Objects in Motion

Movement......such a simple idea, right? Not exactly. Students have discovered many things can effect how an object moves.  We investigated and observed speed, velocity, force, push, pull, gravity, and acceleration. 

One of our favorite investigations exploring these ideas was our Wind Roller activity.  Students made a wind roller and we observed how the wind can impact the motion and the speed of an object.  Each student used a meter stick to measure the distance their wind roller went and compared them with the distances of other students.

This was a great learning experience and we were glad we had a breezy day!

Fraction Dominos

Students love when we are able to make our math concepts into games.  Last week students made their own set of fraction dominoes.  One side of a domino shows a visual representation of a fraction and it has to be matched up with a fraction shown in number form.  This is a great game to play at home with your child.  Here are a few pictures of students making and playing the fraction domino game.

Seeing Sound

Seeing Sound is the name of our science workshop we started this week.  Students investigated how vibrations can be viewed and felt using their senses through 7 exploration stations.  Below are some photos of a few of the investigation stations.

Students......please leave a comment sharing something you learned about sound through our investigations.
Parents......please share something your student shared with you about our investigations.

Common Assessments

Students are ready and excited to show the learning gains they have made since our cycle 1 Common Assessments. We are testing Math tomorrow, December 13th and Science on Wednesday, December 14th.

Get plenty of rest!

Fun with Magnets

Our learning point for our new Science workshop is Magnetic Attraction and Repulsion.  Students have enjoyed exploring and testing ideas related to our learning point.  Today students discovered magnetic poles through their exploration.  They decided that like poles will attract and unlike poles will repel.  For example, a magnet's north pole will attract a magnet's south pole and a north and north pole will repel.  It was difficult to end today's investigations.....the students were so engaged!

My Thoughts on Math

This week I asked students to compare and contrast the terms equation and expression.  We worked all week with these two words and I wanted to check for understanding of this vocabulary. Here is what Nathaniel D. said:

The difference between equation and expression is that an equation has an equal sign.  An expression does not have an equal sign.  The things that are the same about the two are that they both can be number sentences and they both can have some type of operation.  Those are the similarities and differences between an equation and expression.  Examples: 5+5 (expression) 5+5=10 (equation)

Q-Bitz

I introduced a new game to students this past week. Q-Bitz!!! It fast became the most popular activity.  Students played this quick thinking game to challenge their visual dexterity.  In each round, a card is turned over revealing a pattern.  Students had to duplicate the pattern using cubes.  The first to match the pattern keeps that card.  The player with the most cards after 6 rounds wins.  There were some students that quickly emerged as experts.  One of our experts, Kaliyah shows off 1 of her 6 completed puzzles. She won every round of her game!