Today in Science, Mrs. Kuykendall's class did what my homeroom class did yesterday, you can see yesterday's post to help you follow along. After that the students got a reminder that their Vocab Folders and Composition books are due tomorrow for a final check to end the Six Weeks. Here is a link to show you what I am expecting out of their Vocab Folders.
Don't for get to check out the Math Blog, remember it will be updated and linked to sites by the end of this weekend. :)
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Monday, September 21, 2009
Monday, September 21st, 2009
Today, the two classes are a bit off on their schedules. I did one Math and one Science with my homeroom, and no Science with Mrs. Kuykendall's class, however that will be different tomorrow. Tomorrow, Mrs. Kuykendall's class will get Math and Science and my homeroom will only get Math.
In Science, we reviewed what a food chain was, what it consists of, and learned a song (with movements) to remember what the organisms in a food chain eat, and what they are.
It is important to remember that a food chain's ENERGY originally begins with the Sun, it "gives it's energy to" a producer (grass, tree, flower, seed etc.), the producer "gives it's energy to" a herbivore (cow, grasshopper, mouse etc.), the herbivore "gives it's energy to" either an omnivore or a carnivore, then that consumer "gives it's energy to" another carnivore. The words "gives it's energy to" are crucial to remember because it's the organism that is getting eaten, not the one eating. So the SUN has an arrow that points to the PRODUCER, which has an arrow that points to the HERBIVORE, which has an arrow that points to either the OMNIVORE or CARNIVORE, and then that organism has an arrow that points to the CARNIVORE and so on. I like to have the students label the Sun and the arrows with an "E" to remember that it is Energy that is being transferred around.
I will post the words to the song, and their movements tomorrow.
In Science, we reviewed what a food chain was, what it consists of, and learned a song (with movements) to remember what the organisms in a food chain eat, and what they are.
It is important to remember that a food chain's ENERGY originally begins with the Sun, it "gives it's energy to" a producer (grass, tree, flower, seed etc.), the producer "gives it's energy to" a herbivore (cow, grasshopper, mouse etc.), the herbivore "gives it's energy to" either an omnivore or a carnivore, then that consumer "gives it's energy to" another carnivore. The words "gives it's energy to" are crucial to remember because it's the organism that is getting eaten, not the one eating. So the SUN has an arrow that points to the PRODUCER, which has an arrow that points to the HERBIVORE, which has an arrow that points to either the OMNIVORE or CARNIVORE, and then that organism has an arrow that points to the CARNIVORE and so on. I like to have the students label the Sun and the arrows with an "E" to remember that it is Energy that is being transferred around.
I will post the words to the song, and their movements tomorrow.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Sunday, September 20th, 2009
Last week was a busy week, we learned lots of new information in Science!!!
Science: Ecosystems, Food Chains, Food Webs
To see some of our vocabulary words that are illustrated, click here. When you follow this link it will take you to a Flickr page. These are the words that will be hung on our word wall by the end of the Life Science Unit. The first page that comes up is a quick synopsis of the words included. You can click on each of the pictures/words individually to see their descriptions. These descriptions include explanations of what the students should be "seeing" or getting out of the word cards. You can also click on the slideshow button on the top right and watch the cards slide by, with their descriptions showing. This could be a very useful topic for discussion between you and your student at home.
Monday and Tuesday we built our Terrarium's and Aquariums. On Wednesday we added our animals, and on Thursday the students put it all together. Next week, we will begin daily observations of the changes in both the Terrariums and the Aquariums. The purpose of this activity is to witness the unique interactions between two differnt environments and how they combine to create an ecosystem that provides the essentials for both living and non-living things in that environment. Here is a slideshow of a few finished Eco-columns. link: Eco-column Slideshow.
On Friday, we reviewed our vocab cards: Herbivore, Omnivore, and Carnivore; as well as our Objective 1 (Nature of Science) cards: Gram, Meter, Decimeter, Centimeter, Millimeter, Contract, Expand, Stretch, and Permeable. Ask your students about these words, and what the pictures told us about them. Then the students broke up into partner pairs and did a word sort. They had a 5 key words that were gray, Producer, Consumer, Herbivore, Carnivore, and Omnivore. Then there were about 19 or so other cards that had on organism listed on each card. These were all organisms that we had discussed while reading the book Butternut Hollow Pond, earlier this week.
