Somewhere underneath all that blue and pink stuff on the map is Arkansas and Missouri. No school today as we continue to receive more freezing rain, sleet, and even a little snow. Looking like we will not continue back to school until Thursday or so. In the meantime, since I can't leave the house, I will be spending a lot of time with my Xbox.
Now that we have selected our topics for science fair, on Monday we will explore the scientific method and the role it will play in our experiments. We are going to use one of my favorite TV shows, Myth Busters, to preform this task. We are going to use this show to study the different steps of the scientific method.
This past week our students have been studying ballads. Ballads are poems that tell a story. They date back to medieval times and were told by singers called Minstrels. We have focused on two famous ballads in particular, Lord Randall and Barbra Allen. These are two classic stories of love, heartbreak, and death. Aspects to all good relationship, right???
Created using Obamicon
We continued our use of microscopes today as I introduced two new objects to my students. Along with the observations from the clipping of the newspaper "e" they made yesterday, students were asked to draw their observations of a feather and a picture from a magazine that they viewed using a microscope.
The top picture is of the setup we used to view the feather, using a 4x objective. I was able to manipulate my camera to get a picture of what the field of view looked like. Students were impressed with the fact that all of these pictures were made up of such little dots.
Once again, the top picture is our standard dry mount setup with two slides and a feather. In the bottom field of view picture, you can see the stem of the feather with all of the vane extending from it. Most students compared this picture to fish bones, and also commented on the small hair like objects extending from the stem. Tomorrow we will continue our use of the microscopes, examining different objects and using different objectives.
After the craziness that was inauguration day yesterday, we were able to return to some normalcy today. We started our science lesson by giving a general introduction to microscopes.
Students were given two slides and a small clipping of a letter from a newspaper, and asked to make a dry mount using these materials. Students were then asked to make observations based upon their findings.
We will continue using the microscopes tomorrow, looking at different materials. We are working our way up to looking at aquatic life forms, which we should start in a week or so.
Wow, America can really put on a show....
Students, your assignment for communication arts is to reply to the question, "what does this day mean to you?" Be as descriptive as possible, feel free to explain any feelings or thoughts about the speech and the inauguration. Visitors, feel free to add your thoughts as well.
How about that....even President Bush and President-elect Obama have heard about Tie Tuesday. Below are some photos of others that joined us in Tie Tuesday.
Fourth grader, Hanna
Third grade teacher, Mrs. Greer
Levi (Mrs. Drake's Class), Macy (Mr. McClung's Class), Courtney (Mr. McClung's Class), and Jeff (Mrs. Drake's Class)
.....with a little help from our friend Dr. Seuss.
So we separated our students into star bellies and non-stars. These students were labeled with little red stars that they wore on their face or hand. The non-star group was not allowed to use the same textbooks, water fountains, bathrooms, or desk as the star students. They were even split up at lunch; star students were allowed to sit anywhere, and non-stars were made to sit at one cramped table. Also, students without stars were not given the same amount of help on classwork that the students without stars were given. This activity was very frustrating to many of the students, and it helped them catch a glimpse of what education was like during theJim Crow era.
Ahhhhh......paper, paper, paper....
Another advantage that Ning provides for us is the ability feature class notes. This will serve a couple of purposes for us. Number one, if a students is absent a day, they can log on to our online classroom and review what was missed for that day. Also, students can access these notes anytime from home to help with studying or homework. Below is a link to our class notes page, feel free to check them out.
Today we made our final observations with our vials and discovered there was a lot more going on than we thought.
Also our radish seeds started to sprout more and more today.
Today is the second day of our lab observations with the secret materials we introduced yesterday. It has paid off because today we are starting to see some signs of life.
One of the materials we used yesterday was radish seeds. Above is a picture of one of our radish seeds starting to split and grow, a characteristic of living thing.
The most dramatic change we saw in comparison from today and yesterday was the polyacrylate crystals. These crystals are able to absorb up to 300 times their own size in water. Above is a picture of these crystals in salt water and one in sugar water. The crystals in the salt water did not absorb near as much as the other.
Lastly we were able to see evidence of life in a third material, yeast. The vial on the left contains yeast and sugar water, the one on the right contains yeast and regular water. As you can see, the yeast in the sugar water is reacting to the sugar water and starting to emit a gas (look at the bubbles). We will continue with our final day of observations tomorrow.
This week our students have been working on limericks in communication arts. Limericks is a humorous poem of five lines. The first, second, and last lines all rhyme with each other, as do the third and fourth. Also the first, second, and last lines have three accented syllables. the third and fourth have two.
Students were asked to conduct a investigation involving secret materials (not that big of a secret). Students set up vials that contained these materials and a solution (either water, water+salt, or water+sugar). Then they made observations to help us decided whether the materials were living or non-living.
What started out as a excuse for me to put some of the ties that have been in my closet for the past year to good use, has now created a buzz around the school. No one really knows when Tie Tuesday began, but it was sometime last semester. I would simply just wear a tie on Tuesday. No big deal, right?
Mrs. Polzer (our favorite 3rd grade teacher)
I wanted to start the week off right with a blog check from Jenny B. Jones. Not only does Jenny have a blog that is well worth reading, but she is also a author of a Christian book series for teens.
All of this talk about reliving past family memories started many "campfire" style story telling amongst my students. I have been very proud of how positive our students have been towards this project, and their willingness to step up and really make it their own.
Lab experiments do not always go off without a hitch.....today was a perfect example. While trying to collect samples for our minipods today, I found myself directing traffic between my students and the tractor that was cleaning up from the mobile classrooms that were recently removed. Don't worry, we managed.....somehow.
We began our study of life forms today by preparing mini-pods to study aquatic organisms. Our students collected samples of soil, grass/leafs, and water.
In this experiment we did have a control and a variable. In two of the classes we used regular water from the sink, and in Mrs. Drake's Class we used water from a koi pond from outside.
Tomorrow we will continue our discussion about what defines a living thing, and we will also create mini-pods as well.
To the stocks! Thank goodness I didn't have to stay long.....
