What’s Happening in Science PLUS Important Reminders — Week of May 5

It’s hard to believe it is almost the end of the school year!! This week in Science we are completing an ABC book as our last Notebook pages for the year. I saw this on a teachers blog that I love — and I thought it would be a great activity for the kids to look back at topics studied. They have so impressed me with their retention of material!!

Monday — I introduced the ABC book format in each class. We worked on A – H as pictured above.

Tuesday — Today was our last day of Aspire Testing. We had 60 students randomly selected from our grade to test on Science, Language, or Writing. After our Testing, we had a shorter schedule for our day. I let students catch up on A – H, and students that were finished could go ahead to our next set of letters

Wednesday — Today we began our I – P section of our ABC book.

Thursday — Catch up Day on A – P

Friday — We will work on Q – end of our ABC book.

** I had originally said I would grade these books on Friday. Our students are working so hard — and putting so much thought into this assignment so I decided to extend our deadline. I will be grading Monday and Tuesday of next week.

Important Dates for the Remainder of the Year:

Class Pictures are for sale in each homeroom. They are $12 each.

Aspire Testing is OVER for this year!! 🙂 Thanks to all of our children for giving it their BEST!!

May 9th — 21st Century Play

Wed. May 14 — 4th Grade Field Day in the morning

May 17 — Renaissance Rally

May 19 — Perfect Attendance Meal

May 20 — All A’s Breakfast

Wed. May 21 – Report Cards Go Home; 4th Grade Awards Day and 4th Grade Idol — This will be a HALF day!!

Thurs. May 22 — End of Year Party; Last day for our Kiddos!! — This will be a HALF day!!

TGIF and ALL about our previous week in 4th –5/2/14

What a week!! From tornado warnings to Aspire tests, this week has been one for the record books! This week started off with a bang — we dismissed at 12:30 on both Monday and Tuesday due to the threat of severe weather. This was a great time for us to pull out our Science Notebooks and review our Tornado information we taped in back before Christmas. We reviewed all about tornadoes forming, tornado safety, and tornado lingo where students would understand what was happening around them.

After our bad weather threat passed us, it was then time for our Aspire Testing. 4th grade tested Reading on Wednesday. Our test lasted for 60 minutes, and I was so proud of how hard they all worked. On Thursday we tested Math. This test lasted for 55 minutes — and once again I was so proud of the hard work and dedication shown by our 4th graders!

We will have 60 students Aspire testing on Tuesday. We were given the opportunity to pilot three new tests by the Aspire program — Writing, Language, and Science. 60 students were randomly selected to take these tests. This is a great way for students to get test taking practice PLUS lets the school gather data and be part of the test making process. The homeroom of Mrs. Ellis will test on Writing, Mrs. Baggett will test the Language section, and I will be testing Science.

Here are some important reminders of things coming up:

• Class Pictures are for sale in your child’s homeroom for $12 each.
• Student Council Posters are due on Monday if your child is running for SGA office.
• Aspire Testing for those 60 randomly selected students will be on Tuesday morning. More information is given in the above paragraph.
• Our 21st Century Program will be performing a play about summer camp on Friday, May 9th. 3rd – 5th will attend at 8:30.
• 4th Grade Field Day will be on the morning of May 14. Students may bring Gatorades, water, or snacks with them to the event.
• More information about 4th Grade Idol, Awards Day, and our End of the Year party to come VERY soon!! 🙂

Science Stations (Light Theme) — 4/25/14

Today in Science we rotated between 4 different stations. Our theme was Light. This activity was planned to wrap up our Light Unit. We will begin Friction on Monday.

Station 1 — How Does Light Pass Through?

Materials — White Paper, Plastic Wrap, Wax Paper, Aluminum Foil, and Colored Tissue Paper

At each station, students had to complete a lab sheet. During this lab, students were looking at each item and discovering — does light pass through it? Does it make a shadow? Is it opaque, transparent, or translucent?

** I found this lab at Teachers Pay Teachers. It is available for purchase here.

I loved this picture I snapped of these kiddos working together during our station. They all worked very hard today!!

This is the sheet students were responsible for completing during this station. The link is located above.

Station 2 — Shadows Observation

Materials — I laid out on our lab table random objects found in my desk. Two toy cars, pennies, glue, bracelet, leggos, etc. I found flashlights from our Science Kits that still worked — Yay!!

Students chose an object and drew it. Next,  they shined the flashlight over the object and drew its shadow.

** I also found this activity on Teachers Pay Teachers. The link is located here.

Station 3 –Bending Pencil Experiment

Materials – Plastic clear cups, Pencils, Water

Students placed a pencil in a cup with no water and drew what they saw. Next, students placed the pencil in a cup with water, and drew what they saw now. This lab was super cute, and many students said it was their favorite of all four. I found this lab and the next one at this great teacher blog that is located here. Thanks for the idea! It was a favorite!

This was the lab sheet students had to fill out.

Station 4 –Turning Arrow Experiment

Materials – Plastic clear cups, Water, Index Cards

Students got an index card and drew an arrow. They placed the card behind a clear cup filled with water. They then had to observe what happened next.

The lab sheet and the idea came from the same teacher blog from above that is located here. My 4th graders adored this — and many said they were going home to show their family. It’s not magic – It’s Science!!

Our lab sheet — big thanks to the above teacher blog. The kids LOVED these 2 activities! 🙂

 

I have promised our 4th graders that we will do stations again this year — and I see using this  idea LOTS next year!! As students worked and chatted about their stations — I was such a proud Science teacher!! 🙂

 

Easter Egg Hunt — 4/18/14

After the fun egg hunt was over, the kiddos had fun going through their loot!! 🙂

Before the Hunt!! — 4/18/14

Before the Hunt!! The top picture is of our Easter baskets/bags and look at all of those eggs — WOW!! It was hard to concentrate in class with all of those eggs/candy back in the tubs!!

The bottom two pictures are of the kids waiting in the hall. The boys hid the girls’ eggs and vice versa. Our girls were in the hall at the same time as Jones’ class — so I got all to pose 🙂

Lots of fun in 4th today!! Happy Easter!!

Fourth Grade Field Trip

Fourth Grade Field Trip

We are so excited about our field trip to the Space and Rocket Center on Friday, March 21. We are busy this week finalizing plans and making sure everything is in order. If your child is planning on not attending the field trip, please write a note to your child’s teacher and let them know what your child plans to do that day. Thanks so much for your help!!

Read Across America Book Reports 2/27/14

I am loving the book reports that the kiddos are doing for Read Across America!!

The Three R’s — 2/20/14

Group Pictures from 2nd Period .. We worked in groups at the end of class today to brainstorm ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle.

Wednesday — Parts of a Textbook

In class on Tuesday and Wednesday, we worked on learning the parts of a textbook. This will help us in Alabama History and Science to find information faster. This was a cute song that I played at the beginning of class today to help us review our ‘learning’ from yesterday. Today we checked over our Textbook Scavenger Hunt that we completed in class. If I have any fellow teachers looking at this, these sheets are available on my teacher website here. Tomorrow, we are learning about cells!! 🙂