Afterward, each group decided where to hang their banner in the room, and we did a gallery walk using the banners our classmates created to learn about the six simple machines we are focusing on: the wedge, inclined plane, wheel and axle, screw, pulley, and lever.
This blog is intended to share what we are learning in 5th grade through reflections, pictures, videos, and more! Comments are encouraged and welcome! If you have a positive comment about anything you see, please feel free to share, and we will respond as soon as we can. Thanks for looking!
Showing posts with label science. Show all posts
Showing posts with label science. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Simple Machine Gallery Walk-- video by Caitlyn
To help us as we're learning more about simple machines like how they help make work easier and some common household examples of them, we divided ourselves into six groups and became "experts" on one simple machine. Then individually we used various websites and our textbook to learn more about our machine, and then we came together to collaborate with our group on our informational banner about our machine.
Afterward, each group decided where to hang their banner in the room, and we did a gallery walk using the banners our classmates created to learn about the six simple machines we are focusing on: the wedge, inclined plane, wheel and axle, screw, pulley, and lever.
Afterward, each group decided where to hang their banner in the room, and we did a gallery walk using the banners our classmates created to learn about the six simple machines we are focusing on: the wedge, inclined plane, wheel and axle, screw, pulley, and lever.
Friday, January 18, 2013
Vertebrate Science Stations
Lately in science, we've been studying vertebrates and for the first time all year, we took the plunge with science stations last week. Since we've done math in stations pretty much all year with Math Workshop and we also do Daily 5 (where reading, writing, and word work all occur simultaneously throughout our class), we already had a lot of practice learning this way.
During each rotation in science, which lasted about 25-30 minutes, we had eight students working at each of the three stations. The three stations included a hands-on, investigation involving bird feathers; a "scavenger hunt" activity classifying different animals into the five vertebrate classes based on their specific characteristics; and reading the vertebrate section in our Life Science books and recording our learning in our own words, with accompanying illustrations.
As with doing anything for the first time, our science stations weren't entirely perfect; however, we felt it was pretty successful overall with being engaging, collaborative, interesting, and most of all educational!
Check out the pictures below, many of which were taken by Caitlyn, and feel free to ask us any questions or leave us a comment. Thanks for reading!
As with doing anything for the first time, our science stations weren't entirely perfect; however, we felt it was pretty successful overall with being engaging, collaborative, interesting, and most of all educational!
Check out the pictures below, many of which were taken by Caitlyn, and feel free to ask us any questions or leave us a comment. Thanks for reading!
Station #1: Bird Feathers Investigation
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| In this station, we observed different bird feathers to help us explore how different types of feathers help birds survive. Here, we are placing droplets of water on different types of bird feathers. |
As we investigated the different bird feathers, we used the chart above to record our observations.
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| Here, we're measuring bird feathers and observing how different types of feathers react to wind. |
Station #2: Classifying Vertebrates
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| In this station, we used the Smartboard, computers, and books to find vertebrates and classify them into one of the five vertebrate classes based on their characteristics. Online, we mainly used this website to classify animals. As far as books, we used our Life Science textbook and about a half-dozen other books on animals we had in our classroom library. |
As we identified vertebrates online and in books, we used this chart
to classify the animals based on the characteristics of their vertebrate class.
Station #3: Learning Highlights
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| In this station, we had the option of reading the vertebrate section of our Life Science book with a partner or independently. As we read, we recorded highlights of our learning (in our own words) and drew correlating pictures to help us visualize and remember what we learned. |
Monday, December 31, 2012
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Oreo Phases of the Moon
To help us learn about the phases of the moon, we used Oreos to sculpt the different phases and then we put them in sequential order.
The following websites helped us in this activity; although, we used toothpicks instead of utensils for the sculpting part:
http://www.leosciencelab.com/educators/lesson-plans/oreo_moon_phases.php
http://www.sciencebob.com/blog/?p=828
The following websites helped us in this activity; although, we used toothpicks instead of utensils for the sculpting part:
http://www.leosciencelab.com/educators/lesson-plans/oreo_moon_phases.php
http://www.sciencebob.com/blog/?p=828
Monday, April 16, 2012
Our Solar System Model
Recently, we've been learning about our Solar System, so we made a a class model using the guidelines on pg. 2 (in the extension section) from this website to help us: http://meteorite.unm.edu/site_media/pdf/outdoorscale.pdf
Check out the video below to learn more about our experience, and stay tuned for our planetary virtual museums coming soon!
Check out the video below to learn more about our experience, and stay tuned for our planetary virtual museums coming soon!
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Invertebrate Poems (for Two Voices)
To help us learn about invertebrates during science, we wrote poems about several types: sponges, sea stars, jellyfish, anemones, arthropods, insects, worms, octopuses, and jellyfish. Following the Kagan format for "A Poem for Two Voices," we got in pairs and used what we learned to write our own poems.
After we learned a couple new figurative language devices like onamonapea (words with sounds that make you think of their meanings like "gasp" or "buzz") and alliteration (two or more words together that have the same beginning sounds), we revised our poems to include some examples of our own.
Check out the video below and see if you can identify where we've used onamonapea and alliteration. (You may even discover a couple other forms of figurative language such as simile or metaphor!)
After we learned a couple new figurative language devices like onamonapea (words with sounds that make you think of their meanings like "gasp" or "buzz") and alliteration (two or more words together that have the same beginning sounds), we revised our poems to include some examples of our own.
Check out the video below and see if you can identify where we've used onamonapea and alliteration. (You may even discover a couple other forms of figurative language such as simile or metaphor!)
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Simple Machines: Gallery Walk
On Friday, we continued our study on simple machines by engaging in a gallery walk.
In order to do so, however, groups of 4 students collaborated to create an informational poster on a simple machine: how it worked, how it made work easier, common examples of that particular simple machine, and other facts they felt were pertinent for others to learn about their simple machine.
Then we placed the posters all around the room, turned on classical music, and pretended to be in a museum as we walked around and took notes about all the other simple machines.
We will be using what we learned to help us when we begin designing, constructing, and testing out our own machines in the upcoming weeks.
Check out the brief, only slightly-edited, video below of our gallery walk:
In order to do so, however, groups of 4 students collaborated to create an informational poster on a simple machine: how it worked, how it made work easier, common examples of that particular simple machine, and other facts they felt were pertinent for others to learn about their simple machine.
Then we placed the posters all around the room, turned on classical music, and pretended to be in a museum as we walked around and took notes about all the other simple machines.
We will be using what we learned to help us when we begin designing, constructing, and testing out our own machines in the upcoming weeks.
Check out the brief, only slightly-edited, video below of our gallery walk:
Here's a closer look at the posters:
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Slime (AKA an awesome polymer!)
While learning about the properties of the different states of matter (solid, liquid, and gas), we created slime-- a polymer, which is a special type of matter that has both solid and liquid properties. To find out more, click on the following website from ScienceBob.com, http://www.sciencebob.com/experiments/polymer.php
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Investigating Matter
Today in science we began learning about matter by observing physical properties of objects and classifying matter as a solid, liquid, or a gas based on our observations. Each team had the following items each in its own bag: a red rubber ball, corn syrup, water, ice, and air. Each person in the team was responsible for measuring the mass of one of the items, and then everyone in the team passed around the objects and made observations using four of their five senses. (Can you guess which sense we did not use?) After making and discussing the observations, we classified the objects into one of the states of matter: solid, liquid, or a gas.
Check out our pictures of us measuring matter, observing properties of matter, and recording our data and observations in our science notebook:
Check out our pictures of us measuring matter, observing properties of matter, and recording our data and observations in our science notebook:
