Week 19- Januray 19-22

Just as I was bragging on time for moving quickly, it does the hokey pokey and turns itself around. Monday was a partially awful professional development day. State mandated ADHD, Suicide prevention. Oh well, CPE hours are CPE hours.

Tuesday- We did a Moon Phases lab using Oreo cookies. It took roughly 4 packs of the family size walmart brand to do the job. Each group got 4 cookies and a popsicle stick (I have a number of children I won't even trust with plastic knives). They were tasked with creating the 8 main moon phases using these 4 cookies and the icing.

Wednesday- We introduced Weather, and talked about how to measure that weather. I used a page out of a NewPath Learning book which had a weather station they had to read and interpret.

Thursday- We learned about weather maps and the symbols on them. The kid had to read 2 weather maps, and then created their own! All 4 pages came from the Interactive Science Notebooking package (see previous post for link)

Friday- We introduced climate and compared it to weather. I gave the kids a climate map of the US and had them answer questions about the climate zones and what kind of weather they experienced there. Forgot to take a picture = (

I'm glad for this week to be over. We've been continuing to track the moon phases every day. Even if we hadn't, I'd have known it was a Full Moon on Friday. We had kids crying, someone got Germ-X in both eyes, and one kid kicked another in the face. Come on, February.

~Ms. Kat

Week 18- January 11-15

Time is back to going quickly! I'm not sure whether I appreciate that or not...

Monday- We took notes on the seasons, how the Earth's tilt and our revolution determines seasons, and characteristics of those seasons (for our climate in Southeast Texas).

The notes on the left are of my own invention.. The ones on the right are from the Interactive Science Notebook pages.

Tuesday- We did a lab that I learned about at CAST.  I started out with stations but ended up just doing all 3 as whole-class activities to verify that they were learning what they were supposed to be learning in these labs.

Station 1- Create a Sun/Moon model using two circles, a rectangle, and a brad. I left mine at work, but I'll try to remember to get a picture of it tomorrow.

Station 2- They place a sticker on their forehead and let it stand for our city. They begin facing a flashlight and answer what time of day it is, then rotate 1/4 th of the way around, counterclockwise and again, figure out what time of day it is. They continue to do this until they make it all the way around.

Station 3- I set up a big heat lamp (as it was the only lamp I had where the bulb extended beyond the shade) and used a giant styrofoam ball as Earth. I placed a push pin in north of the equator (at our approximate location) and revolved the Earth around the Sun, letting the kids see the amount and angle of the light from the heat lamp "sun." They answered questions as we revolved.

Wednesday- The kids took a Vocabulary quiz, and afterwards they worked on a page from the Big Idea 5th grade Science book.

Thursday- We learned a song and story about Moon Phases that I discovered at CAST.

The kids love and easily remember the song. The story was a bit of a stretch, but it was kind of like a cloze with a word bank.


Friday- We spent more time on the moon phases.

We began by placing the moon around Earth and showing which side is lit up.

We then drew the Moon's orbit, and arrows outward to show that you are on Earth looking up. you see what is inside the circle (though you have to spin your page so that the moon you're looking at is up)

The second sheet required us to use the first. We looked at each Moon from Earth and drew the phases.

The third sheet required a little bit of math. They had to figure out 28/8 (number of days in the moon revolution divided by 8 phases). This gave them 3.5 days for each phase. Then they had to figure out what a quarter revolution was. 3.5 times 3 = 10.5. Then they had to note that the entire revolution took 28 days.

We also began a month-long tracking of the Moon phases using a moon calendar, and these Science Cut Ups (found here). Every day I put the phase of the day on the board and they must add it to their calendars.

All 4 of these sheets came from the Interactive Science Notebooking package I mentioned above.

Hope you're having a productive January!
Ms. Kat

Week 17- January 5-8

It was almost a relief to go back to work. I enjoy a break as much as the next person, but I was beginning to feel a bit agoraphobic. Let's start the space unit, shall we?

Monday- Staff Development day! We worked in our classrooms. I god SO MUCH done.

Tuesday- I noticed that as the year went on, I was giving out more behavior correction slips, and less reward tickets. People were also starting to horseplay in the lab, and a few ended up getting themselves kicked out for a day.

Because of this, I spent Tuesday going over my procedures again. I gave the kids a self-made WS that asked questions like:

Name 2 things you should do when you walk into my class (grab your papers, journal, sit quietly)
What days do we grade homework? (Wed and Fri)
What do you do if you lose your homework? (get a 2nd copy, -20 points)
What do you do if you're absent? (get your makeup work, check the weekly agenda to see what all you missed).
Name 2 things that are considered 'horseplay'

They did pretty good, and we cleared up some misconceptions.

Wednesday- We began our unit for real. We took notes on the characteristics of the Earth, Sun, and Moon. After, I had the kids try to separate some characteristics into columns to decide whether it belonged to the Earth, Sun, Moon, or more than one.

Thursday- A while back (when I was student teaching), I was introduced to these awesome little game/activity/manipulatives. I bought some at CAST this year. I used the Earth, Sun, Moon Characteristics one today.

