Week 24- Feb 22-26

This was a crazy week. I thought we'd get through the full moon unscathed, but no luck. We ended up having a class meeting on Tuesday. The VP railed on the kids about their recent behavior (much needed). They've now lost the privilege of going to the restroom in between classes. They can go in the morning, after lunch, and after rotation. So far it's working great. No more tardies, everyone is in class and has their materials ready. No more hallway shenanigans.

We also started a new Study Skills routine this week. We've seen a drop off in productivity lately, lots of lost or not-done homework. As an incentive, we let the kids have a 25 minute study skills, and then we check to see who's done. If they're all done, they go outside for Recess. If they're not, or if they have recess detention, they stay inside and get caught up. It works brilliantly.

Monday- We used some Science Cut Ups to describe Food Webs. The cards had things like "This food web has 3 consumers" or "this food web has 3 organisms that only eat producers"

Tuesday- We played Trashketball!

Wednesday- The kids took their test. They did better on it than any other test so far. Easy unit, or Ms. Lynch is finally getting the hang of these 5th graders? Who knows.

Thursday- We started a new vocabulary. I also introduced the butterflies that we'll be growing from caterpillars. I ordered a kit from Carolina that comes with the larva (in a cup with food) and a netted basket to transfer them to once they're become butterflies. The kids are really interested in them!

Friday- We began our unit with Incomplete Metamorphosis. I used some of the Science Doodler's notes, and a page of my own creation so kids could practice the order of the stages. Also here are our larva today.

The kit I ordered came with a booklet of worksheets, crosswords, diagrams, etc. I took the next pages out of that, and we're going to measure our butterflies as they grow.

Two weeks til Spring Break! I cannot wait. I got sicker again this week, and almost lost my voice again. Back to the doctor for me!



~Ms. Kat

Week 23-15-19

Ah, the last week of the 6-weeks (technically a 7 week period).

Monday- Food Webs. I talked briefly about food webs, then asked the kids to try a venn diagram (with answer choices) to see how well they could figure it out. They did really well!

We then worked on some food webs from the Interactive Science Bundle. I did the first one with the kids, pointing out that the arrows do NOT mean "this eats this." It shows where the energy is traveling.

Tuesday- We used food webs to predict changes in ecosystems.

Wednesday- We took notes on the Carbon Dioxide-Oxygen cycle. The kids did great, having remembered what we talked about during the photosynthesis lesson.

Thursday- The kids used their journals to do a unit review.

Friday- Another early release day (for the kids at least, we had to stay to put in grades). I let them watch the Bill Nye on Respiration.

Three more weeks until Spring Break!

~Ms Kat

Week 22- February 8-12

It's been a long few weeks. On Curriculum day, I could feel i was starting to get sick. I fought it for a few days, getting worse and worse. Wednesday, I lost my voice, and had to improvise. I typed and wrote everything. The kids were remarkably great though. Very quiet and respectful. They thought it was fun, and asked if we could do this all the time!

Monday- Interactions with the environment. We took notes on how biotic factors interact with abiotic factors. The kids then had to brainstorm how they interact with these factors day-to-day

Tuesday- We talked about photosynthesis. I came up with my own notes, and used a Photosynthesis Leaf Model. I didn't want us to do any cutting/pasting because that takes FOREVER, so I had the kid place their leaf under page 122 and trace it. Then, they pasted the leaf on top of the traced leaf. We wrote the ingredients on top, and the products below.

Wednesday- The day I lost my voice. Hence the large amounts of random writing on the output page = )
We "talked" about producers, consumers, and decomposers. The kids then had to sort random organisms into categories. 

 Thursday- I took off to go to the doctor. I left my kids with a vocab quiz and a worksheet out of the Big Idea Science 5th grade book.

Friday- I introduced food chains, and the labels for diets (herbivore, carnivore, omnivore). The kids then did a practice page to see if they could build a food chain.

I'll be catching up over the past few weeks. Look for more soon!

~Ms. Kat

Week 21- February 1-5

Also known as "The kids have lost their damn minds" week. I don't know what's up with them. They're extra energetic and almost frenetic. We're going to have to have a class meeting on Monday and put the fear of God into them.

Monday- We played our review game. I'm also not uploading this one because a lot of it was improvised as we played.

Tuesday- We took our test over the Space/Weather Unit

Wednesday- We began new vocabulary for the Ecosystems unit (yay!)

*Yes, that's pinkie pie in respiration. I love My Little Pony.*

Thursday- We took notes on Biotic vs. Abiotic. I then pulled up a picture of the Tropical Rain forest, and had the kids identify 3 biotic and 3 biotic factors. They then repeated this for a picture of the Marine ecosystem.

Friday- GODS BLESS CURRICULUM DAY. I got all of my STAAR prep planning done. I know what we're doing every day for the rest of the school year!

I had my kids watch this BBC documentary over the Great Barrier Reef.

Hope your February started out well,
Ms. Kat

Week 20- January 25-29

The kids are getting antsy. It feels like it should be spring break already! If only we could be so lucky.

Monday- We talked about cloud types, and used cotton balls to make a model of the 3 main cloud types. I gave each student 2 cotton balls. One they unrolled and made a stratus. The other they split in half. One half they pulled apart loosely to make a cirrus cloud. The other half was then pulled into thirds to make 3 tiny cumulus clouds

Tuesday- We took notes on the Water Cycle using The Science doodles notes pages found here

I also did the demonstration using the "All the water on Earth" page from that same bundle. The kids loved it, and were amazed at the comparison between fresh and salt water.

Wednesday- We did a lab over the water cycle. I discovered these activities at CAST last year.

1. Make a condensation chamber. You need 2 cups, one big (like a solo cup size but clear) and one small (like a  punch cup) that will fit inside the big cup.

They begin by pouring green hot water in the big cup. They immediately set the small cup down into the big cup to seal it. The inside will fog up.

They then place ice water (blue) into the top cup and watch as condensation forms, and eventually precipitation droplets on the outside of the little cup. I'll try to remember to get a photo when I get back on Monday.

2. I bought an inflatable globe from Hobby Lobby (while our big order to Carolina/Nasco is being approved, yay budget spending time!) and I tossed the ball to each student. They had to catch it with both hands and tell me where their index fingers landed (land or water). We tallied all of them up and most landed with 68-73% water

Thursday- We did our Unit reviews. I haven't uploaded this one to TPT because half of it I ended up drawing in before giving to my students.

Friday- We used some Science Cut Ups to differentiate between Weather and Climate

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