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!!! 🙂

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

Life Cycle of a Plant 10/3/13

Today we learned about pollination and the life cycle of a flowering plant. Loved how these two ladies went the extra mile and decorated their sheet!! Tomorrow is our Pollination Lab!!!

The Four Main Parts of a Flower 10/2/13

Today in class we reviewed photosynthesis, and then we learned about the four main parts of a flower. Tomorrow we will learn about the life cycle of a plant. On Friday we will have 4th grade Science Style version of Fun Friday! We will have a pollination lab experiment!! 🙂

Two Types of Roots 9/30/13

Our second page that we added in class today (9/30) was about the 2 different types of roots (fibrous and tap roots.) We wrote facts about each and illustrated. Tomorrow we will learn about plants needs and photosynthesis!! 🙂

Parts of the Plant 9/30/13

Today in class we added 2 pages to our Science notebooks. We labeled the four basic parts of a plant, and we also learned important facts about the leaves and the stem.

Pinterest Project

I was too quick to call our lab from Thursday a flop! We came in Friday morning and our plants had changed colors!!!

This would be an easy Science project to do at home for anyone interested. You need clear cups. Mason jars would work great! You need food coloring and a plant. I used Napa Cabbage, but celery would work. If I do this project again, I would love to use white carnations. We put a little water, and about 15 to 20 drops of food coloring.  Sit back and wait for your plant to start transporting the food coloring!!