Week of April 18th: Our current count is 39 pupas and 5 beetles. We are hoping for more beetles when we return from the weekend. Students are enjoying checking their insects each day! Our milkweed eggs and not doing anything. I'm afraid they are not going to hatch. Late this afternoon we had one silkworm egg hatch! I'm thinking there will be many more on Monday. We also added six painted lady larvas to our collection this week. It's a busy classroom, full of observations!
Week of April 11th: We have a lot going on in the classroom related to science! We are very busy making observations and sharing our findings and predictions. It is so much fun to hear the kids share their new knowledge and ideas!! Several of our mealworms have moved into the next cycle of life and are now pupas. Today we had our first beetle! It was still white this morning so we know it turned sometime soon. That was exciting! :) Most of our brassica plants are also entering another stage in their cycle. The flowers are dying and turning into seedpods. Wednesday students took an assessment on plants. They did well! We are patiently waiting on our milkweed bug eggs to hatch. A few of them are now nymphs but they are very tiny. Thursday we added some more eggs to our classroom collection. They are small and grey but I haven't told them what they are yet! This week students did a sequence writing piece of the darkling beetle life cycle. We've talked about a title, introduction sentence, signal words, and a closing sentence. I was excited to see their work!
Week of April 4th: Monday students recorded changes to their brassica plants. They are growing and most have flowers! Students worked in groups to make their milkweed bug habitat. We reviewed the life cycle of a mealworm. Students learned about metamorphosis. When talking about our plants, we learned about pollination. We had a fabulous discussion on Wednesday. Students were making some great connections between our reading text and our science learnings to outside real, world learning. Thursday we put water in our milkweed habitats and transferred our vials to them. There are a few eggs that have hatched into nymphs. Friday we did some descriptive writing and reading.
Week of March 28th: Students are working on being good scientists by making and recording observations of their mealworms and brassica plants. Our plants are really growing and we have a mealworm pupa. Students have been very excited to see the changes in these living things! Thursday we added another insect to our collection. Students observed eggs and noted some changes that were occurring with them. They learned they are milkweed bug eggs. I really hope your child is coming home and sharing with you all the activities happening in science!
Week of March 21st: Our week was full of mealworm and brassica plant observations. Kids enjoyed seeing the changes in both. I think there will a lot of excitement when they return in five days! :) We discussed and shared our ideas on good places to plant outdoors.
Week of March 14th: Our week began learning about mealworms. Students learned insects are animals and they need air, food, water, and space. We observed many structures and behaviors about the mealworms. I hope your student has told you about them! Thursday we planted brassica seeds. We discussed plants are living organisms that need air, nutrients, light, and space to grow. Students are enjoying observing their plants and mealworms. They are keeping a science notebook and calendar with their observations.
Week of March 7th: Monday students learned about legal documents and passports. Each student was able to fill out their own pretend passport. We had some good discussions! Wednesday was our immigration simulation. Students were transformed into immigrants for the afternoon. Immigrants packed their trunks, said their goodbyes, and boarded the USS Stewart. The trip in steerage was crowded and hot! Many immigrants felt ill. Finally the Statue of Liberty could be seen in the background. Immigrants then had a long day as they traveled through numerous inspections at Ellis Island. Most of them passed inspections and were allowed to enter America. Sadly, some of them were deported back to their home country. :)
Week of February 29th: This week students have been learning about life after immigrating to America. We've read several books about how families lives changed and how they kept their culture and traditions alive after leaving their home countries. We've read Apple Pie 4th of July, Going Home, and The Keeping Quilt. We watched a short video interviewing people who have immigrated to America. Students decorated a paper trunk with the items they would have brought from home with them if they were leaving their country.
Week of February 22nd: Students learned all about Ellis Island. I sure hope they are sharing their new knowledge with you at home! We read a story about a man and his families journey to America this week. Next week we will begin learning about life in America.
