We are continuing to check in on our plants and do our plant observation journal, but we have moved onto animals. We have learned about the different types of animals: mammals, birds, insects, reptiles, and amphibians. Students have learned how we can classify animals into categories based on characteristics they have. Students did a fun sorting activity where they had to pretend they were explorers seeing these animals for the first time and then had to group them in ways they were similar. They did this in pairs and then were shown to look even closer at the characteristics and were led into grouping them into the categories above. We've also been talking about how animals have characteristics that make them more suitable and able to adapt to their habitat. Students also learned about animal life cycles. We will continue to talk about living things the next couple weeks.
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We have started our Living Things Change and Grow Unit.
We started out by learning the difference between living and nonliving things. We talked about what living things need to survive and that living things need nonliving things (water, air...). We then learned about the different parts of a plant and how that helps the plant to grow and went into the life cycle of a plant. Next we talked about how all plants have similarities, but plants are different based on where they live. We talked about differences between plants in deserts, oceans, rainforests, pine forests, and in our neighborhoods. We have now started observing and recording our observations about our own plants in the our classroom in a Plant Journal. Pairs of students were given a different plant to look after and we'll be able to compare and contrast how the different plants grow and change. The plants we have planted are: radishes, green beans, zucchini, yellow squash, and marigolds. The students are very excited to check on their plants. We'll see how it goes as they grow. Before break we started learning about the properties of matter. We focused mainly on solids and liquids and the properties they have.
We will then be moving on to how matter can change from one state of matter to another and back again. Students will learn about reversible and irreversible changes. A reversible change is when you can change matter back no problem, like water going from a solid to a liquid to a gas, and back. Irreversible changes are changes to matter that can not go back, like rust or burning or breaking things. After finishing up learning about the land, we started learning about the properties of matter. We focused mainly on solids and liquids, but students learned about all 3 states of matter: solids, liquids, gases. We learned that matter is what all things are made of and that they take up space. Students learned that solids keep their own shape, liquids take the shape of the container they are in, and that gases fill the entire container they are in. They also learned that matter has certain properties that give us more details about the matter. Students then did many hands-on activities to identify properties of matter and why they are important.
After break we will continue our work on matter. Our first unit in science was all about how the Earth changes. This first couple weeks we focused on maps and landforms. Students created a few different maps, drawing them from a birds-eye view. They drew maps of what they saw outside of our school, a map of our classroom, and a map of their own choosing. We then moved onto landforms. Students have learned about many different landforms: lake, valley, river, hills, delta, ocean, plains, island, and others. They then took the that information and created landform models in groups. You can check out all the videos and photos on our Class Stories page on Class Dojo.
We then moved on to learning more about various forms of water. We brainstormed the forms of water we already know. Then students got an idea of how rivers and lakes are formed. We talked about how the ice and snow at the tops of the mountains melt causing a river to run down and how that feeds into lakes. The students did an experiment where they created mountains and observed an ice cube melting and what they noticed as the ice cube melted. We talked about what was happening, where the ice cube went (what had happened to it), and what this meant when talking about landforms. The students then learned about glaciers. Students learned what glaciers are and how they help other landforms. We have been working on ways that the Earth changes. We first learned about quick changes to Earth. Students learned about volcanoes, earthquakes, wildfires, and landslides. We have then moved on to slow changes to Earth. Those changes that we are learning about are how wind and water can slowly change the shape of the Earth over time. You can keep up with we've done or what we are doing on our Class Dojo Class Stories page. |