We have learned all about energy and resources the week before spring break and this last week. Students should understand that wind, sun and water are all resources which provide ways in which we can create energy. Students should know that these are renewable resources (wood is also a renewable resource) that can be replenished. These resources can take the place of nonrenewable resources, such as fossil fuels (oil, coal, natural gas), which takes millions of years to form and basically cannot be replaced.
Students took all of the knowledge and created a wonderful skit, which demonstrated their knowledge of this material. Students worked in small groups to write the skit and then we captured it on video as a class. We had a videographer, part of the "set crew," and actors. They did such a great job!
In the upcoming weeks, we will begin reviewing different cycles (butterfly, insects, frogs, plants) and will learn about the cycles of the moon and the relevance of the tides. Students will be given a moon calendar for homework in which they will need to draw the moon, as they see it. There are times when they won't be see it at night before bed, so look for it at the bus stop in the morning. If it is cloudy, they can make a prediction based on the days prior.
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March 23, 2014
Students worked so hard this week on their compound machines. They chose a challenge from the list below:
Help! The Malians, Greeks, and Romans need your help.
Choose one challenge from the list below:
•
Help Malians move plaster from the top toron back down to the ground. Create a compound machine, which is
made up of 3 or more simple machines, which moves a bucket of plaster down 30
cm.
•
Help Romans move a dome onto the roof.
Create a compound machine, which is made up of 3 or more simple
machines, which moves a dome up a height of 30 cm.
•
Help Malian miners lift salt slabs out of the mines. Create a
compound machine, which is made up of 3 or more simple machines, that can move
a salt slab up 30 cm.
Super challenge: Move the salt slab up 30 cm and over 10 cm to a camel!
Super challenge: Move the salt slab up 30 cm and over 10 cm to a camel!
• Greeks made a mistake when building a temple.
Find the error, create a compound machine, which is made up of 3 or more
simple machines, in order to move the capital (top) from one shaft (round base)
straight across to the shaft 30 cm away.
Next week, we will begin talking about natural resources (Renewable and Non Renewable) and natural forms of energy. Students will become TV reporters and work on a skit that describes all the different components, such as:
- impact of humans
- pollution
- chemicals
- interdependency of plants and animals
- conservation of our resources
- resource renewal
- habitat management
- natural events (fire, flood, disease, erosion)
- solar energy
- wind energy
- water energy
We will be working on the skits for a few weeks and will have a final product the week after spring break.
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March 16, 2014
Students have learned about the simple machines.
Inclined Plane - used to move objects up or down a height
Screw - an inclined plane wound around a cylinder, which is used to hold two objects together
Pulley - used to move objects up or down a height - the more pulleys, the less force required
Wedge - used to split or move an object apart
Wheel & Axle - used to move an object from one location to another
Lever - used to lift an object
Students will be using this knowledge to make a compound machine to move an object 30 cm. Come see these machines in action at STEAM Night on Thursday March 20th anytime between 6:30 and 7:30.
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January 6, 2014
Students will spend this week reviewing for their midyear assessment next Tuesday. We are practicing ways in which to study. Here are some examples:
- read through highlighted notes
- quiz a friend
- make up a quiz
- post-it note questions
- pyramid game
- Jeopardy
Students will need to review this week for homework. Use this blog to help them study the following content topics ...
- Soil
- Food Chains
- Animal Adaptations
- Environments
- Scientific Investigations (informally tested)
Please remember that the upcoming test questions aren't just "what is a decomposer?" Students will need to sythesize this information. For instance, a question might be "click on the picture of an organism that breaks down decayed plants and animals."
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November 3, 2013
We began our week with a created a list of what we know about Scientists. Students knew quite a bit and gave many examples, such as people who find new medications, people who study animals in the wild, and "people who research worms." :)
Next, we brainstormed all the steps a scientist must go through in order to find a new medication or write a report about an animal. We placed those steps in order and came up with the following list:
- ask a question that interests you
- make a hypothesis, which is an educated guess based on all you know
- plan and create an experiment
- do the experiment
- analyze or think about your data/results
- make a conclusion
- ask more questions and restart the process
We then created our own experiment.
- Question
What do worms eat?
- Hypothesis
Carrots, Apples, Eggshells, Leaves, Plastic (only some of us thought this), Coffee Grounds, and Tomatoes
- Experiment
We placed apples, eggshells, leaves, coffee grounds, and a plastic baggie into our container in an organized order. We then took a picture of it. We will take a picture every other day until Friday, November 8th.
On November 8th, we will review our data and results. We will make conclusions based on the pictures and what has changed.
This week, we will continue to talk about ways soil helps plants and animals to survive. We will also talk about ways soil is influenced by weather and humans, as well as discuss ways we can conserve soil.
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October 27, 2013
We spent two days reviewing for the Animal Adaptations and Environments assessment and one day showing all that we know on a super fun project. Students were asked to decorate a cake any way they wanted, but they had to include 2-3 animals and 2-3 plants that live in that environment. They spent about 30-40 minutes planning what they would use and how it would look. They spent about 30-40 minutes decorating their cakes. Here are the results...
AQUATIC ENVIRONMENTS
TERRESTRIAL ENVIRONMENTS
This week, we will spend time exploring the scientific method using our worm terrarium. We will brainstorm the process scientists go through when experimenting:
- ask questions
- make a hypothesis
- create experiment
- record data
- analyze data
- make a conclusion
- ask more questions and restart the process
We will experiment with the food and objects worms will/will not eat. Students will then create their own questions about our worms and go through the same process.
We will review the layers of soil (see the 9/22 blog entry below). A discussion will take place about how the soil helps plants to grow and what happens when the quality of soil is poor. We will take a "soil walk" around the school to determine the layers of soil we see, whether plants are thriving, and what types of soil conservation could be implemented.
