What’s Happening in Science this week – 10/20 – 10/23

This week we have began our Animal Adaptation unit. This unit is being led by my fabulous student teacher, Mrs. Sartin. We will have our next notebook check on Monday of next week (10/26.) This will cover notebook pages 52 – 57. We will be testing on Wednesday, November 4th.

Tuesday – Today we viewed an Animal Adaptations PowerPoint and completed a booklet. This booklet is our daily week grade for the week. This is notebook page 52.

Wednesday – Today we read 3 passages about giraffes, elephants, and geckos. We identified the structural adaptations that helped it to survive. This is page 53. We also completed Day 1 – Day 3 of adaptations warm-up. This was on page 54 of our notebook.

Thursday – We will review the warm-ups and finish NB 53 Read It. We will be reading and describing the structural adaptations of agave plants and earthworms.

Friday – Today we are completing our Tech It page on NB 55.

** These resources were purchased from the Science Penguins teachers pay teachers store. The link is here.

What’s Happening this week — 10/12 to 10/16

This week we are learning about life cycles. We will not be testing on this — we will be taking a notebook grade for this standard.

Monday – Today we are learning about invertebrates and vertebrates. We will be putting this sheet on notebook 46.

We will create this page on NB 47 about vertebrates. This is a page in progress.

Tuesday – Today we glued in this page on NB 48. It is our information page about life cycles, and we will be revisiting it throughout the week.

NB 49 – We created the following foldable about incomplete metamorphosis. We were learning about the life cycle of a grasshopper.

Here are a couple of great examples from my 2nd period.

Wednesday – Today we are learning about the life cycle of the praying mantis. We will be creating NB page 50.

Thursday – Today we are learning about complete metamorphosis. We will be learning about the life cycle of a butterfly. We will create NB 51.

Friday – Students that are finished will get to participate in a STEM challenge. Students that are not finished will finish. Notebooks are to be turned in by the end of class. This will be a test grade.

These notebook pages are available for purchase in the Science Penguin Teachers Pay Teachers store. The link is here.

What’s Happening in Science this week – 9/14 – 18

We are continuing to work on our Plant Unit. We will be testing September 29.

Monday – Today we read 3 passages about plants. These passages are our theme about plants – importance of plants, needs of plants, and how plants reproduce. We picked out the key details in each and wrote them on a graphic organizer. These can be found on our interactive notebook pages 18 – 21.

Tuesday – Today we watched two study jams – Plants with Seeds and Photosynthesis. We described and illustrated what we knew/learned about this in our notebook. This can be found on notebook pages 22. We also illustrated a page about the needs of plants.

  
Wednesday – Today the kids really impressed me!! I had really debated having them do today’s activity, and they all aced it!! I’m going to step up my game — these kids can handle it!!! We matched photo cards with their description, and recorded it on their notebook page 24.

Thursday – Today we analyzed a picture of a houseplant, and recorded our thoughts on our graphic organizer. We started a notebook page Plants we eat — and we will finish it on Monday.

** We will stay in homerooms tomorrow due to Homecoming Festivities.

What’s Happening in Science — 9/8 to 9/11

This week we are doing things a tad different. It’s not fun to do the same thing all the time!! Students will leave their notebooks on Friday for me to grade pages 12 – 16. We will create 13 – 16 this week — students should already have NB 12 created.

Tuesday —

Throughout the year, we will be doing STEM challenges in Science. Today we will define STEM on notebook 13. Then, we will define the roles of a scientist and technican during a STEM lab.

Wednesday –

Today we are completing NB 15 where we are defining the role of the engineer and mathematician during STEM challenges in the classroom. We will also complete NB 16 where we will discuss the expectations during STEM challenges.

**Students will leave their notebooks in their class basket on Friday. I will grade 12 – 16.

Thursday –

Today we will begin our Plant Unit. We will view a PowerPoint together, and complete a booklet that will go on NB 17. This will be part of our next notebook check.

Friday –

Today we are reading 3 passages and completing a graphic organizer about the key details from each. This will go on NB 18 – 21.
** I’m excited!! We are starting to use Class Dojo in Science this week. This will allow students to win points for doing tasks — basically awarding our kids for good choices. Let us get used to it, and then I will do a big blog post. I think it is going to be a GREAT motivational tool in Science this year!!! 🙂

What’s Happening in Science – 8/31 – 9/4

I’m so excited about Science this week!! We are wrapping up our Introduction to Science unit this week, and we will start Life Science next Thursday.

Monday – Today we finished our science stations. I discussed the stations here.

Tuesday – We reviewed notebook pages 1-11 for our Science quiz tomorrow. We also talked about our Notebook Rubric. I will be using that to grade their notebooks toward the end of the week. We discussed our expectations for group work and created a notebook page on page 12.

Wednesday – We will take a Science quiz today. Students may use the extra time to complete unfinished pages or AR read.

Thursday/Friday – Notebooks are all to be in the baskets in our classroom. I will be grading those on Thursday and Friday. Students will be completing STEM challenges. I will be posting pics!!

Introduction to Science Stations – 8/28 and 8/31

We are completing Science Stations using the lab sheets pictured below. These stations were purchased from the Science Penguin. You can find her teacher pay teacher store here.

Each station lasts about eight minutes.

Station 1 – Students measured temperature of water with thermometers. After measuring, they compared data and recorded it on their lab sheet.

Station 2 – Students measured the volume of water with graduated cylinders and recorded/illustrated the data on their sheet.

Station 3 – This station should be called the what was I thinking station. Students used stopwatches to record the length of time it took to do various tasks like hopping on one foot. They then calculated the elapsed time it had taken to roll a ball across the room.

