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

Week 13-November 16-20

Monday- We did a lab on the rock cycle.

We took crayons, and the kids used pennies to shave pieces from them. I used 3 colors at each station.

The kids shaved about half a crayon each, combined their shavings, and dumped them in aluminum foil.

They then squashed the shavings inside the foil. This created sedimentary rock. They took a sample.

They then squashed the remaining shavings harder and heated them up using their hands and hot breath. They took a second sample.

They then brought the foil to me, and I dunked it into a beaker of boiling water. After making sure it was cool enough, I handed it back to them to squash more. They took their final sample.

The kids really enjoyed this lab.

Tuesday- I got called into ARDs all day, so I left my sub with a rock cycle quiz.
I gave the kids a copy of the completed rock cycle and asked them questions like:
How does sedimentary rock become metamorphic rock?
When magma cools and hardens, what does it become?

Wednesday- We took notes on fossils and fossil fuels. The kid then read a short story and had to draw a 4-step diagram on the formation of coal. I used this lesson from The Science Penguin


Thursday- We have SO MANY kids that needed ARDs, we had to spend a second day on them. I left my kids with a video. I can't for the life of me remember which one.

Friday- I cannot for the life of me remember what we did on this day!

Two more weeks and I'll be all caught up!
~Ms. Kat

Week 12- November 9-13

Monday- We began our new unit in earnest. We took notes on the 3 main types of rocks, and the characteristics of each. After, I gave the kids a packet with facts about each of these types of rocks. They had to complete a table and answer questions using the fact pages.

Tuesday- We took notes on the Rock Cycle. We filled in a rock cycle diagram (which I found in this bundle). They then practiced answering questions that require them to read the rock cycle diagram.

Wednesday- I went to CAST for the rest of the week. I left my sub with a Measuring up on Sedentary rock.

Thursday- My kids took a vocab quiz, and afterwards, they finished their measuring up and homework for the week.

Friday- I left them with a video. I showed them an old video called "Lost worlds, vanished lives"

I'm getting close to being caught up!
~Ms. Kat

Week 11- November 2-6

I keep thinking that we accomplish absolutely nothing in the span of a day or two. Then I look back and we've crossed the universe of knowledge. Scary.


Monday- Students completed a measuring up on Circuits. They did better on this one than many of the others we've done before

Tuesday- We played Trashketball  to review for our Test. The review game can be found here

Wednesday- We took our Tests. My kids did really well!

Thursday- We completed our vocab for the Earth Systems unit

Friday- This was an end-of-the-6-weeks early release day. I showed an episode of Bill Nye. The Archaeology one, I believe.

Until next time,
~Ms. Kat

Week 10- October 26-30

Somehow, I got off in my lesson plans. I believe that the lab I posted for last Friday was actually done on Monday the 26th. That's what I get for not updating my eduphoria *face palm*

Monday- See last Friday's entry

Tuesday- We talked about light and sound waves, and compared how they moved.

I didn't have a side activity that went with this lesson, unfortunately. We spent our “output” time catching up on missing work and doing homework

Wednesday-We took notes on reflection and refraction. We also covered words like Transparent, Opaque, and Translucent.

Today's output was really fun, but complicated (execution-wise). I gave each group two folders, 3 mirrors, and a laser pointer (I found mine at Walmart, they are part pen, part stylus, part laser, over by the office supplies)

The kids had to set the folders up according to the diagram, and use the mirrors to guide the laser in one side and out the other, projecting it on the back wall. They had a difficult time until they learned to take it one mirror at a time, and angle them level with the desk (not pointing up or down)

Thursday -  We worked on our review. The kids didn't remember how to utilize their science notebooks to complete it (despite the fact that the review is in exact order, and they have a self-created, teacher-guided table of contents), so I had to go over it again.

Friday- HOLIDAY!

I'm carving out some time today, so expect a number of posts to pop up.

Hope your last week before the Holiday break goes well!

~Ms. Kat

Week 9- October 19-23

Let's continue with the catch-up posts.

Monday- Series vs. Parallel circuits. We compared the two types of circuits and how they are different.

We took notes, and drew a few examples of each. After, we completed the c-scope worksheet to allow the kids to practice identifying the two types of circuits.

Tuesday- We did a lab where the kids built circuits. They had to build 4 different kinds. I wanted them to do some series and some parallel, but our batteries were not strong enough to make that journey. I'll have to invest in new ones next year.

Wednesday- We talked about forces, balanced and unbalanced, and how they affect objects.  We then practiced with boxes, using different amounts of force and determining which way the object would move.

Thursday- We talked specifically about three special kids of forces: Gravity, magnetism, and friction. We also spoke about Inertia. I gave the kids a picture I found back in the Lab Safety Unit (where they identify broken lab rules) and made them identify places where forces were acting on objects

Friday- We did a lab on Forces.
I set out 6 station around the room. I had originally wanted to stretch a rubber band between two chair legs. However, my rubber bands were too small. Instead, I stretched the rubber band between a chair leg and the leg of a student table.

I placed tape on the floor, and lined up one edge with the edge of the rubber band. Then, I marked 1cm, 3cm, and 5cm marks on the tape.

Students took a small plastic car and pulled it back to each of the marks. They repeated their trials 3 times each. They measured the distance each car went with a measuring tape.

I had wanted them to also try placing weights into the cars, but we didn't have time.

3 more days until Thanksgiving! The teachers and students at my school are beyond ready. Hope things aren't too crazy for anyone else!

~Ms. Kat