In the month of March, students in Room 213 completed a lengthy lab on potential and kinetic energy - putting themselves right in the middle of the experiments! Using a tennis ball and string. students demonstrate the motion of pendulums, study how energy is stored in the pendulum, and how the starting height of the swing affects the number of swings of a pendulum.
Using pipe insulation and marbles, students create roller coasters in the classroom to experiment with potential and kinetic energy. On the second day, students add hills to their original "coaster" and experiment to build a deeper understanding of hills and energy.
0 Comments
On April 15th, students in Room 213 presented original ideas for an invention that everyone would need or want. Some examples of their creativity include a coat that has an adjustable thermostat, an everlasting slice of pizza, and an automated grocery shopper that saves time and money! I only hope that these items actually hit the store shelves in my lifetime!
This is the culmination of our Weather Unit! The students were very motivated and learned so much! I couldn't be more proud of their efforts to create this project. Please enjoy!
Check out our student's learning using ScreenChomp! Students are demonstrating their learning using an iPad app that allows them to be the teacher - much like Sal Khan from Khan Academy. Here are a select few from last week -
The Dynamic Duncan and his short division trick! Elle the Extraordinary's mastery of long division! Math Ninja, Ben (look out!) Theo the Terrific Taskmaster's long division prowess! Abigail's Awesome Math Skills! Emma's Exemplary example of division! Keep checking as we add new videos, daily! The completed weather station has been installed, just in time to measure our first snow fall for this new year!
An amazing 1.5" of rain fall was collected on January 10th, followed by 1" of snow on January 12th! We also noticed that the temperature measured in the sun (where our station is installed) was actually about 10 degrees higher than the official temperature in Hatfield (38 degrees compared to 27 degrees)! We have so much to measure and learn! Each year, we begin our whole class book club with "The Mouse & the Motorcycle" by Beverly Cleary. It is a terrific story that keeps students' interest and provides ample material for lively, small group discussions. I just broke the news to students that we will be writing book reviews of this text and creating a video podcast! I think they are excited! We will use our SRSD writing mnemonic strategies (POW & TREE) and collaborate with fellow students before we get in front of the camera. Stay tuned to see what we produce!
Today, we discussed how to use the mnemonics we've learned from the SRSD strategies and more importantly, we talked about what we can say to ourselves when we are faced with an obstacle in our learning. I am so impressed with these students and their positive outlook!
We are a full 7 days into our school year (7/180 or 3.8% completed) and it has been a busy few days! We have completed the majority of our Fall Benchmark assessments and introduced some of our new district wide writing strategies to the students.
While we've been working hard, it hasn't been all work and no play. I've been getting to know these amazing students through morning meetings, whole group and 1:1 discussions. We've conducted a science experiment to learn first hand the steps of the scientific method (ask your student what they learned!) and as a whole group, solved a real-life (classroom) problem using the 8 Mathematical Practices! In this problem we had to determine how each student would have an opportunity to use our classroom balance balls equally. We found the number of students, the number of days in the week and the number of balance balls that we had to share. Students came to the same conclusion using different methods of solving the problem. Each ball is a unique color, so each student went to the board, and using the color of the balance ball they wanted, identified the day of the week (on an organized list) they would like to use the specific ball. This was a terrific exercise in having students take ownership of their learning environment and democratically solving a class wide concern. I have high hopes for these students. My enthusiasm is only increasing as we enter our 8th day! |
A little about meI am a mom, lover of dogs, an enthusiastic traveler and a fan of college basketball. I am also a strong believer of hands-on-learning. Archives
March 2017
Categories |