FOSS FUN and More...

This week, we are finishing up our quarter... so time to assess our kiddos. The snow is falling and it looks like we will be getting around 6-7 inches by the time it is done. Time to get the snowmobiles out. Our kindergarten lessons are new this year. It was a collaborative effort of many people to use the NGSS science standards. This week, we are learning about the moon. We are reading Where Does The Sun Go?  This one had great real pictures of the moon. You could also use The Moon Book by Gail Gibbons. I had the students work on a sheet from my new unit Patterns and Cycles that is being uploaded this week on TPT and Teacher's Notebook. We also tested how craters were formed by dropping rocks, "meteors", into flour bowls.

First graders are learning about fossils to go along with our Pebbles, Sand, and Silt Unit. We started off by watching a little Bill Nye on You Tube...it won't link. Then, we worked on a sheet to see the process of fossilization: live, die, bury, dig up. This is in simple first grade terms and what they seem to get. The Fossilization Sheet helped them organize their thoughts in how fossils are made.

2nd graders are working on solids and liquids so we are doing some hardening and softening of solids. We are observing chocolate and crayons to see the different states of matter and what makes them change. We are also watching a video on how crayons are made on How Stuff Works.

Here is the sheet I am going to start using today with them as we tour the stations. 

Solid and Liquid Stations

Onto third grade. I am working on water activities with the kiddos after their quick quiz to see what they remember. We will be sinking and floating objects to make inferences as to other objects that might sink and float. I found a great open ended sheet for free on a cute blog Really Roper. 

Fourth graders, oh, my fourth graders...what can I say... we took our first round of quizes and sad to say that even with a study guide, going over the vocabulary, studying before the quiz, they still made a lot of excuses as to why they didn't study. I am sad. I will be grading it today, but I told them that I wanted a nurse or doctor or even a waitress to care about taking care of me. What would happen if they didn't know what they were doing or didn't care? I will be working with the students that didn't study to redo the test. Any suggestions for getting kids to care and study when I only see them once a week. (assignment notebook, on board, in take home folder, poster in room already:(

Fifth graders are working with solvents and solutes. We had a friendly competition to see which table's solid reaches saturation first. FOSS has it as a separate, but they seem to understand it better when they see the difference. Saturated solutions, solvent, solute review and then guessing the solid by using similar methods. This week's focus:)