Wow, the first quarter is already come and gone. Many of our units are finishing up. So.... let's review what everyone has been learning in Science this quarter.
First grade- Animals, animals, animals. We have compared and contrasted different types of animals each week. We focused on mammals, amphibians, reptiles, and birds. We have used our writing skills and art smarts to connect the facts with fun activities. We have sung songs, and taken tests to remember each group of animals. First graders should remember which group is warm or cold blooded, which groups gives live birth or lays eggs, and what characteristics make each animal group unique. Our next unit will be pebbles, sand, and silt.
Second grade- Air and weather was our quarter one focus. Students should know that air is all around us, it takes up space, it comes in different forms (solid, liquid, gas), and that it moves things. We also focused on the weather making connections with the weather in our country, our state, our town. Students have used many tools to measure weather... from thermometers to anemometers. We will continue to study storms and the sky in the day and night.
Third grade- We have learned about Earth materials. We have used property words to describe the three types of rocks: metamorphic, sedimentary, and igneous. We observed the different rocks and have learned that minerals are found in rocks. We have tested minerals to see how hard they are. We used a paper clip, a penny, and our finger nail. We placed it on Moh's hardness scale. We tested to see if Calcite is present in rocks by using the vinegar test. We are finishing up by observing crystals from calcite present in our rocks. We will also be testing granite to see what minerals are present in that rock. We will take nothing for granite...
Fourth grade- Our fourth graders started off by learning about magnets. We tested magnetism, build temporary magnets, found which objects are used to find magnetic objects and hunted down objects that were and weren't magnetic. We transferred that information to our electricity unit. We found that objects are conductors and insulators. We created circuits and know that three components are the receiver, the source, and the pathway. We built circuits to test how to create a pathway. We will continue to build parallel and series circuits and test mystery objects to connect what we know.
Fifth grade- We are becoming pretty good scientists with this unit...variables. We have set up three experiments the pendulum, the life boat, and the flipper. We used our schema to make connections between real world experiences and the experiments that we test. We made relationships between what we learned and what we did to create a controlled experiment...only changing one thing in our experiment which is our variable. Everything else must stay the same. Now, we will see if what they know can transfer to other ideas.