Week of February 15th: This week we began learning about the process at Ellis Island. Immigrants encountered a lot of fear and hope once they entered America. We began reading a book called Life At Ellis Island. It is full of great information and photographs from Ellis Island. I've really enjoyed the kids' Family Tiles. They have done a fantastic job sharing them and have been excited to watch the large map grow with photos. If you haven't asked your child about this unit, please do so! They have learned a lot! Have them share why immigrants left their homes, what the journey to America was like, and what happened at Ellis Island. You should be impressed with their knowledge!
Week of February 8th: We enjoyed listening to many of our classmates share their Family Tiles. THANK you to everyone who has returned theirs. Kids enjoyed hearing where families came from and who immigrated to the United States. We read several books about families immigrating to America. We learned many reasons for their immigration: famine, war, religious freedom, better life, more opportunities. This part of the unit is one of my favorites as the true innocence of children shines. They can not understand why families were treated the way the were, why people with different skin were treated differently, or why families had their homes torn apart by soldiers. We had some valuable discussions this week. Wednesday we looked at photographs of immigrants and Ellis Island. We made several observations about the people and objects in the photos.
Week of February 1st: Our immigration unit began by watching the movie Fievel: An American Tale. We learned about Fievel and his family and their process of immigrating to the United States. We have started learning about why people immigrated to the United States. We've also been discussing the journey on the ship. Students' learned about a ship's manifest, which is a record of ship passengers. We've been reading several books about immigration and having some great discussions. Thank you to everyone who has completed and returned their Family Tile! These are an important piece to our unit!
Week of January 25th: We wrapped up our Balance & Motion unit this week. Students enjoyed learning about balance, spinning, and rolling. Monday and Tuesday students used spheres (marbles) and experimented with rolling. They used plastic cups and foam ramps to help them learn more about how objects roll. They enjoyed the several challenges I gave them. Be sure to look at the photo tab for some examples! Thursday students took an assessment on the unit. They are also bringing home their science binders. We will now move on to a social studies unit, Immigration, then end the year with another unit.
Week of January 11th: This week we worked on things that spin. Students made zoomers and twirlers to learn about the spinning motion. Students enjoyed working with both! We enjoyed changing the wings on our twirlers to see if it made a difference in how they flew. We were able to review several important vocabulary words.
Week of January 4th: We started our week reviewing what we'd learned about balancing. Students shared their knowledge of important vocabulary words such as balance point, counterweights, and stable. We then moved on to the second investigation in our unit called spinners. Students share what they knew about tops. They were given a challenge to build a top using a thin straw, two large disks, and two small disks. Students were able to make many different tops with their materials. They tried to design the top that would spin the longest. We talked about important words such as rotate, spin, shaft, axis, and motion.
Week of December 14th: Monday students used a pencil, wire, and counterweights to balance their pencil on it's tip. It was so fun to watch them working. They were focused and on a mission! Finally every student was able to balance their pencil. We shared our findings and what we learned. Thursday we revisited the activity and wrote about it.
Week of December 7th: Monday we started our Balance & Motion unit. Students worked to balance a cardboard crayfish on their finger. We were able to balance it on it's stomach. We tried to balance it on it's nose, side, and tail but were unsuccessful. After discussing the crayfish and where the weight was we decided to add some counterweights (clothespins). Then we were able to get it to balance at different places. Tuesday we used cardboard arches and triangles to work on balancing. Wednesday they experimented with those two shapes and worked on getting them to balance. Friday we tried to balance a cardboard hand/pencil. We are learning and discussing some very important vocabulary (balance, counterweight, stable, balance point). The kids have had fun trying to get all these objects to balance and have accepted many challenges I've given them!
Week of December 1st: Tuesday and Thursday we spent our time writing letters to Santa. These will be published in the Washington Evening Journal on December 22nd. Friday we began preparing for our next science unit, Balance and Motion. Students shared their ideas on balance and motion after listening to a few stories. They did some writing in their science binder as well.
Week of November 16th: This week we learned about the Plains Indians. Students learned about their homes, way of life, and several legends from their tribes. We learned about the buffalo and how important it was to the Plains group. Please ask your child what they used the buffalo for. They should be able to tell you the many uses of the buffalo! We also did a map with a key to practice our mapping skills.
