Miss Whittemore Says.... Plants!

Hello Wise Owls! It sure has been a while! I just wanted to take a moment to remind everyone that we have a Science Unit Test over Plants on Friday. Our Wise Owls have received their Science review today and are expected to have this completed by tomorrow to play ZAP! We have been furiously adding new words to "Miss Whittemore Says..." so to prepare for the test, I wanted to share! Below is a video of all of the words they will need to know for Friday.  This isn't the only way for them to study, but it sure does help!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPPi_wQTj2Y&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1

Seed Dissection

I hope everyone is having a great weekend! With all of this rain, it has left me with not much to do, so I'm going to catch up on catching you up! This week in Science we learned about the structure of a seed and the different functions of each of the parts. Of course, we can't learn without getting our hands on some seeds and seeing what they look like inside! So this led to seed dissection! We used lima beans in order to learn about each of the three parts of a seed. I took a few photos to show you.

The first thing we had to do to dissect our seed is remove the seed coat. This is the first part of the seed that we learned about. In case you are wondering, the seed coat's function is to protect the seed. The photo above shows Haven removing the seed coat. 

Next, we had to split the seed open so that we could seed the inside of the seed. Here is Madison K. after she had taken off the seed coat and beginning to dissect the seed. 

Once we got the seed open it was time to make some careful observations. We paid close attention to the cotyledon and the embryo. The cotyledon stores food for the seed. The embryo is the baby plant! Here is Avery P. looking closely at the cotyledon. 

The photo above is Jerah making close observations of the embryo that she found in her lima bean!

Here is Eric and Brogan making some careful observations. Once they're finished they are going to share what they found!

Coming up this week, we will be learning about the different ways that plants can reproduce and the life cycle of a plant! Stay tuned to see the results of the seed germination experiment! Have a great weekend Wise Owls!

Brookside Pride Night

Here is our finished product for our Back to School Basket for Brookside Pride Night this evening! 

Thank you SO much to the parents who were kind enough to donate items to our basket! Just a reminder, all of the proceeds from the silent auction of our classroom basket will come back to our classroom! I can't wait to see how big of a hit our basket is! I was completely overwhelmed with the amount of donations that I received! I really can't say thank you enough! You all are AWESOME!

Just a reminder of the schedule of Brookside Pride Night:

Hot dogs, chips, and drinks will be sold in the cafeteria starting at 5:30.

At 6:00 there will be a small assembly in the gym that includes an introduction of the teachers at Brookside! I can't wait to see you there!

Once the assembly is over, teachers will head back to the classroom and you can meet us there! You'll get to see our latest art project and check out our classroom! I hope each of you swing by to talk because I can't wait to tell each of you how awesome your student is doing in my room! 

Once you come into the classroom tonight I will have sign-ups for Parent-Teacher Conferences on the 30th. This will be our chance to meet one-on-one to discuss the progress your student is making, how they interact in the classroom, and areas of growth that we can work on. I can't wait to see each of you tonight!

Interpreting Remainders

Over the weekend I realized that I have posted all Science posts and I have not included any Reading or Math! Math is my absolute favorite subject and I was upset that I had not shared any of the fun math strategies that we have been learning over the past few weeks! I made sure to take some photos of our Wise Owls in action today as we were working on interpreting remainders!

Over the past week we have been looking at how to solve division problems using manipulatives. Beginning Friday our students learned how to solve division problems with remainders! What a big task! Today we took it one step further and our Wise Owls learned how to interpret remainders and when they should just up the quotient, when we should drop the remainder, and when we should just give the remainder.

Listed below are the three ways to interpret remainders:

1. Sometimes the remainder IS the answer.

2. Sometimes you increase the quotient. 

3. Sometimes you drop the remainder.

After we explored the different ways to interpret remainders, our Wise Owls turned to their shoulder partners and tried to tackle interpreting the remainder with their partners. 

Here are some photos of Wise Owls working together to interpret remainders and solve real-world problems while using manipulatives to help them out:

Here is Avery and Katie working hard at interpreting remainders! These two sure do work well together!

Keegan and Jacob took on a different approach. They worked it out individually first and then checked with each other to see if they both had the same answer. In this problem, Keegan and Jacob had to give the remainder as the answer. 

Jared is working out the problems and then checking with the rest of his group to see if their answers check! Great job, Jared!

Matthew and A'Layla are relying on teamwork to solve these division problems. Great teamwork, Matthew and A'Layla!

Keep checking back to see our progress on division! I hope to see you at Open House on Thursday evening! 

Updated OWL Report!

Here is your updated OWL Report for the week of September 30- October 4! 

Get Your News Here!

Posted below is our weekly OWL Report for this week! This will come home with your students tomorrow, but I thought you'd appreciate a sneak peak!

Happy Constitution Day!

Good Evening Wise Owls! Today was Constitution Day so our wise owls spent a few minutes learning about the Constitution, and specifically about the First Amendment! I split the class up into 5 groups, each group representing one of the five freedoms that the First Amendment grants U.S. citizens. The groups had to work together to design a poster that told about the freedom they were assigned, the rights that freedom grants, and the responsibilities we have as U.S. citizens to uphold the integrity of these freedoms. The groups then each had to present their posters to the class so that everyone learned about each of the five freedoms! Posted below is the group that taught our class about the Freedom of Speech.

Great job Avery, Jacob, Jared, and Jazmin! 

After each of the groups presented, we learned a chant to help up remember the five freedoms that the FIrst Amendment gives us! The chant says, "First Amendment, Five Freedoms, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religion, Freedom of Press, Freedom of Assembly, and Freedom to Petition." I recorded the video so that our wise owls could share their knowledge with you! 

OWL Report

Posted below is the latest OWL Report!

