Friday, October 30, 2009

Guest Teacher

Today we had a guest teacher! She looked alot like Mrs. M! She was much cooler though!

She brought us dry ice to experiment with! It was very interesting! Dry ice is frozen carbon dioxide. A frozen gas...cool! She showed us that we could pour the carbon dioxide, make smoke bubbles, carbonate apple juice, and make a big "crystal ball" bubble. It was the coolest! (Get it...coolest!!)









Just another mysterious science day!
Mrs. M

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Natural Resource Chart

Today we learned all about the natural resource chart. Students are required to memorize the chart and will be tested on it randomly throughout the year. The first test is this Friday!


The chart is displayed on our cabinets for the kids to see everyday!




Today we found pictures in magazines of renewable, nonrenewable, and inexhaustible resources. We also found insulators, conductor, mixtures and solutions as a review!


love,
Mrs. M

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Earth Science Begins!

Earth Science tends to be a topic that fifth graders struggle with. I promise to make Earth science understandable, memorable, and fun!
We started the unit off with discussing natural resources. These are the basis for everything we study about in Earth Science. Tomorrow we will see the chart that has to be memorized!

Renewable Resource: Resources that can be replaced
plants
animals
water
soil
Air

Nonrenewable Resource: Resources that cannot be replaced
oil (fossil fuel)
coal (fossil fuel)
natural gas (fossil fuel)
minerals

Inexhaustible Resources: Resources that will not run out
Sunlight
Wind
Tides

Just another fun day in science!
Mrs. M

Monday, October 26, 2009

Week Nine words

Week Nine Vocabulary
Ocotber 26th -October 30th
Your spelling and vocabulary test will be on Friday, October 30th . You will be responsible for knowing how to spell each word correctly and the definition for each word.

1. Natural resource- resources that are used by humans, such as minerals, water, fossil fuels, and food sources.
2. Renewable resource- natural resource that can be renewed or replaced by nature.
3. Nonrenewable resource- a resource that can’t be replaced in nature.
4. Inexhaustible resource- resources that cannot be used completely.
5. Fossil fuels- come from the bodies of dead organisms that lived many years ago. Material from these organisms are pressed together to form coal, oil, or natural gas.
6. Coal- solid fossil fuel formed deep within the Earth.
7. Natural Gas- a fossil fuel, flammable odorless gas found in Earth’s crust.
8. Oil- fossil fuel and material resource that formed deep in the Earth from remains fo ancient plants and animals. It is also known as Petroleum.
9. Pangaea- super continent

Solar Cooking!







Friday was a blast! The kids got to try out the solar cookers they made at home. It took about 2 hours to cook the hotdogs and gobble them up! We had fun learning about solar energy! I loved seeing all of the creativity in my students!
Just another Sunny day in fifth grade!
Mrs. M



Thursday, October 22, 2009

Yet another foldable...

We discussed the three buzz words transparent, translucent, and opaque. These words deal with the way the light reacts when it interacts with a material.

Transparent material allow light to pass directly through. If light can pass directly through it, we can see directly through it!
Translucent materials allow some light to pass through and reflects other light rays. These are materials that you can kind of see through, but won't see a clear image on the other side.
Opaque images don't allow any light to pass through. These are materials that we can't see through at all.


Leave a comment listing examples of each!

Just another creative day in Science!
Mrs. M

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Reflection and Refraction

Today we did several lab activites to study reflection and refraction of light! It is important to know these words.

Remember:
Reflection = bouncing of light waves (mirrors, tinted windows)

Refraction = bending of light waves (water, rainbows)

First, we had to use a mirror to read the instructions on our cards. The words were written backwords!

Next, we poured water into a glass jar and drew an arrow on an index card. Look what happened when we put the index card behind the jar of water!







After that we sat a clear plastic cup on top of a smiley face sticker. As we slowly poured water into the cup, it looked like the sticker was rising to the top and then it dissappears!
Last, we put a pencil in a cup of water. Doesn't the pencil look awesome!





Try these at home and teach your famiy about reflection and refraction!


And...you got your suprise today! Lab coats for all! By the end of the week, we should have enough lab coats for every student to wear while they are in the lab doing experiments! We are going to look like official scientists!

Mrs. M loves her job!

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Symmetry~and a suprise!!

Today we talked about symmetry! When a shape has a line of symmetry, it can be folded and match up perfectly! Alot of letters of the alphabet have lines of symmetry!
A B C D E H I K M O T U V W X Y...are the letters that have a line of symmetry. Some of the letters have more than one line of symmetry!
Leave me a comment to tell me which letters have more than one line of symmetry!

Announcements!
  • Solar cookers are due tomorrow!
  • We will be cooking hot dogs with our solar cookers on Friday afternoon. Wednesday I will be asking for volunteers to help bring all of the food and condiments!

And...one more thing!

Boy! Do I have a suprise for you! Can you guess it? Here are your clues:

  • white
  • safety
  • buttons

love yall!

Mrs. M

Monday, October 19, 2009

Week Eight Vocabulary

Week Eight Vocabulary
Ocotber 19th -October 23rd
Your spelling and vocabulary test will be on Friday, October 23rd . You will be responsible for knowing how to spell each word correctly and the definition for each word.

1. Reflection – the bouncing back of light waves from a surface.
2. Refraction- the bending of light rays as they move from one material into another material.
3. Concave lens- a lens that is thinner in the center and thicker at the edges, a shape that bends light outward.
4. Convex lens- a lens that is thicker in the center and thinner at the edges, a shape that bends light inward.
5. Symmetry- having matching parts around a point or on both sides of a line through the middle.
6. Absorb- to capture. In this case we are discussing matter that captures light energy.
7. Transmit- light passing through a clear surface.
8. Transparent- matter that light passes directly through
9. Translucent- matter that some light passes through
10. Opaque- matter that light cannot pass through

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Energy!

Today we discussed the five types of energy that we will be learning about this year. We discussed light, heat, solar, sound, and electric energy! We learned that energy can be transferred and transformed. Those words sound so much alike, so we discussed the difference and came up with examples of each!
Transfer: For this word we discussed transferring to a new school. When you transfer to a new school, you just move from one school to another. When energy transfers, it moves from one object to another. Today our lab activity showed us that heat transferred from the first chocolate chip all the way down the row to the last one.

Transform: For this word we discussed transformers. When you play with transformers, it starts out as a robot then turns into a car. It changed into something completely different. When energy transforms, it turns from one type of energy to a completely different type of energy. Electricity can turn in to light, heat, sound, and magnetism. Our lab tomorrow will prove this!


Our new song! (to the tune of "I've Been Working on the Railroad) Light, heat, solar, sound, electric are the forms of energy light, heat, solar, sound, electric -its easy you will see! light can bend and bounce off objects heat will keep us warm solar comes from the sunlight and sound vibrates in horns! electric current flows through circuits to transform energy electric current flows through circuits to make light, and sound, and heat!


It was super day in Science!
Mrs. M

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Weekly words!

Week Seven Vocabulary
Ocotber 13th -October 16th
Your spelling and vocabulary test will be on Friday, October 16th . You will be responsible for knowing how to spell each word correctly and the definition for each word.
1. Energy- the ability to do work
2. Electrical energy- energy that is produced when electrons move from one place to another.
3. heat energy- the energy of moving particles
4. light energy- a form of energy that travels in waves.
5. solar energy- energy that the sun provides
6. vibrations- rapid back and forth movement that produces sound
7. transfer- to move from one place to another.
8. complete circuit- a complete path of conductors that an electric current can flow through
9. electromagnet- a temporary magnet created by a flow of electric current around an iron bar
10. incomplete circuit- a broken path of conductors that will not produce electricity.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

CHick-Fil-A Extra Credit!

I took Chloe to ChickfilA for lunch recently. She was very hungry for "Chicken Lake", that is what she calls it! The toy in her kids meal was a science flask! I think my heart skipped a beat when I saw that Chloe was now the proud of owner of her first piece of science equipment! Mad Science is hosting the kids meal toy right now. The toys include magnifying glasses, graduated cylinders, goggles, flasks, and maybe a few more items! If you go to chick-fil-A and get a happy meal, bring me your toy for EXTRA CREDIT!!

Enjoy your chicken!
Mrs. M

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

flu

Well, it seems that the flu has hit the M household. My little girl has the flu. Poor little girl! I should be back tomorrow, as long as Mr. M can get off work!

I miss my students :(
Mrs. M

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Anchors Away!

Today, in order to review for our upcoming unit test, we created anchor charts! Each chart illustrates a topic that we have learned. The charts will be hung all around our classroom in order to "anchor" our learning!
Science was fun today!
Mrs. M

Monday, October 5, 2009

New Vocabulary!

Week Six Vocabulary
Ocotber 5th -October 9th
Your spelling and vocabulary test will be on Friday, October 9nd . You will be responsible for knowing how to spell each word correctly and the definition for each word.
1. Evaporation- the process of changing from a liquid to a gas

2. Condensation- the process of changing from a gas to a liquid

3. Precipitation- water that falls to the earths surface as rain, sleet, snow, or hail

4. mixture- a combination of two or more substances that is easily separated

5. solution- a combination of two or more substances that is not easily separated

6. energy- the ability to do work

7. sun- the earths most important source of energy

8. solar energy- energy from sunlight

9. dissolve- the break down of a substance into another substance

10. water cycle- the change of water from one state to another as it moves between earth’s surface and atmosphere.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Ready for the week!

I am ready for this week! It will be a good one. One thing that I was reminded of while at my conference last week was that we can choose to have a good day or a bad day. It really is up to us. Well, I am choosing to have a GREAT week! We will do some review of the last six weeks and even take a unit 1 test! We will be introduced to our new unit - ENERGY! I love teaching this unit! Get ready for a project!
I can't wait to see my smiling little students in the morning!

Mrs. M

By the way! I ran into my first principal this weekend! He hired me 8 years ago and I am so grateful! He was instrumental in my teaching career and I am forever grateful! It was so nice to see him and introduce him to my little girls! Thank you Mr. Osborne for having so much confidence in me and for supporting me as I became the teacher I am today!

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Hi Class!

I am back...and boy, did I miss you! I will see you Friday!

Mrs. M