Student Led Conferences

Please check your child's SPACE folder for your scheduled time on Friday, May 15th. Remember this is not a meeting with me, but a chance for your child to share his/her work with you.

Ancient History Website

All of the students in my class have been excited about learning about ancient civilizations. I have found a great site that allows students to read about the ancient civilizations as well as play games and participate in interactive learning.

http://www.mrdonn.org/index.html

Check it out!

okay...it's been a long time

It seems my home computer does not like me or my thousands of family pictures and class pictures that I download. I am here to try this again.

Recently we have started a unit on polygons and polyhedra (3 dimensional geometric figures). The students had a very special math activity on Wednesday. They were to build the figures with toothpicks (line segments) and clay balls (vertices). Then they carefully dipped the figures in bubble solution to see the faces. They had a ball!

What's the Matter?

We are currently finishing up a small study on matter. We have used double beam balances to find the mass of solids. We also determined that it doesn't matter if you take apart an object or keep it together, the mass will be the same.

We are taking a small test on Friday, 10 questions.

*Know the definition of mass*

Also, today we looked at matter with unusual properties. Oobleck...is it a solid or a liquid? I can't believe I forgot my camera! The students were hysterical.

The kids wanted the recipe for Oobleck:

7 tablespoons corn starch

4 tablespoons water

Mix in a bowl or bag and knead until mixed!

Median, Mode and Range

Quiz Tomorrow!
Hint: Study the steps you have to complete in order to find the median. There is a very specific thing you must first do before you pick the number in the middle! ;)

Progress Reports

Progress Reports go home on Friday. Please sign and return these as soon as possible.

Measurement?

This week in Math we will be beginning our measurement unit. Encourage your child to estimate how long something is in inches and centimeters and then check. Also at the grocery store have your child help estimate the weight of something in the produce aisle and then actually weigh it.

There are many great activities to participate in over the next few weeks.

We will be participating in a lot of Test Taking Skills practice, please make sure your child is here unless it is absolutely necessary to be out.

Mummies and Math

Today we began by discussing our SweetTart data. We gathered information about how many hearts were in each bag. We also began a discussion of most likely and least likely. Since most of the individual bags had 6 hearts in each, it was most likely that if we opened another bag, there would be 6 hearts in the bag.

Then we moved on to mummies. We became the ancient embalmers and performed the mummification tasks on stuffed animals. We began by making an incision and removing the "lungs, stomach, liver and intestines." Then we rubbed the body with "oils and perfumes." After covering the body with natron (salt, Na) and letting it sit for "40 days" we began wrapping the bodies in linen.

The kids had a ball and will never forget this day!

Friday, February 13th...

We have a lot of things planned today...so be ready!

Ancient Egypt

We found this great site. It has some great links to Ancient Cultures.


http://www.mrdonn.org/ancienthistory.html

Test Tomorrow!

Are you ready? Go over your notes and study guide...Remember think...How can I split up $1.00 with four people?

Fruit Loop Fractions

Today, we began working on finding the fractional part of a set. Students were asked to create 2 Fruit Loop necklaces one of 24 and another of 30. One their necklace of 24, one fourth had to be pink Fruit Loops and so on. One student explains her necklace and another shares his Challenge necklace of 40.

Back on Track

Okay, so I've seen better blogging days. I am back on track. My computer was down and was getting some updates.

I am up just in time to inform you guys of our Math Test on Thursday, February 12th. I will be sending home a study guide tomorrow. The test is on fractions.

Frozen Fun

Dr. Browder, a physics professor at JU, and grandfather to Sara, joined us on Friday to provide us with some frozen fun! He brought liquid nitrogen and the fun began. We were able to watch as he dipped a balloon and a glove in the liquid nitrogen...and even his tie!

After watching the demonstration we were able to dip big marshmallows in chocolate and then in the liquid nitrogen to freeze it. It was a yummy treat! At the end of his visit he made "clouds." This was by far the funniest moment ever...to watch all of the kids disappear into the clouds.

Thank you Dr. Browder!

Rock On

Rocks are the focus in Science now! We brought in our own pet rocks and completed a number of activities. The students were asked to measure, find the mass and do a scratch test. They were also asked if their rock would sink or float in water.

Mrs. Lundquist had a rock that would float...Pumice!

The students had a great time discovering their pet rocks.

We will be focusing on how rocks are formed after the new year. We also will be studying weathering and erosion (there is a distinct difference between the two).

I was amazed at how interested the students were in rocks!

Water Cycle Part 2

We have spent a week exploring the water cycle. The vocabulary has become real for the students. They have observed water evaporating...Well, not really since water vapor is a gas and cannot be seen. They have even observed condensation. We have explored at least 3 different models of the Water Cycle.

A Water Cycle Test is scheduled for Tuesday, December 9th!

Topics: Evaporation, condensation, precipitation, water cycle and water vapor. Make sure you can explain what conditions cause evaporation and condensation.

Water Cycle

We are diving into the water cycle. Students should be observing their mini one at home and recording results in their Science Journals.

The final observations are due on Friday!

Today, we made a big model of the water cycle. Your scientist should be using the vocabulary: water vapor, evaporation, condensation and precipitation.

Our model was made of a hot plate, pot, water, cookie sheet and ice. Once the water was boiling in our pot and turning into water vapor, we placed a cookie sheet of ice over the vapor. Then condensation began forming under the cookie sheet. Eventually it began to fall as "precipitation."

Hoecake?

Why is it called hoecake? Because the natives would leave for a long day in the field and would take along corn meal, flour and a small bit of milk or water. They of course had their tools for the day. When lunch time came, they would take the iron part of their hoe off and heat it above a fire. Then they would mix up the ingrediants and VOILA make hoecake. A flat cornbread made on a hoe on a open flame. My grandfather has made hoecake as long as I can remember, so in honor of Thanksgiving, we made hoecake. We were able to tie math in as well, measuring out ingredients.

The result was a class full of "MMMMs" and "YUMMY!" So much so that they have requested the recipe... Here it is

Ingredients
1 cup self-rising flour
1 cup self-rising cornmeal, or from a mix (recommended: Aunt Jemima's)
2 eggs
1 tablespoon sugar
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon water
1/4 cup vegetable oil or bacon grease
Oil, butter, or clarified margarine, for frying
Directions
Mix all ingredients together, except for the frying oil, in a bowl until well combined. Heat the frying oil or butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Drop the batter into the hot skillet. Use about 2 tablespoons of batter per hoecake. Fry each hoecake until brown and crisp; turn each hoecake with a spatula, and then brown the other side. With a slotted spoon, remove each hoecake to drain on a paper towel-lined plate.
Chef's Note: Leftover batter will keep in refrigerator for up to 2 days.

They even licked the plate!

Fun Math Day

Today, we spent some time creating line plot graphs using our Cornucopia of Candy Corns. The kids enjoyed this yummy math assignment. After they wrote in their math journal, making sure to include their data, they were able to eat their data.

We asked ourselves questions after looking at our data.

• What is the difference between the amount of yellow candy corns and the amount of chocolate ones?



• How many candy corns do I have in all?



• Which candy occured the most (aka, the mode) in our data?