Check out the NEW MATH BLOG!!!
Science: Ecosystems, Food Chains, Food Webs
To see some of our vocabulary words that are illustrated, click here. When you follow this link it will take you to a Flickr page. These are the words that will be hung on our word wall by the end of the Life Science Unit. The first page that comes up is a quick synopsis of the words included. You can click on each of the pictures/words individually to see their descriptions. These descriptions include explanations of what the students should be "seeing" or getting out of the word cards. You can also click on the slideshow button on the top right and watch the cards slide by, with their descriptions showing. This could be a very useful topic for discussion between you and your student at home.
Monday and Tuesday we built our Terrarium's and Aquariums. On Wednesday we added our animals, and on Thursday the students put it all together. Next week, we will begin daily observations of the changes in both the Terrariums and the Aquariums. The purpose of this activity is to witness the unique interactions between two differnt environments and how they combine to create an ecosystem that provides the essentials for both living and non-living things in that environment. Here is a slideshow of a few finished Eco-columns. link: Eco-column Slideshow.
On Friday, we reviewed our vocab cards: Herbivore, Omnivore, and Carnivore; as well as our Objective 1 (Nature of Science) cards: Gram, Meter, Decimeter, Centimeter, Millimeter, Contract, Expand, Stretch, and Permeable. Ask your students about these words, and what the pictures told us about them. Then the students broke up into partner pairs and did a word sort. They had a 5 key words that were gray, Producer, Consumer, Herbivore, Carnivore, and Omnivore. Then there were about 19 or so other cards that had on organism listed on each card. These were all organisms that we had discussed while reading the book Butternut Hollow Pond, earlier this week.
Check out the NEW MATH BLOG!!!
Monday, September 14, 2009
Monday, September 14th, 2009
Today in Math, we discussed TEKS 5.2A, which addresses fractions. The TEKS is read : The Student Will... generate a fraction equivalent to a given fraction such as 1/2 and 3/6, or 4/12 and 1/3
To introduce fractions we discussed the two parts of a fraction, the numerator (the part at the top) and how it told us the part of the problem that we are looking for in the problem, and the denominator (the part at the bottom) and how it tells us the total number of parts that the whole is divided into. It is important for our students to remember that fractions represent EQUAL parts of a whole, not just parts.
We created equivalent fraction parts using construction paper. We had a red sheet which represented our WHOLE, a Orange sheet which represented HALF (1/2), a Green sheet which represented FOURTHS (1/4), a Yellow sheet which represented EIGHTHS (1/8), and a yellow sheet which represented SIXTEENTHS (1/16). We did a lot of discussion comparing the fractions. We discussed how the denominator in each told us how many pieces were equal to the whole RED, and then we discussed and compared the colored sheets to each other. For example, the Green 1/4 is equal to 1/4 of the Red, but it is 1/2 of the 1/2, and the Yellow is 1/8 of the Red, 1/4 of the 1/2 and 1/2 of the 1/4. Lastly, we discussed how the 1/16 is 1/16 of the red, 1/8 of the 1/2, 1/4 of the 1/4 and 1/2 of the 1/8. I gave them a sheet protector to keep these pieces in. We will be creating similar pieces tomorrow for 1/3, 1/6, 1/9 and 1/12 using Pink, Purple, Black and White paper.
These fraction pieces are good manipulatives for you to study with at home and review your students, and for them to use to aide them with their homework practice problems. I also will be sending flash cards home with some students, they will keep them for two weeks, and I will then rotate them to a new student. We still have several students who do not know their basic multiplication facts, and they are only going to continue to struggle, until these become a part of memory, everything we do this year will build on that one element.
In SCIENCE, we began our Terrarium/Aquarium (Ecosystems) project today. We discussed how a terrarium was a land habitat, and an aquarium was a water habitat. That the prefix terra- means land and aqua- means water; and how they can help us figure out the meaning of unfamiliar words. We will be continuing this experiment both tomorrow and Wednesday.
To introduce fractions we discussed the two parts of a fraction, the numerator (the part at the top) and how it told us the part of the problem that we are looking for in the problem, and the denominator (the part at the bottom) and how it tells us the total number of parts that the whole is divided into. It is important for our students to remember that fractions represent EQUAL parts of a whole, not just parts.
