Digestion Lab 11/20/13

2nd Period

Digestion Lab 11/20/13

4th Period

Digestion Lab 11/20/13

5th Period

4th Grade Lung Lab 11/18/13

This week we are finishing up Chapter 5 on Systems of the Human Body. Today was lab day —  We used 2 balloons, 2 rubber bands, a water bottle, a straw, and modeling clay to model a lung and a diaphragm. The lung part was very easy to model — the diaphragm was much harder!! The sturdier the bottle the more likely the student was to make a working diaphragm. Lesson learned for this newbie Science Teacher — next year I will tell students to bring in 20 ounce Soda bottles, Sunny Delight bottles, or Gatorade! These were the ones that worked! Even though not all diaphragms were in working condition — I think we all had lots of fun and learned lots!!

Click on the link below for a video of our first working Lung AND diaphragm of the day!! 🙂

4th Grade Lung and Diaphragm Model

Blinking — Voluntary or Involuntary? 11/13/13

Today in Science we kicked off our Human Body unit with a Science Lab!! Our lesson today was about The Skeletal System and the Muscular System. For any interested teachers, the link to our lab is here. I love TPT!

In this picture students are counting the number of times they blinked in a minute!! 🙂  Don’t you love this timer on the Smart Board??  I think I will be using this LOTS!!

First, students had to count the number of times they blinked in a minute. Next, students timed themselves to see how long they went without blinking. I lasted 12 seconds — my eyes were dry!! 🙂 Finally, students got a plastic sheet protector and a cotton ball. Students held the plastic sheet in front of their face, while the other student tossed the cotton ball at the sheet. As they threw, they tallied if the person blinked. After all the labs were completed, we analyzed our data to see if we thought blinking was voluntary or involuntary.

Coming up tomorrow — students should bring water bottles to class. We are making a model of how our lungs work!!

Skeletal and Muscular Systems 11/13/13

Today in Science we read Chapter 5 Lesson 1 about the Skeletal and Muscular Systems of the Human Body. I thought I would share the song we listened to in class today about the muscles!! We love Mr. Parr and his creative songs to help us learn our content!!

Endangered/Extinct Animals 10/30/13

Today we started Lesson 3 of Chapter 4. Lesson 3 is a BIG one so it will take us a couple of days to learn all the new information. We kicked off class today by learning about succession and watching an animated video clip to help us understand. We also took notes on page 49 of our Science Notebook on Endangered/Extinct Animals. Loved how hard this super student worked on his entry!!! We were all super interested in this topic!!!

Ch 4 Lesson 2 Organisms Interact 10/29/13

Today we learned about how organisms interact within ecosystems. Competition, sharing resources, organisms helping each other, and causing harm (parasites) are ways they interact. This is located on page 48 in our Science Notebook.

Science 10/16/13

Today in Science we completed a graphic organizer on page 42 in our Science Notebook. This organizer was to help us see how ecosystem, community, and population all connect. On page 43 in our notebook we illustrated the definitions for herbivores, carnivores, omnivores, and consumers. I had to snap a pic of these notebooks!! Great job, 4th graders!

Kinds of Ecosystems 10/14/13

Today was the start of Ch. 3 in Science. We defined our first 5 vocabulary words for our chapter, and then we discussed the 5 different kinds of ecosystems. Featured is a student showing her notebook page that we started to help us remember the 5 kinds of ecosystems and the animals we would expect to find there.