get all of the toothpaste out of the tube as quickly as they could. Next, they were given ten minutes to use their resources to get all of the toothpaste back into the tube. Despite their best efforts, the students quickly found out that they couldn't get the toothpaste back into the tube. All of the groups came together at the carpet to discuss their findings and their frustrations. Mrs. Swenson led the students in a discussion about how easy it was to sometimes "shoot out" unkind words or call someone a name that is hurtful--represented by the toothpaste coming out of the tube. We generated a class list of "toothpaste words" that we want to be aware of and try and avoid using. We reflected on this activity and also took some time to journal about it. The most important takeaway that the fourth graders concluded from this lesson was that they wanted to make sure to take the time to think before they spoke to be sure that they don't use hurtful words.