We created equivalent fraction parts using construction paper. We had a red sheet which represented our WHOLE, a Orange sheet which represented HALF (1/2), a Green sheet which represented FOURTHS (1/4), a Yellow sheet which represented EIGHTHS (1/8), and a yellow sheet which represented SIXTEENTHS (1/16). We did a lot of discussion comparing the fractions. We discussed how the denominator in each told us how many pieces were equal to the whole RED, and then we discussed and compared the colored sheets to each other. For example, the Green 1/4 is equal to 1/4 of the Red, but it is 1/2 of the 1/2, and the Yellow is 1/8 of the Red, 1/4 of the 1/2 and 1/2 of the 1/4. Lastly, we discussed how the 1/16 is 1/16 of the red, 1/8 of the 1/2, 1/4 of the 1/4 and 1/2 of the 1/8. I gave them a sheet protector to keep these pieces in. We will be creating similar pieces tomorrow for 1/3, 1/6, 1/9 and 1/12 using Pink, Purple, Black and White paper.
These fraction pieces are good manipulatives for you to study with at home and review your students, and for them to use to aide them with their homework practice problems. I also will be sending flash cards home with some students, they will keep them for two weeks, and I will then rotate them to a new student. We still have several students who do not know their basic multiplication facts, and they are only going to continue to struggle, until these become a part of memory, everything we do this year will build on that one element.
In SCIENCE, we began our Terrarium/Aquarium (Ecosystems) project today. We discussed how a terrarium was a land habitat, and an aquarium was a water habitat. That the prefix terra- means land and aqua- means water; and how they can help us figure out the meaning of unfamiliar words. We will be continuing this experiment both tomorrow and Wednesday.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Thursday, September 10th, 2009
Hello it's been quite a week so far!
In science thIs week...
Tuesday, we introduced the word ecosystem to our science vocabulary. The students did a "making words activity, that will also be used for a spelling grade. Wednesday, I was out at a science staff development learning about fun, new experiments that we will do in the classroom. While I was out the substitute should have reviewed a few vocabulary words that the students should be familiar with, these were: producer, consumer, carnivore, herbivore, omnivore, predator and prey. Today, Thursday, we watched a clip of a Dirty Jobs episode that discusses Avian Vomitologists, scientists who study bird (owl) regurgitation. Why!? To
tomorrow, Friday, we will be dissecting owl pellets. This fun experiment allows us to "see" what the owls are eating and gives us, quite literally, an inside look at the food chain. While watching the episode we briefly touch on the terms adaptation, a structure or behavior that allows an organism to survive in it's environment, and niche (please note this word is scientifically pronounced Nee-sh, not Ni-t-ch), which is an organisms specific role/job/function in an ecosystem. For instance, the owl's niche is to keep the rodents and vermin from over-populating and ruining crops and harvests.
In math...
Tuesday, we made arrays, picture representations of a number sentence, and each student was given a number, and was responsible for showing all of the possible arrays for that number. Wednesday with the sub, the students finished making their array displays and then learned what a prime number was, any number whose factors are one and itself. They then created a chart of these numbers that we referred to in today's lesson... Prime factorization/factor trees. Tomorrow, we will take that information and study GCF, Greatest Common Factors.
Next week we start our BIG ecosystems projects, we will need all 2-liter bottles by that day!!! I'm so excited for the upcoming activities, IT'S GOING TO BE GREAT!!
In science thIs week...
Tuesday, we introduced the word ecosystem to our science vocabulary. The students did a "making words activity, that will also be used for a spelling grade. Wednesday, I was out at a science staff development learning about fun, new experiments that we will do in the classroom. While I was out the substitute should have reviewed a few vocabulary words that the students should be familiar with, these were: producer, consumer, carnivore, herbivore, omnivore, predator and prey. Today, Thursday, we watched a clip of a Dirty Jobs episode that discusses Avian Vomitologists, scientists who study bird (owl) regurgitation. Why!? To
tomorrow, Friday, we will be dissecting owl pellets. This fun experiment allows us to "see" what the owls are eating and gives us, quite literally, an inside look at the food chain. While watching the episode we briefly touch on the terms adaptation, a structure or behavior that allows an organism to survive in it's environment, and niche (please note this word is scientifically pronounced Nee-sh, not Ni-t-ch), which is an organisms specific role/job/function in an ecosystem. For instance, the owl's niche is to keep the rodents and vermin from over-populating and ruining crops and harvests.
