Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Our Dead Word Cemetery


Inspired by the "Dead Word" post on this blog HERE, we buried over nineteen words in our Dead Word Cemetery.

To figure out which words we wanted to "bury," we had a whole-class discussion about what type of words we tend to overuse in our writing. Then someone mentioned how a thesaurus could help us find better words to replace the "dead" words, so our writing could be more detailed and specific. 

After we created tombstones to honor the words we planned on using less frequently, we shared our tombstones with the class and found a place for them on our classroom door. 

CLICK HERE to see our Dead Word Cemetery from 2012-13. 

The entire cemetery (including background and tombstones) were created, hung,
and maintained by students in our class. 








Monday, February 3, 2014

Fizz Inflator

During our study of chemical changes, we did an investigation from ScienceBob.com called the "Fizz Inflator." Through the investigation, we were able to see how two different types of matter (vinegar, a liquid, and baking soda, a solid)  combine to create a new type of matter: carbon dioxide, a gas. Since the vinegar and solid reacted together to create a new type of matter, this is an example of a chemical reaction. 

As a result of the carbon dioxide, we were able to inflate our balloons!