Matter Matters!

Hi all!  Sorry that I (we!) have been MIA.  I assigned the role of guest blogger to a student, and it is taking much longer than I anticipated to get things together.  I haven't wanted to step on any little toes, so I've taken a step back.  However, we've had a lot going on in the last two weeks, so I decided to post! (My guest blogger should be writing to cover the first two weeks of October.)  This is going to cause things to be presented out of sequence, so I apologize for any future confusion :)

Anyway.... A status of the classroom, if you will.  Testing is 100% complete!  WAHOO!!!  This means I have been moving into a more hands-on environment within our classroom.  This is BY FAR my preferred method of teaching!  (I just wish there were enough hours in the day for me to plan/create lessons so the entire day way hands on, but I am only one person.  Bummer.)  While testing, the kids had to work on things independently (and quietly) so I could complete the assessments.  But testing is over for now!

Recently, we have been working on the States of Matter!  I introduced the concept with an inquiry lesson.  Is shaving cream a liquid, solid, or gas?  I gave each pair of students a sheet to organize the scientific method/process. I shamelessly stole borrowed it from somewhere.  I can't remember where and I cut off the bottom.  I will update later to give the owner credit.

After I walked them through the beginning of the scientific method, I let each pair of students develop their own plan for testing the shaving cream.  Here are some of the pictures:

Some kids put their shaving cream in a cup, some poked it with their finger, some held the plate upside down, some put it in direct sunlight, some put it in a Ziploc bag, some put it in the refrigerator, etc... You get the idea.  After their experiment, they had to go back and write their conclusion!

Also, we created a Matter Foldable with Cheerios.  I completely forgot to take pictures while they were doing it, but here are a few finished products:

The Cheerios represent the particles.  They had to explain the properties of each state, and give a few examples as well!  

Our creation is a modified version of something I found on Pinterest!

We also created Matter Books, but they are not done yet.  More on them later!

Coming up in the classroom:

-Election/Government (I have a GREAT lesson planned for the Electoral College!  I am SUPER excited!)

-Human Body Systems

-Multiplication of Decimals

Our Halloween party will be on Wednesday afternoon (beginning around 2:15 or so).  Our first field trip will be Thursday.  We are going to the Waterworks Visual Arts Center in Salisbury.  We have an author coming to visit on Friday.  No school on November 5 and 6!

Oh- Class Dojo has been acting very buggy.  I have been emailing them hoping to come up with a solution.  (Their solution is to use Google Chrome.  I can't download it on any of our school equipment.  So, I am kind of at a standstill.)  I will be going back to the punch card for at least next week.  I apologize for all of the flip-flopping around!