Week of November 9th: Students learned about people of the Southwest. They were very different from the last group we studied so we did a lot of comparing and contrasting. We read a tale from the people of the Southwest. We learned about kachina dolls and students made a replica of one. Pam Holtz was here on Wednesday to do a Native American lesson with the class. She brought several replicas of Native American tools. Students enjoyed her visit!
Week of November 2nd: This week we learned about the Pacific Northwest and Arctic/Subarctic groups. Students learned about their homes, food, and ways of life. Please ask them to share what they learned with you! We also learned about totem poles, commonly seen in the Pacific Northwest, and made some replicas. In reading we were learning about folktales. During social studies, we made some connections to Native American folktales. We read a tale about how the NW people found the sun. Students did a writing about what it would be like without the sun.
Week of October 26th:We started our social studies unit Native Americans. We read from some books explaining who were the first North Americans. We discuss what our land looked like years and years ago. We talked about people coming to this land from a land bridge at the top of North America. Next week we will begin learning about the people of the Northwest.
Week of October 19th: We wrapped up our Air & Weather unit this week. Students learned about graphing and comparing. We took our morning weather calendar and graphed the information. Tuesday they practiced using a sample graph. We reviewed the sun, moon, and stars. Students took an assessment on Wednesday.
Week of October 12th: This week we talked about the moon, sun, and stars. Students learned the moon goes through different phases. We reviewed the four seasons and what the weather is like in each. We did a lot of reading in our Air & Weather book. It was fun to make several connections with our science book from our reading lessons. We have one more week with our Air & Weather unit.
Week of October 5th: We continued to work on wind explorations this week. Students reviewed using a pinwheel, bubbles, and anemometer to help tell them more about the wind. We read about weather and different weather conditions in our weather and air book on Tuesday. Wednesday we made a kite. Thursday we were able to take the kite outside and see if the weather conditions were good for kite flying. We talked a lot about wind speed and wind direction this week. We also worked on the four directions.
Week of September 21st: We finished up Investigation 2 of our Air & Weather unit this week. Students learned about a rain gauge and what it is used for. We are waiting on some rain so we can test it out! We talked about natural sources of water. Students enjoyed Pam Holtz's visit on Wednesday to learn more about the water cycle. I hope they told you about it! Friday we took an assessment to finishing up observing weather. Next week we move onto Investigation 3, wind exploration.
Week of September 14th: Monday we described the conditions in the air outside. We learned about meteorologists and what they do. Students are taking turns being the class meteorologist in the classroom. Tuesday we learned about thermometers. Students shared places they've seen thermometers. We talked about weather words to describe the temperature. Thursday and Friday we learned about clouds. Students learned the three main types of clouds: cirrus, cumulus, and stratus.
Week of September 7th: We started our week reviewing air is matter and matter can be a solid, liquid, or a gas. Students learned air takes up space. We used water and vials to show the pressure from compressed air can move things. In our case it moved water as we push a vial through it. Thursday we used balloon rockets to show how air can be compressed (balloon) and how the pressure from the compressed air can move things (baggie). We finished up our first investigation, exploring air, and took a test to see if students were understanding the basic concepts.
Week of August 31st: Students made parachutes and we learned about air resistance. We learned how air resistance effects how things move. We continued to review air is a gas. Students enjoyed experimenting with their parachutes. They flew them with and without passengers (paperclips). Thursday and Friday we lean red air takes up space. Students used syringes and tubes to experiment with air and space. They learned pressure from compressed air can move things, especially the other end of their syringe. There was a lot of popping going on. :)
Week of August 24th:
Thursday we started our Air & Weather unit. Students began by experimenting what air could do with several items. They had a balloon, flexible straw, cotton ball, styrofoam ball, piece of paper, feather, and a plastic baggie. They had time to independently make observations with the items and see what air could do with them. It was fun to watch them experiment. Friday we shared out our observations and talked about what air could do.
We begin the year teaching a science unit. We are starting with an Air & Weather kit provided by Grant Wood. Students will spend the next month and a half learning about air and weather. This is a fun unit for the kids!
