Monday, September 16, 2013
Thursday, September 12, 2013
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!
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
Friday, September 6, 2013
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
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
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
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!
Saturday, August 31, 2013
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!
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!
Saturday, August 10, 2013
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!
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!
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