Watershed Test!

...is on Tuesday for Blue classes and Wednesday for Orange classes.  You will receive a study guide today and Monday, but you may also begin studying pages 1-23 in your journal!  This is a bigger assessment than normal, so make sure you take the time to prepare!

Water Cycle Story and Quiz

Your water droplet story OR comic should be ready to be turned in on Thursday (Blue) and Friday (Orange).  Don't forget to make it creative and at least one page in length!  Your droplet needs to change state at least 3 times and you need to underline key vocabulary (evaporation, condensation, precipitation, infiltration, transpiration). Comics need to be neat and colored.

We will have a quiz on just the water cycle on Thurs/Friday as well.  The watershed test will not be until the week of Dec. 10th.

I can't wait to hear some creative stories!

Watershed Study

Here's a look at what we've been doing this week....

Lots of macroinvertebrate sampling!

Friction, Force, Inertia QUIZ

 We will be having our quiz this Friday (Nov. 2nd) for Blue Day students and next Wednesday (Nov. 7th) for Orange Day students.  

Study guides are going home today and tomorrow.   Be sure to study your Force and Motion section in your journal as well.  

Good luck! 

Final Drop Times!

Final Egg Drop Times are listed below...

Please meet us behind the gym (closest to the Hive) at the designated time.  You may want to bring a camera or camcorder! 
There is no need to come to the classroom first.  

Thanks!

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24th
Blue 1      10:10 am 
Blue 2      12:15 pm
Blue 3      1:25 pm

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 25th
Orange 3     10:10 am
Orange 2     1:15 pm
Orange 1     2:55 pm

    

Egg Drop

Egg Drop vehicle designs are in process!  Students should be able to articulate how inertia, air friction, and mass play a role in their designs, so ask them and make them accountable!:)

Later this week students will be partnered up to share their designs and then start building as a team.  They will test with golf balls and then hardboiled eggs before doing their final drop next week.

Heads up HW:  

• Please send in a few hardboiled eggs for testing next Mon/Tues (22nd/23rd).
• Final drops will be next Thurs/Fri (24th/25th)

Stay tuned for actual final drop times and check your schedule to see if you can meet us behind the gym for our final drop! 

I've been impressed with the hard work so far...and each design is unique!

Here's an example...

Glue Sticks!!!! -HOMEWORK

It is that time of the year when glue sticks have gone missing or have been depleted.  Please come to class prepared with new glue sticks if you have misplaced yours!  It wastes valuable instruction time if you are not prepared.

Thanks!

BRING "ME" TO CLASS!!!!

P.S. THANKS to all of you who sent in extra supplies!

Surgery Update

My wrist surgery this morning went very well.  I'm home recovering in a sling with some ice, but wishing I was at school!  Thanks for all of the concern.  I miss you guys!  Be good for the substitute:)

I hope to be back on Friday so we can get the Egg Drop designing started!

Cardboard Needed for Egg Drop

In order for us to do our Egg Drop project over the next couple of weeks, we need square pieces of cardboard.  I know not everyone has access to cardboard, but if the majority of you bring in a piece or two we should have enough.  If you can bring in more, please do! 

The cardboard should be pre-cut and measure 9 in x 9 in.  The cardboard should be standard thickness (not as thin as cereal boxes and not overly thick because we will be cutting it further).  

Thanks!

Some other materials that we will be using include:

• Cotton balls
• Straws
• Poster board
• Toothpicks (pointed type)
• Rubberbands
• Masking tape
• White school glue

**You do NOT need to provide these, but if you have extras that you are willing to donate by all means send them in!  Thanks! 

Friction Sports Article

Blue classes will need to complete their Friction Sports Article for homework if they do not finish in class today.  The final draft is due Thursday!

Orange classes need to turn their articles in on Friday!

A typed final copy is not required, but preferred.  Make sure your drawings are detailed and colored!

I can't wait to read them!!

Quizzes are Graded!

Students should be receiving their Observation/Measurement Quizzes on Monday, if they didn't already get them on Friday!  For the most part they looked great!  However, my policy is to have the quiz signed and returned the following class if you received below an 80%.

Please check in with your child to find out how they did by tomorrow evening.

Next Unit?  Force and Motion....which also means the Egg Drop!  That's right, get excited:)

First Unit Quiz

This Wednesday (Blue classes) and Thursday (Orange classes) we will be taking our first Unit Quiz.  The quiz will cover everything in our interactive notebooks to date. Students received a Study Review Guide in class (Mon/Tues) and will be able to use this sheet along with a Metric Practice Worksheet and their Interactive Notebooks to study.

Major Concepts:

• How to make detailed observations
• Qualitative vs. Quantitative Observations
• Metric Measurements and Conversions
• Inferences vs. Observations

*Students do not need to study spider information for this quiz. 

GOOD LUCK! 

Inference HW

After doing a couple of fun activities to introduce inferences like the "cheese candle" and "mystery box", we practiced making inferences by checking out some cool pictures from National Geographic.  Parents- be sure to ask about the candle activity....I think everyone love this one!

Your homework is to finish up the Observation/Inference worksheet.  It is worth 12 points.

Spider Rubric

Just in case you are struggling to finish up your lab:)

Spider Lab Due

...next class Spider Labs need to be complete.  If the work was not finished in class, please finish it for homework.  Blue classes should turn in their journals this Thursday, Orange classes on Friday. 

Just in case you are missing the instructions for the story:

Spider Story

Choose ONE of the following options.  Your story must be at least one full page long.

1.    What I learned about spiders?  (1 paragraph about your spider, 1 paragraph about your web, 1 paragraph comparing your “spider memory” page to what you now know about spiders)

2.    Creative story about a spider and its web.

3.    Song or poem about a spider and its web. 

Make sure your journal is NEAT and colorful!  

Spiders, Spiders Everywhere!

We began our spider lab today and will be continuing the search throughout the week.  We searched the perimeter of the soccer fields for spiders big and small.  After finding a web and a spider, students made at least 10 qualitative and 10 quantitative observations about each.  Then they completed detailed, colored, and labeled illustrations of their finds! To wrap it all up (no pun intended!) we will be writing creative stories, poems and/or songs about our spiders and their webs.

Take a few minutes this week to look around your house and yard for orb webs, funnel webs, sheet webs and tangle webs AS WELL AS garden spiders, funnel weavers, marbled orb weavers, and arrowhead micrathenas!!

Making observations

Black and Yellow Argiope (Garden Spider)

Taking notes

Welcome!

Welcome to Mrs. Stokes's science blog!  You will be able to keep up with what we are doing in class, check for homework assignments, and get email updates all in one place.  Please add this blog address to your bookmarks or register to follow by email so that you can keep up with all of the fun things that we do in class! 

Just for fun here's a snap shot from last weekend at the Women's 4-miler with my husband and Mrs. Critzer! 

Mrs. Stokes, Mr. Stokes, Mrs. Critzer at the Women's 4-miler