Science strategy

We were reviewing erosion and deposition, so I tried a new strategy:

I gave them a paragraph with out they key words and they had to work together with their partners to figure out what was missing.

They did pretty well with figuring out the big concepts :)

Up close and personal with erosion

Since we switch students for science, I get to teach the FOSS Land forms kit four times.  Since this kit is my favorite, it works out nicely :)

(Coincidently, all four of us got our favorite kit to teach! I think it definitely benefits the students when we're excited about what we're teaching)

We've learned about maps (physical, political & topographic) as well as land forms and globes, so it was time to investigate.

We were looking at how a stream table changes an environment.

My students got up close and personal with the process of erosion:

I use the pictures of their actual investigations in my power point and we then talk about how the canyon was formed, deposition and alluvial fans.

Next we see what happens when we add a slight elevation:

The result is the alluvial fans tend to be larger and the earth material is more widely displaced within the table (deposition).

Next week we'll try it with floods :)

Of course, they have to record in their science notebooks and make a hypothesis:

I love how excited they get about sand, clay and water!

Week Six updates

It's almost the end of week six and my oh my, has it been a roller coaster of a week!

Here is our new accountable talk poster to guide student conversations:

I love that I could color code it :)

We've been working on strong leads and revising our first pieces with the Being a Writer unit.

I modeled using a strong lead to "hook" your readers:

(My story is about my history with doing martial arts and the multiple lessons I've learned along the way.  This particular piece that I used to model adding sensory details and voice to your writing)

We co-created an anchor chart on sentence starters to help students "hook" their readers :)

We also used one of our new centers from donorschoose during our intervention block:

We are working on context clues.  Students worked in their table teams to come up with the definition of the unknown words by using strategies.  They actually did awesome with this activity, which was great to see!

This activity will become one of our centers during small groups next week.

Speaking of centers, we used this one today in science:

Students had to sort different scenarios into the following categories: erosion, deposition and weathering.  They did a great job with it! 

(This center is a free download from TpT, created by Laura Candler.  It's awesome, there is an included answer key and you should grab it too!)

Happy pre-Friday!

-Ms. Vice

Land Forms

We've been studying land forms for a few weeks now in science.  We've learned all about different types of maps, made several different versions and observed how elevation can change a stream table.  

Next week, we are going to conduct more stream table experiments, this time with flash floods. (One time with no elevation, one time with elevation to see the difference).  From there, we'll discuss more vocabulary, look at Google Earth for land forms and learn about layers of the earth.  Then, after we co-construct our anchor charts, we'll learn about the ring of fire and tectonic plates.

I saw this idea on pinterest and I think it's a perfect Friday science activity:

I'm totally game for combining food and science, it's hands-on, edible learning at its finest!