In math...
Tuesday, we made arrays, picture representations of a number sentence, and each student was given a number, and was responsible for showing all of the possible arrays for that number. Wednesday with the sub, the students finished making their array displays and then learned what a prime number was, any number whose factors are one and itself. They then created a chart of these numbers that we referred to in today's lesson... Prime factorization/factor trees. Tomorrow, we will take that information and study GCF, Greatest Common Factors.
Next week we start our BIG ecosystems projects, we will need all 2-liter bottles by that day!!! I'm so excited for the upcoming activities, IT'S GOING TO BE GREAT!!
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Tuesday, September 8th, 2009
WELCOME BACK from a wonderful LOOOOONG Weekend!!!
Last week we focused on the new ways to multiply and divide. It is important to remember that the students do not have to use the new ways. They can choose the one that fits them best.
From talking to you at Meet the Teacher / Open House several of you asked for notes to help you help them :) with their homework. I made some over the holidays and will be providing a link within this blog. If you click on the underlined words, it will lead you to a GoogleDoc document. This can be printed to help. If it is still difficult, let me know, and we can schedule a time to sit and discuss them if you'd like!
Today in Math, we discussed making arrays. Arrays are picture representations of number sentences. A number sentence is just another way to say a "problem". Arrays have rows and columns and make squares or rectangles. Each student was given their own number and had to create all the arrays that went with it.
In Science we continued discussing Ecosystems a bit, and did a Making Words activity that will help as a Spelling grade for Mrs. Kuykendall.
This Friday, we will be starting our projects that involve our Egg cartons, and next Monday we will need our 2-liter bottles. Thanks to all of those who have sent them already :)
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Thursday, September 3rd, 2009
Welcome to Mrs. Echols' blog. It is now half way through the second week of school.
It's always rough getting back into the routine of things, but here we are. :)
Tonight is Meet the Teacher Night, here is a Wordle that will tell you a little bit
about what we will be discussing tonight at our meetings. Please let me know if you
have any other topics you'd like to discuss.
So far this year in Science we've started out easy and at a slower place.
We have discussed Scientists, what they do, who they are, misconceptions, stereotypes,
where they work, the tools they use etc. The students had to create their image of
what a scientist is, and then the class made a graph comparing what we all had in common.
We have also began discussing the Scientific Method, and the seven steps that we will be
using this year. This Friday we will begin discussing Food Chains and Ecosystems. We
are gearing up for a fun experimental unit that will help us on that journey. As a
reminder for that experiment, we do need clean 2-liter bottles and egg cartons, the more
the merrier :)
In Math, We are moving at a much more quick of a pace. The first week of school we reviewed
concepts that should be familiar with our students, place value (up to the billions), writing
numbers in standard (1,234) form, expanded (1,000 + 200 + 30 + 4) form, and in written (one
thousand two hundred and thirty-four) form. Our students need to make sure that they are able
to express numbers in all three of those forms from 0 up to 999,999,999,999. We also worked
shortly on adding and subtracting four digit numbers with four digit numbers. When practicing
this concept, it is crucial that our students are remembering to carry and borrow if it
is needed. This week we have been working on Multiplication and Division. Up until now, our
students should have been using Standard form for both of these, standard form would be
what we (parents, teachers) learned in school. Monday, we discussed multiplication using
the distributive property, (32 X 5 can also be written as two problems... {30 X 5} +
{2 X 5}) and lattice, which breaks a big three digit by two digit problem down into six smaller
one digit by one digit multiplication problems (THIS IS REALLY COOL TO USE!!!). Yesterday we
began discussing alternate division techniques and the students practiced what is called
"chunk it". This is a method of division that breaks a larger, three digit by one or two digit,
division problem into three smaller one by one or two by one division problems. (ALSO VERY COOL
TO USE)!!!
As you probably noticed these are both very useful tools, but the success of our students in Math
this year will depend in how well they know their multiplication facts! Please work with your
child at home on getting these memorized, if they do not already know them. In fifth grade
they should be working up to their 12 X 12's.
I'm looking forward to a great year with you and your student!!!
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