What’s Happening in Science — 10/27 to 10/31

It’s hard to believe that we are wrapping up our Physical Science with this weekly newsletter. We will come back to it during our big spring review. We are starting Week 9 this week, and we will have our quiz next Thursday (Nov. 6th.) We have lots planned and happening during the next 2 weeks!!

Monday –

We have 7 vocabulary words this week. Four of these words should look familiar to the kiddos — we’ve had them before during Week 8 and Week 5.

Today we are reading page 1 of our newsletter and illustrating NB 36. This will be our first page of our next Notebook Check.

Tuesday –

Today we are reading Force, Matter, and Motion. We are also having a Friction Lab today. We are using this neat lab page I found on teachers pay teachers. You can find the link here.

Wednesday – We will read about Gravity and Simple Machines. We will also complete our Simple Machine page on NB 38. I found this on teachers pay teachers. The link is available here. This will be our daily work grade for the week.

Thursday –

Today we will have a shorter class time due to a fun Reading activity this morning. We will begin learning about Issac Newton and start working on NB 39. I found this on teachers pay teachers. The link is here.

Friday —

Today we are having Halloween Lab Stations. I will post more information later in the week. 🙂

What’s Happening in Science – 10/20 to 10/24

This week we are learning about motion in our Week 8 Newsletter. We will test on Thursday. Our test will consist of 15 questions. It will be 9 questions from the newsletter and our six vocabulary words.

Monday —

Today we are going over our six new vocabulary words pictured below or on NB page 32. We are also reading page 1 of our newsletter and the portion about Robert Goddard.

Tuesday –

Today we are reading about how fast waves travel and reading A World in Motion. We will create a notebook page on NB 33. This will be our first daily work grade of the nine weeks.

Wednesday –

Today we are reading the Speeding Up and Giant Tractors section of our newsletter. We are also learning about Gravity. We will complete NB page 34 today.

Thursday –

Week 8 Quiz

Friday –

Today we will make a sundial if weather permits. Pictures to come 🙂

Conductor/Insulator Lab — 10/16/14

Today in class we made closed circuits to complete our Conductor/Insulator Lab. I loved seeing the kids expressions and hearing their squeals as they lit their light bulbs for the first time! Here is an example of a completed closed circuit.

After students completed their circuits, they worked on their conductor and insulator page in their notebook.

Here are some pictures of our lab groups. I was so impressed with how hard they worked, and how fast they put their circuits together!!

What’s Happening in Science — 10/15 to 10/17

We are working in our Science Notebooks this week. We are learning the following vocabulary.

Wednesday –
We went over our vocabulary and worked on page 29 in our notebooks. This is a student example of the notebook page.

Thursday –
Today we are learning about insulators and conductors.

Friday –
We are learning about series and parallel circuits. We will be making circuits in class.

Electromagnet Lab — 10/9/14

Today we made electromagnets in class. I loved seeing our groups work together and hearing their squeals as their electromagnets started becoming magnetic.

Background – Electromagnets are different from regular magnets in a few ways. They can be turned on and off and their strength can be controlled. This makes them useful in many different technologies like headphones, washing machines, and electric motors.

Here are some pictures of groups with their electromagnets.

These students were the first in fourth period to make their electromagnet. 🙂

Magnet Investigation #1 – 10/7/14

Today in class we did our Magnet Investigation #1. This page was located on NB 25. Each student got a magnet, and they investigated to see if each item listed was attracted to the magnet or not.

This page was located on TPT here.

Here are some of my precious kiddos during our investigation.

A Change in the Plans – 9/30/14

Today we had a bus drill evacuation, and after lunch our 101 4th graders with Perfect Attendance during the month of September got to throw sponges at our principal, Mr. Frazier. Here are a couple of pics from the Sponge Throw.

After hearing of these activities, I decided that we would postpone our Light Lab stations until Thursday. Our test for tomorrow is still on as planned. So today we did a quick review of our vocabulary words then we had some fun!

I had borrowed this cool Mirage set from the high school science lab last week. I decided today was the perfect time to pull it out for a demonstration. This creates an optical illusion from the pig placed inside. The two concave mirrors project the 3-D image of the pig above on the top. Super cool!! The link for this on Amazon is here. This set looks like basically the same thing but cheaper.

After seeing several things on the internet about persimmon seeds predicting the winter weather, I knew that we had to investigate further in Science. So today we looked at the seeds to determine if the roots had forks, spoons, or knives inside them. We also watched two short newscasts and learned another way to predict winter weather according to old wives tales – the wooly worm. The two newscasts are located here and here.

What’s Happening Sept. 29 – Oct. 1

We are finishing our Week 6 Newsletter this week. We have been learning about Light and Sound, and we will test on Wednesday.

Monday –
Today we reviewed our Vocabulary words on page 20 in our notebook. We looked through the Rainbow Glasses and spectroscopes that the Science Lab at the high school were kind enough to let us borrow.

We also looked at a fiber optic light.

Tuesday –
Light Stations .. I’ll post pictures and labs tomorrow.

Wednesday –
Today we are taking our quiz and I will be checking our Science Notebooks. I will be checking notebook pages 14 – 23.

Thursday –
We will begin Week 7 Magnets and Electricity. More information to come!!

Sound Lab Stations – 9/24/14

This week we have been learning about Sound. Today we had our Sound Lab Station day. Students rotated between two stations. The first station was using straws to make duck calls. We talked about how the differing lengths of the straws affected the sound the straw made. My 4th period worked the best together of any of my classes — so I snapped their pictures as they worked and videoed one of our Duck Call lab groups. Enjoy!

http://instagram.com/p/tV5BAssZmx/?modal=true

Here are a couple of pictures of other 4th period kiddos working on their duck calls. I know parents will LOVE me for this!! 🙂 The information for this lab, and the link to the lab pages are in the post below or located here.

The next two pictures are from our other lab station. This lab was called Vibrating Ruler station. We’ve been talking about the different pitches of sound in Science — and this lab was a great test for listening to the different pitches of sound from different lengths of rulers. I found this lab activity here.

 

 

What’s Happening in Science for the week of 9/22 — 9/26

This week in Science we are studying our Week 6 newsletter – Light and Sound. We will spend eight days on this unit. We will test next Wednesday, October 1. I will also check our notebooks that day.

Monday – We will go over our new vocabulary words and read page 1 in our newsletter. Our words are below or on page 20 in our Science Notebooks.

Tuesday – Today students will get a sound homework sheet that is due by Friday. This will be their Daily Work grade for the week. They have to draw 5 sounds they hear inside and outside and describe it. We will begin reading about light and sound, sound in outer space, and we will learn about our ear on notebook page 21.

Wednesday – Today we will have our Sound Lab. Students will work in small groups to make duck calls. I found this CUTE lab on teachers pay teachers for free. The link is located here for anyone interested.

Thursday – We are reading about Thomas Edison and Rainbows. We will complete pages 22 and 23 in our Science Notebooks.

Friday – Our Sound Homework is due today. We will watch Bill Nye Light and Sound. Students may also work on their crossword puzzle on the back of their newsletter and/or catch up on any unfinished pages in their notebook.