Campfire Tales

Earlier this week our class focused on dialogue and descriptive words in stories. Each student wrote a "spooky" story, working on plot development, having dialogue between characters, and descriptive text (adjectives) to paint a picture of the story in the reader's mind. Today we sat around campfires in the classroom and shared our stories around the fire, reading by flashlight.

Phases of Matter

To build upon the excitement of Halloween, we did a dry ice lab today in class. Students first learned about different materials and how they conduct heat (aluminum vs. plastic). When ice went on an aluminum plate that felt cold and a plastic plate that felt warm, students predicted ice would melt faster on the warm plate. However, the aluminum plate melted an ice cube in almost exactly 3 minutes while the other plate still had the ice after 20 minutes. This is all due to how aluminum conducts heat better. Next, we explored dry ice, at -109.3 degrees F and its unique properties, including not melting, but sublimating instead (going right from a solid to a gas).Finally, taking what we learned from reading about how root beer is made, we combined our science and reading to make our own root beer for our Halloween party!

Halloween Art

Today Mrs. Weed volunteered in our class to do an art lesson with a "haunted house". Students drew a setting with a black permanent marker and then went over the art with watercolors, creating an eerie sunset and other effects.

Saying Good-bye to our Worms

After over five weeks of observing how red worms, when added to organic matter, change it, today we said good-bye to our worms. We did our final observation and notice much more soil in the jar due to the castings produced from the worms. Some groups noticed several "fruit fly" type of flies inside their jars as well. Students used their observations from past labs and this lab to discuss and then reflect on how these organisms impact organic matter. We were also able to dump out all the items in the jar, which we have never done, to actually look inside at all that has taken place.

What do Plants Need?

In investigating what plants NEED in order to survive at the fifth grade level, students planted wheat seeds and have watched them come out of dormancy. One group of plants have been in complete darkness, while another groups has been receiving lots of light. Today we observed the differences and they were dramatic. The phenomena observed led to several other questions as well as some discussion. One student proposed changed a few plants from the darkness to the light, just to see what would happen. This lesson continues as we learn more about chlorophyll and photosynthesis and what plants TRULY need in order to survive.

Makey Makey Pianos

Today with computer science, pairs of students worked together to create paper keyboards that would play music. Some were quite unique. One student event taped the paper keyboard to his chest to be a "piano man". Now that we have explored circuits of the Makey Makeys, the next step is to have a challenge. Tomorrow students have the task of designing an "old school" joystick, similar to those of the Atari 2600.