Station 4 – This lab called for students to observe various object with and without a hand lens.

Station 5 –

Students traced and measured an object using centimeters.

Station 6 – Students looked at objects to determine the best way to classify them.

Station 7 — extra station to be completed during down time. This station calls for students to draw a safety tool and explain the purpose of it in Science.

I have a special shout out for a group of boys. They were my best group hands down all day long. They worked so hard! Good job!!!

I’m closing with a picture of Draco. I’m so hoping he sheds over the weekend. He looks horrible, and I know he has to be super itchy. He will be so shiny once he does!!

Have a good weekend!!!

Love,

Mrs. Goggans

What’s Happening in Science — 8/24 – 8/28

We are still working on our Introduction to Science Unit. We will be wrapping it up next week with our first Science Quiz and notebook check.

Monday — We are gluing in NB 5 today. We are learning about different ways to measure in Science. After we learned about measuring, every group used the measuring tape to measure Draco (our class pet.) We were all surprised to learn that he was 1 foot 5 inches. We will remeasure at Christmas and the end of the year to see how much he has grown.

Tuesday – Today we are learning about using Science Models. I have pulled several examples for students to see. We are completing NB 6. We are also beginning our Scientific Method lesson. Today we will be completing Part 1 on NB 7.

 Wednesday – We are finishing Scientific Method on NB 8. We will watch a study jam and listen to a cute song. At the end of class, we will be gluing a copy of our Big Money words into our notebook.

Thursday – We are learning about communicating in Science groups. We will compete a graphic organizer on page 9, and we will glue in an accountable talk page. We will practice using these strategies in our Notebook.

Friday – Today we are completing Science Stations. I will post pics.

Next week we will have an open notebook test on our Introduction to Science Unit. We will have a catch-up day to complete any unfinished notebook pages before our first notebook check. I will post their rubric toward the end of the week.

I am using materials purchased from The Science Penguins teachers pay teachers store. It is located here.

Trying something new — Plants Science Stations

Every year toward the end of the school year, I begin to start thinking about things I can do to improve my classroom for the next school year. My class website, my blog, science notebooks, etc. have all came out of this process.  Throughout this school year I’ve tried to do group work and labs, but group work is an area I’ve struggled with in my classroom. I’ve had a hard time letting go of the reins and giving the students some ‘control’ over their learning. We have so much to cover — and I was scared I would not be able to cover all of our standards. After finishing our standards for 4th grade and reviewing for our Aspire test, I decided it would be a great time to test out Science Stations in my classroom. I’m a big follower of The Science Penguin, a fellow classroom teacher who blogs and makes resources for classrooms all over the world. I purchased her big stations pack this year, and decided that we would begin using them in Science. Her teachers pay teachers store is located here. I set up stations — for plants I decided we would have six. I purchased these buckets from Dollar Tree earlier in the year.      I arranged our desks into six groups. Each group comes in and sits together during class.    At the beginning of every class we have a quick mini-lesson. After they finish their stations, they have a notebook page to create relating to their lesson.  We have 6 stations relating to plants. These stations came from the Science Penguins Science Stations Unit. Station 1 – Read It. In this station, students have 3 passages to read. They are reading about needs of plants, reproduction of plants, and importance of plants. They are recording important details about plants on their graphic organizer. Pictured below are students working in this station.        Station 2 – Tech It. In this station students are watching two scholastic study jams and taking quizzes. Afterwards they are describing what they learned and illustrating the concepts.        Station 3 – Explain It. In this station students have a table about an experiment involving tomato plants and varying degrees of sunlight. Students are writing three observations and concluding the results of the experiment.    Station 4 – Analyze It. Students are analyzing a picture of a houseplant.    Station 5 – Sort It. Students sort different cards into three categories – characteristics of animals, plants, or if they are both characteristics.    Station 6 – Explore It. In this station, students are looking at plants in food coloring and observing how water is transported.     I’ve been inspired by the eagerness and the quality of work that my 4th graders have put into our stations. Can’t wait to implement this next year with all of our standards. It’s been a great year!! I’m so grateful for the opportunity to teach the 4th graders at HES Science. 🙂 Love,  Mrs. Goggans

Ecosystems and Food Webs

We are finishing up our last 4th grade standard this week with our week 21 newsletter. It consists of Ecosystems and Food Webs.

Friday/Monday:

We highlighted important key facts from our week 21 newsletter. We reviewed our vocabulary words for the week.

Tuesday –

We reviewed our vocabulary and completed our Food Webs PowerPoint and booklet by the Science Penguin. This booklet is our daily work grade for the week.I purchased these from her TPT store located here.

We also watched two fantastic videos by Mr. Parr on food chains and decomposers. These are great tunes to help the kids understand — and I love showing these during times of gluing in our notebooks.

Wednesday –

Today we are testing on our Week 21 newsletter. I’ve got a newsletter on the body’s systems out for the kiddos to read after testing.

Tomorrow we will begin doing recipe for our Aspire Science Test on April 27.

Animal Adaptations — 4/6 to 4/8

For the next two weeks we are trying to finish up our last standard for 4th grade Science. We are working from our Week 22 newsletter – Competition and Adaptation at the beginning of the week.

Monday –

We are reading and highlighting from our Newsletter today. Students will be able to use their newsletter on their quiz on Wednesday. It will consist of 10 questions.

Tuesday –

Today we are watching a study jam on animal adaptations. Afterwards, we are completing a PowerPoint/Booklet on Animal Adaptations. This is a great resource — I bought it from the Science Penguin here. This booklet will be our Daily Work grade for the week.

Wednesday –

We are taking our Week 22 newsletter and starting to learn about life cycles.