Transparent, Translucent and Opaque! Students explored various materials around the room and how light passes through it or not. River found a transparent water bottle, Grayden and Malcolm found an opaque book, paper towel was translucent and Abby and Rylynn found a translucent bucket.
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Students were introduced to the term ecosystem this week and we played a 'game' to hit it home. I picked to partners of an ecosystem out of a hat and students had to connect the two. For example, beaver and soil, when a beaver dies it decomposes into the soil OR beavers eat and use trees which grow in the soil.
At the end when they could visualize how connected an ecosystem is, we symbolized what happens when a part of it dies, is polluted, cut down, over hunted, unable to find food, etc, by dropping a string. We could see the damage the ecosystem took as well as a ripple effect of what one action might cause. We took a day to talk about the simple machine, a wedge. We learned that it is used to easily split things. We had some fun using a wedge to carve out pictures in bars of soap!
Students learned about the three classes of levers and how manipulating their components can lessen the effort or force needed to move an item. Above, Riley K. is demonstrating a first class lever, how a bag of books requires less effort to lift if his shoulder (the fulcrum) is closer to the load. He is also trying very hard to support the load when the fulcrum is far away from the load. It's tough! I demonstrated a third class lever with the example of a broom and a hockey stick. If you place your hand in the middle, you get a good balance of control and effort needed. Students then recalled the three types of levers in a little race, learning that the middle component of each type of lever is different.
What better way to review science concepts than with a competitive team game of Jeopardy! I feel so old when the students tell me they don't know what Jeopardy is but alas...
The wheel and axle simple machine exists in model vehicles, pulley systems and gear systems. Students completed a craft that helped them visualize how a gear moves. They learned that when one gear moves, the one the moves because of it will move in the opposite direction! Then we moved on to learn about the different drive systems that exist, using the wheel and axle.
Students made their own drive system using gears and tested out how making the larger or the smaller wheel the driver affects the other wheel. For example, if the large wheel is the driver, rotating it around one full turn makes the driven wheel rotate more than two full turns!
We've been learning about various examples of the simple machine, a wheel and axle. I placed paper, drinking straws, bamboo skewers and cardboard circles in front of students and asked them how they could assemble the pieces into a vehicle. They decided very quickly that the cardboard circles were wheels and the skewers the axles. One student made the conclusion that taping the axle to the paper, would prevent them from turning. We learned that the axle and wheel move together and so we had to find a way to attach the axle that would still allow it to move. The straws were attached to the paper and then the skewers were fed through them, allowing the siple machine to move the vehicle without much effort or force. After some exploration time, students determined that the axle had to be parallel in order for the vehicle to move straighter and that the straws should overhang about the same amount on each side.
They also noticed that any loads applied had to have their mass spread out and not just set in the middle. Vehicles were not great at holding any load that was round either as it would roll off. Students were given the opportunity to make a box vehicle with sides so they could carry different loads. It was a long and slow process following a pattern but everyone succeeded. After some exploration with this new design, students also learned that the axle should not be too much wider than the vehicle or it affects it's stability. Some great learning went on with this lesson!
I challenged students to follow the information on a few infographics. They all had to do with waste; computer waste, the affect waste has on animals, waste increases in the past 100 years, etc. Look how into it they were, everything beats a textbook!
Thank you parents and students for contributing worms and dirt to begin vermicomposting in the classroom. In the above pictures you can see that we have begun adding ingredients such as newspaper, organic matter like vegetables, bread, plants and dried leaves. Students pulled out all the worms first so that we could add the right amount of organic matter, half as much as their are worms. The day after this picture was taken we received two more pails of soil and worms so we have now officially started.
Now, students will help to mix the contents every so often and we will watch as the worms do what they do as decomposers! |
Home Reading
300 minutes a month (approx. 10 min. per night) Word Work (due Wed.)
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"Observe and reflect, and become a little wiser every day" |