Matter Unit Test

Good evening Wise Owls! I hope we are all geared up for our first unit test in Science on matter! We will be completing this unit test tomorrow, first thing in the morning! I am excited to see what all we have learned!

Today we played a review game in order to prepare ourselves for tomorrow. The game is ZAP! The students are split into two teams. This time we played as Side 1 and Side 2. The students are chosen from random with my "Handy Dandy Stick Picker". We rotate back and forth between each side. The student is called on (based on what stick I picked) and is given the amount of points the question is worth and then the points. The student has one opportunity to answer (I usually give a little slack and give them a second chance to answer if they don't get it right at first.) If they are incorrect it goes to the next side and I pick a new stick. But the game doesn't stop once the correct answer is given! The student who gives the correct answer must come up and pick a card at random from the ZAP! board!

Here is where things get tricky! The ZAP! board is FULL of twists and turns! The student can pick anything from "Add 2 points to your team" to "Take all of the other team's points" to "ZAP! your own team"! When you ZAP! a team they lose all of their points! It's a fun game and my Wise Owls get REALLY into it! I have to say it was a close call today! It all came down to the last card that we drew which was for the student to ZAP! their own team! But our Wise Owls are great sports and supported the other team and congratulated them on a great game! I was VERY proud! 

To finish our review, we recorded all of the words that we learned for our matter unit in our whole brain learning exercise "Miss Whittemore Says..." 

Posted below is the video so that you can review each of the words with your students! Hopefully the student can remember all of them and not have to look at the video first! If not, let them look at the video for a quick reminder! In case you did not want them to watch the video first, I will list the words for you to use. Just simply say, "Mom (or Dad, Aunt, Nana) says..." and then say the word you choose! The student should give a chant and a motion! If you have the ability to record your student doing the chants and motions, send me a video and I'll give them a prize! Good luck studying Wise Owls and I know we'll do GREAT tomorrow!

Matter Unit Word List

Matter

Mass

Temperature

Buoyancy

Density- their favorite!

Magnetism

Solid

Liquid

Gas

Physical Change

Condensation

Evaporation

Matter Matters!

We began our unit on matter in Science this week! We're doing some really great activities to go along with matter and I can't wait to see the finished products! We set up our matter flip-books today to help us organize our information on matter. The students are coming home this weekend with the flip-books started and have to complete them to turn in on Monday. The students must glue in the information that I provided that reminds us of what the particles look like in each state of matter, how the particles react to their container, and how the particles move. Once the students have glued this into their flip-books they are to find pictures in magazines or on the interest of examples of each of the three states of matter: solids, liquids, and gases. Everyone seemed pretty excited about this project and I cannot wait to see the  work that our wise owls put together! I know they will do a great job!

Once we had out flip-books set up to be completed over the weekend, we completed a "Nana Knows It All" experiment. Our experiment took two states of matter and combined them to create a new state of matter. My two Super-Students of the day helped me with this experiment while our wise owls watched and made predictions. We recorded our experiment to share with you! You can see the experiment below! This experiment can be replicated at home, as we used common household items! Let your wise owl show you how to make a new state of matter!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VM7UViDfpX8

Miss Whittemore Says.....

Good evening Wise Owls! This week we began our matter unit in Science! Along with this we have learned a new "whole brain learning" activity that we will continue throughout the year! I am so excited to share this with you! We recorded an example of our new activity for you to see below! I hope you enjoy! As mentioned in the video, we will be adding to our "Miss Whittemore Says..." activity throughout the year, so make sure to ask your wise owl what new words they have learned so they can share with you!

Great Start to the Year!

Hi Wise Owls! I hope everyone is having a fantastic LONG weekend! We have had a great start to the school year and I can't wait to see how the rest of our year goes! I just wanted to give everyone a quick update on what we're working on and what's to come!

This week we worked on a science experiment using the Scientific Method. We wanted to see which paper towel brand would absorb the most water. After forming a hypothesis, figuring out our procedures and setting up our experiment, we were ready to gather some data! We started with three brands: Bounty, Home Sense (Kroger brand), and Viva. Our wise owls held each brand under water for 10 seconds then squeezed out all of the water into a graduated cylinder to record our data. After we graphed our data as a class and looked at all of our evidence, we decided that Viva paper towels absorb the most water! So take note, if you want the most for your money grab some Viva paper towels!

Our wise owls also worked on recognizing and correcting sentence fragments! At the end of the week it was decided that our wise owls are Sentence Masters!

We've started our school year off reading The Hundred Dresses. This is a book written in the 1940's, but focuses on bullying in schools. It is a great read and I can't wait to finish the book in the upcoming week so we can see the outcome! While reading this week we worked on identifying character traits and using supporting evidence from the text to support our ideas. At the end of the week we used the ACE strategy to complete our first Extended Response Question. I have to say, I have a pretty great group of writers on my hands! Their responses blew me away and I can't wait to see how much their writing grows throughout the year! I'm impressed already!

In Math we have been working on factors, multiples, divisibility rules, and identifying and using patterns to solve problems. It has been an intense couple of weeks learning all of the material, but our wise owls are some math wizards! We will be playing ZAP! as a review on Tuesday with a test on Thursday!

In the upcoming week we will be working on testing the properties of matter, using context clues to help find the meaning of unknown words, finishing up our factors unit, and beginning word work! I will be posting pictures of our matter experiments and review game once our week is complete! Keep checking back for updates on what we're working on!

Back to School Bash

Greetings Wise Owls!

I cannot wait to meet each of you at open house Monday night! I am looking forward to the opportunity to meet your family as well! You will have the opportunity to explore our classroom and meet me! I can't wait to begin our school year and see all of the fun we will have together! It's going to be a great year Wise Owls! Enjoy the rest of your summer!