Paper Chain Competition — 5/15/15

Lessons have been taught, grades have been given .. We are in the final countdown of the 2014 – 2015 school year. It’s the perfect time for fun activities!!

I saw this activity on Pinterest the other day, and I’m so glad we had time to squeeze it in before the end of the year. Students worked with partners/science groups to make a paper chain. Each group received the following supplies — one piece of construction paper (12 x 18), glue, and scissors.   The objective was to make the longest paper chain in the class. Each class had 25 minutes, and then we went to the sidewalk to measure and find the winner from each class.

Homeroom:

*The two boys in the back of the picture built the longest one in this room. Stay tuned — a picture of them and their chain appears at the end.

2nd Period:

The winner of 2nd :

4th period:

The winning group from 4th:

5th Period:

5th period Winners —

2nd place —

6th Period —

6th winners

8th Period —

** At the end of the day, I assembled the winners circle. All the winners came back to see who had the longest paper chain. It had started raining so we had to line them up at the end of our hallway.

Look at all the hard work shown in this picture! I love how these 4th graders are so excited for challenges and learning tasks!!! The winners were from my Homeroom — I could not believe how much longer their chain was from the others!! We measured it — 24 and a half feet!! All from one sheet of construction paper!! 🙂 They donated it to my classroom. I am planning on doing this activity at the beginning of next year — we are going to tie it into a measurement unit. They want to see if they can beat the upcoming kiddos. We shall see!! Stay tuned!!

Hope everyone enjoyed participating or reading about our fun day!!!

Love,

Mrs. Goggans

Space Exploration Packet 3/19/14

On Wednesday and Thursday in Science this week we are covering our Space Exploration Course of Study objective. Students were given a packet on Tuesday, and they are responsible for coloring it. This packet is due at the end of class on Thursday for a daily work grade.

Below I’ve included the links to two fantastic videos that helped us “see” the strides we have made in Space Exploration.

The Three R’s Booklet – 2/21/14

Today was the last day of our Earth Science unit. After our Daily Math Quiz, students were able to color/decorate a booklet. Some students chose to take their booklets home, and some volunteered for their booklets to be hung in the hallway.

I thought this booklet was a cute way to review our Three R’s!! The link is located here.

Volcano Booklet 2/6/14

Volcanoes!! 🙂

Isn’t this a cute booklet? I found this on the Internet at crayola.com. I’ve included the link here for anyone interested. I thought it was a cute learning tool plus an easy Daily Work grade for our 4th graders this week!! 🙂 I have a funny story to share today. Kids are SO honest — they keep me on my toes with their questions and thoughts!! So one of my darlings today said that I was a much better at coloring than drawing!! 🙂 I agreed with him wholeheartedly — drawing is not my talent, but I try my best at it just like I want them all to do in their notebooks.

After learning all about volcanoes yesterday, we had LOTS of fourth graders curious about volcanoes in the United States. So today we viewed the Top 10 most dangerous volcanoes in the United States .. very interesting!! This link is here. Anybody up for a field trip out west?

I also showed this cool National Geographic Volcanoes 101 video to our classes — here.

Tornado in a Bottle Projects 1/24/14

Today our Tornado in a Bottle projects were due, and I was amazed at all of the great work done by the students!! We had a great time showing off our tornadoes in small groups. I videoed a few of the projects .. I’ll add the link so you can click to watch.

FYI – I’ve downloaded the You Tube Capture app (free), and I’ve uploaded these three videos to my personal You Tube account. These 3 videos are private — they can’t be searched for on You Tube or recommended to other viewers. The only way they can be viewed is from my account (I’m the only one who has that information) OR thru the link I’ve posted.

Weather App Project 1/22/14

This Week’s Science Class in a Glance:

This week we are working on a Weather App Project using a class set of Ipads. We will also be starting Chapter 9 Changes to Earth’s Surface as we finish our weather project this week. Be sure not to forget — our Tornado in a Bottle Projects are due on Friday. We will have a demonstration time on Friday for the kids to share in groups!! 🙂

I found our Weather App project we are completing this week on Pinterest and I absolutely LOVED it!! You can find it here. I adapted it to fit our classes time frame and knowledge. Students picked from three groups of cities (The South, The East, or the Midwest.) In groups, students looked up the current temperature for each city on their Ipad. Afterwards, they completed the math problems using their temperatures. For example, one question asked them to put the temperatures in order from coldest to warmest.

I thought this would be a great finale to our Weather Unit, and it would also allow the students to use technology while integrating another content area — Math!!

I am hoping to find some other projects for our students to do using the Ipads this year in Science .. They were SO excited!!

Let’s Have a Great Week!!

Tornado in a Bottle Project — Instructional Video

Science Project Instructional Video

I saw this instructional video on how to make a tornado in a jar, and I thought it might help some of us while working on your project. Have fun!!

Mrs. Goggans

Tornado Project Instructions 1/14/14

Make a Tornado in a Bottle Project

Learn how to make a tornado in a bottle with this fun science experiment for kids. Using easy to find items such as dish washing liquid, water, and a bottle you can make your own mini tornado that’s a lot safer than one you might see on the weather channel. Follow the instructions and enjoy the cool water vortex you create!

What you’ll need:
• Water
• A clear plastic bottle or a plastic jar with a cap (that won’t leak)
• Dish washing liquid
• Two drops of food coloring OR a few pinches of glitter
• Optional – 10 – 15 pieces of aluminum foil pellets (These items would represent the debris that the storm would pick up.)

Instructions:
1. Fill the plastic bottle or the plastic jar with water until it reaches around three quarters full.
2. Add a few drops of dish washing liquid.
3. Sprinkle in a few pinches of glitter or food coloring (this will make your tornado easier to see).
4. Put the cap on tightly.
5. Turn the bottle or jar upside down and hold it by the neck. Quickly spin the bottle in a circular motion for a few seconds, and then stop and look inside to see if you can see a mini tornado forming in the water. You might need to try it a few times before you get it working properly.

What’s happening?
6. Spinning the bottle in a circular motion creates a water vortex that looks like a mini tornado. The water is rapidly spinning around the center of the vortex due to centripetal force (an inward force directing an object or fluid such as water towards the center of its circular path). Vortexes found in nature include tornadoes, hurricanes and waterspouts (a tornado that forms over water).

Weather Homework/Weather Map Symbols 12/10/13

This week we are finishing up Chapter 6 Water Cycle and Weather. It has been a perfect week to learn about weather with all of our crazy weather we have been having!! Today we kicked class off with our new notebook page 61 where we labeled the weather map symbols, and we predicted the weather from our symbols on the map!!

Students have homework this week — and it is located on notebook page 60. It is part of their Science Notebook for Chapter 6, and it will count as a notebook page. Students are to watch or look up the weather. There are lots of ways to accomplish this — a weather forecast on TV, a weather app (my personal FAVE is The Weather Channel app – it is FREE!), an internet weather site, radio, newspaper weather forecast, etc. Students are to date the page when they do the assignment, record the type of media (TV, Internet, etc.), and record any symbols they saw or heard on the forecast. For extra credit, students may send me a picture of them looking at the weather forecast OR bring it in. This is not mandatory, but I thought it may be FUN!! 🙂 This assignment is due on Tuesday, December 17th.  I am including a picture of me checking the weather on the Internet as an example 🙂

Digestion Lab 11/20/13

Homeroom!! Notice my ‘selfie’ in this pic!! As we added the stomach acid (Sierra Mist) it exploded all over my shirt!! Oh well!! Fun Science!!!