Learning Comes Alive!

What a wonderful surprise I had when I looked out our classroom’s window yesterday! I spied some familiar looking, hard working botanists! Mr. Bar, our science expert, helped our class plant sunflower, marigold, and corn seeds in our school garden.They used shovels to dig holes in the garden. The students also learned about not digging too deep, so that the plants are able to grow and survive. If you dig too deep the plant can’t grow because it isn’t getting enough energy from the sun. Mr. Bar also explained that when you plant the seeds in the ground you can’t pat the dirt down too hard or too tight because the stem can’t get out of the soil! After planting the seeds, they watered the ground. They learned that plants need the exact right amount of sun, water, and soil to grow. Too much of any one thing can cause the plant not to grow!

Garden Garden 2 Garden 3 Garden 4

Click here for a wonderful plant website! Learn about seed growth, parts of a flower, seed dispersal, and plant identification.

It’s Chrysalis Time!

Yesterday, I snapped a quick picture of our caterpillar, Pablo Jr. It looked to me that he was getting ready to begin making his chrysalis. Today when I got to school, he was already in his chrysalis preparing to turn into a butterfly! I apologize for the bad pictures, but I didn’t want to move him while he was in metamorphosis!

caterpillarcaterpillar 2

Below, you can see the metamorphosis process sped up! Today, we will be reading and exploring how caterpillars, like Pablo Jr., make this big change!

The Sheep are Making a Comeback!

As we continue studying current events this week we are going to look deeper into the text features that help us understand what we’re reading. Like we’ve learned before, text features are anything other than the main paragraphs of the text, that help us better understand the author’s intended message. Today, we are going to read a Newsela.com article on the Bighorn sheep in California. These sheep had almost become extinct and only 105 were left. Now there are 500 sheep! Read the article to discover how scientists helped save the Bighorn sheep!

The article comes with a great map to help you understand where these sheep are located. Study the map and see what you notice. Is there a key or legend to help you out? Do the different colors and shadings mean anything? Is it important to read the text on the map as well?

Today, as you read from a Scholastic News magazine of your choice, notice how the text features help you better understand the text!

Measuring Matter

As we continue our study of matter (the gases, liquids, and solids that are all around us) we wanted to get our hands on some matter and check it out. We picked objects in our room made of matter and observed their properties. We took notes on our object’s shape, size, flexibility, luster, texture, and weight. We were able to use our tape measures and balances to observe matter as well! Check out the hard working scientist below!

photo 1 photo 2 photo 3 photo 4

imageimageimage

Such a Beautiful…Beautiful World!

Today, we discovered there is a StoryBots Earth video with cameo appearances by the Sun (he’s so hot) and the Moon (it’s his time to shine!) This video is perfect because it shows lakes, rivers, and waterfalls- like we studied last week and mountains, valleys, islands, and volcanoes- like we’re studying this week!

 

Class Leaders!

On Friday, two of our classmates got to do some teaching! These students lead a science lesson in which their groups created a visual of where the sun is positioned in the sky at different times if day. They taught their groups that based on where the sun is located in the sky, the shadows will go in the opposite direction. I was so proud of how our class leaders were able to assist every student while also speaking in their respectful and motivating teaching voices!

20131019-094801.jpg

20131019-094809.jpg

P.S. Maryam! We miss you and we hope you had a wonderful holiday with your family. We can’t wait to see you next week!