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October 20, 2013
We have been trying to use all of the vocabulary words within our Environments unit. We have discussed plants, animals, and characteristics of Aquatic (water) Environments, such as ponds and lakes, streams and rivers, marshes and swamps, and oceans. We also include plant and animal adaptations for each specific environment and compare and contrast the similar aquatic environments. In addition, we draw food chains related to that environment. We have done the same with Terrestrial (dry-land) Environments, such as deserts, grasslands, rainforests, and coniferous ("leaves" remain on the trees) and deciduous or temperate (leaves fall from the trees) forests. We still need to compare and contrast aquatic and terrestrial environments, but I feel that will be easy for this group of kiddos!
As a reminder, students will have a fairly long test on Thursday. I think I will break it up over two days so they aren't completely stressed out! To prepare them, there are a few review pages coming home. A few of them are repeats from past weeks to help remind them of the vocabulary. In addition to this, you can ask them about different plants and animals that live in each environment.
As something fun, in small groups, we will be decorating a cake to look like a specific environment. Students will work together to discuss the plants and animals that live in that environment and will then create these plants and animals using specific toppings. Watch for pictures to come! :)
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October 6, 2013
This past week, we began physical adaptations (changes in the way an animal looks). We talked about camouflage (when an animal blends in to its environment) and mimicry (when an animal looks or sounds like another animal in order to NOT be eaten).
I posted this below, but thought it was worth another mention. If this isn't camouflage in nature, I don't know what is!
This week, we will review hibernation (when an animal's body reduces the activity in the cold months in order to use less energy and survive) and migration (when an animal moves to a warmer location to get more food). We will also talk about behavioral adaptations (changes in the way an animal acts).
We will connect all of the vocabulary words over the past few weeks with our Environments unit, starting on Wednesday through next week. We will begin with Aquatic (water) Environments, such as ponds and lakes, streams and rivers, marshes and swamps, and oceans. We will continue to talk about food chains, plants, animals, and both plant and animal adaptations in each environment as it is covered. From there, we will move into Terrestrial (dry-land) Environments, such as deserts, grasslands, rainforests, and coniferous ("leaves" remain on the trees) and deciduous or temperate (leaves fall from the trees) forests.
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September 30 2013
First and foremost, OUR WORMS ARRIVED! The kiddos were very excited about this! We noticed them tunneling through the humus and topsoil layers on Friday. We also read a book during read aloud time which talked about how the worms eat the soil, plants, vegetables, coffee grounds, etc, then digest it and then it passes through them and is released as castings, which are used as a "door" (in the humus layer) to their home. This castings door is used to keep our predators and weather elements. Worms are good for the Earth because they till the soil so water can penetrate roots of plants. This also allows the roots of plants to expand.
In Science, we spent the week on the immense vocabulary of a food chain. Students drew pictures of each type of consumer (animal who needs to eat something in order to get energy and survive). There are four types of consumers: carnivore = organism who eats meat, herbivore = organism who eats plants, omnivore = organism who eats both meat and plants, and decomposer = organism who eats/decomposes dead plants and animals. We also learned that producers are plants, which produce their own energy from sunlight, air, and water. Our worms are decomposers, which allow the producers to grow. Two more vocabulary words are predator and prey. We talked about the differences (predator is the hunter, and prey is the hunted), but also how a predator can also be the prey of another animal. Use the example below to help your child understand this:
sun ---> plant ---> rabbit ---> fox ---> wolf
producer prey predator BUT
prey predator
We also discussed several times about what might happen if something happened to one part of the food chain. Students concluded, that if we no longer had plants, then rabbits wouldn't be able to eat and they would all die. If something happened to a fox, the rabbit population would increase because it wouldn't have as many predators.
Check out this food chain!
This week, we will begin to talk about physical adaptations (changes in the way an animal looks) and behavioral adaptations (changes in the way an animal acts). We will talk about camouflage (when an animal blends in to its environment), mimicry (when an animal looks or sounds like another animal in order to NOT be eaten), hibernation (when an animal's body reduces the activity in the cold months in order to use less energy and survive), and migration (when an animal moves to a warmer location to get more food).
If this isn't camouflage in nature, I don't know what is!
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September 22, 2013
I introduced soil VERY briefly on Friday. Students will be adding to a journal this week with pictures of the soil layers they see in our terrarium. We began by dumping in "bedrock" = rocks. We then added sand and silt from the river and talked about the fact that they are weathered or ground up rocks. Next, we added a layer of clay. Most students concluded that this layer is where the water collects and where animals dig their holes so they don't cave in and can be warm from the cooler weather. Topsoil was added next. Topsoil has MANY nutrients, which is why plants like this layer. We also discussed why plants' roots are mainly in this layer but also venture down to the clay layer (for stability and water). Lastly, we added humus. Humus is the layer in which the decomposers (see below) break down dead plants and animals into much-needed nutrients. We will circle back to soil in a few weeks.
We will begin our food chains unit, where we will discuss the four different types of consumers (carnivore = organism who eats meat, herbivore = organism who eats plants, omnivore = organism who eats both meat and plants, and decomposer = organism who eats/decomposes dead plants and animals). With this, I will introduce into our terrarium our class worms, who are decomposers. Through the year, we will see what they eat by experimenting with different types of plants and foods (I may be asking you to send in a few items from home!), but no meat because it will be stinky in our classroom! :) We will also use the terrarium to measure the different layers of soil. IF IF IF this works, our humus layer will begin to "grow."
We will be planting a plant into our terrarium when we study environments and then continue to add to our journal about the health of the plant based on our soil and worms.
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We have not yet begun Science...more to come soon!
Wow! that terrarium is a work of art!!
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