I had all of my sets cut and laminated, but decided against using them in groups. I had a feeling there would be a lot of confusion and chaos and I wasn't quite ready for that. Instead, I put them in groups, gave them a sheet with 3 columns like we had yesterday, and I wrote a letter on each card. I showed the letter, read the fact, flipped it a few times in case anyone missed the letter and fact, and the kids had to discuss where the fact goes and why. Overall they did really well!

http://www.sciencecutups.com/

Friday- We took notes on Rotation and Revolution. After, the kids answered some questions related to the two concepts.

Overall it was a good week back. The kids love the space unit and they have so many questions! I'm having to google things I don't know, which makes me happy and proud.

Hope your January is going well!
~Ms. Kat

PS I went back to Comic-Con this weekend, this time in New Orleans! I met Jenna Coleman (finally!) and Norman Reedus (because everyone loves Daryl). I had a blast, despite the 5 hour trip each way.

LOOK how precious she is! I want to stow her away in my pocket and go on adventures through space and time with her.

And we weren't supposed to be taking pictures but LOOK! A Wild Daryl! He was super nice. If I wasn't crushing on him before, I am now.

Peace and Love~

Week 16- December 14-18

Ah, the last week before the holiday! Let's jump right in.

Monday- We played the Trashketball review game with our reviews. Here is the review game.

Tuesday- My students took their Unit Test

Wednesday- We did new vocabulary! I decided that we needed to get this out of the way, and give the kids a preview of the next unit.

Thursday- My intentions for today were excellent. I put together a slidehow with all of the questions on the 2014 STAAR that we'd covered (through the Earth Unit, I didn't include space and weather). I gave the kids popsicle sticks with A B C D answer choices (color-coded and laminated, even). I went through the slides, read the questions and answers to them. Gave them a moment, and then polled them.

I was surprised at how many got them wrong! Obviously, they've forgotten a lot over the year. I honestly just wanted an informal benchmark, and to fill up an otherwise useless day.  Be careful what you ask for!

Friday- It was an Early Release day, and the last day of the 6-weeks. I did what any borderline insane teacher would do...I put on the Land Before Time and graded papers. All hail old movies.

I hope you had an amazing Holiday break. Tomorrow is a Staff Development day for us (sorely needed).

Here's to an outstanding 2016!
~Ms. Kat

Week 15- December 7-11

Monday- We took notes on Landforms. I made sure to cover moraines, because it rarely snows/ices here and I'm sure they'd never even learned what a glacier really was, much less how it could move (I was right).

Tuesday- We did the first part of a 2-day lab. This half covered mostly Weathering and erosion. In the lab procedures, I decided not to do the "bonus station" because that is a part of tomorrow's lab (oops!)

The kids had 3 stations.
1. Mechanical weathering
2. Chemical Weathering
3. Water erosion

Wednesday- We did the second part of the 2-day lab. Today was mostly about landform creation. If you can't see it, I marked out station 2 because that was essentially what we'd done on yesterday's lab (oops again)

1. Sand dunes

2. Moraines
3. Beaches

Thursday- My students completed their Unit review. Here is a copy.

Friday- Our local dance group does a yearly production of Whimsical Christmas. It's like all of the doctor seuss stories put together in a dance musical. I saw it last year with the 7th graders and loved it. I took dance for years, so I have an appreciation of things like this. The kids were just glad to get out and do something.

After, we came back, ate lunch in our rooms (it was past time for us to eat and there were other kids int he cafeteria). We spent the rest of the day outside. The kids had an absolute blast and wore themselves out!

~Ms. Kat

Week 14- November 30- December 4

After a whirlwind of a Christmas vacation, I'm finishing up the 2015 lesson plans. Here we go...

Monday- We did an awesome, if a bit frustrating lab. I gave each student approximately 1/6th of a can of play doh. They rolled it out flat into a disc, and then used a plastic bug to press into the play doh, creating a fossil mold.  They took the bug out and then, after getting my OK, filled the mold with glue. In hind sight, we should have let the molds fully dry before putting the glue in. We left them to dry a full week, and the glue had somewhat stuck to the play doh in a lot of them. Oh well, the kids had a blast and came in every day asking if their fossils were done!

Tuesday- We took notes on the Fossil Record, the geological time scale, and continental drift. The kids then drew a fossil record using symbols as different species, and answered questions about it.

 
Wednesday- We did an activity on the fossil record. This was a 2-part activity. The first involved a set of cards, each with a plant or animal, its name, and the Era and Period it lived during. (primarily). The kids also got a copy of the geological time scale and had to use it to put the cards in order, essentially re-creating a fossil record. The used this to complete their lab sheets.

The second part was a packet that I found on Alief ISD's website. I cant find the link now, but if you google "Alief sedimentary layers pictures" It should be the first thing to pop up.

Thursday- We took notes on Weathering, erosion, and deposition. I can't find a picture of my notes for this, but our output can be found here.

Friday- What on Earth did we do today? I have a feeling we watched a video of some sort. That's what it says in my lesson plans, at any rate = )

~Ms. Kat