Welcome Class!

I will update our new blog soon :)!

-Mrs. C

Dino/Fossils VC

Owl Pellets? Are those what I think they are?

In Science we have been studying animals, habitats, ecosystems, and food chains/webs. Today we did an extremely exciting activity.  At first the students were extremely CONCERNED about what an Owl Pellet exactly was.  We found out from this website and instruction from Mrs. C that Owl Pellets are mostly the bones, hard materials, and fur that owls do not digest.

Here are some photos from our exciting lab activity on Owl Pellets! We had some really cool findings: SKULLS!

Report Cards

Yes, it is true-still no report cards!

Mrs. C

Native American's Wiki

This week we started studying Native American's of Texas.  We have had a lot of fun researching and learning about these amazing people! Along with our reading we have been taking notes and documenting facts on a chart.  We have begun entering our information on a Wiki.  A Wiki is a collaborative website.  The students have their login and passwords!

Here is a screen shot of what our homepage looks like:

http://texasnatives.pbworks.com/

I know the students will really enjoy learning about the Native Americans of Texas and collecting this information.  We may eventually collaborate with another 4th grade class on this Wiki!

Plant Stems Activity: What do stems and plant tubes do?

What were your observations after one day of our Plant Stems investigation?The plants began to turn the color of the water it was "drinking". The stems took in the water and the red or blue water colored the leaves as the water and nutrients passed through the stem.

How did the water travel?
The water traveled through the tubes. We know the celery is a vascular plant because it uses tubes to carry water and nutrients through the plant.

What observation did you make about the tubes once we cut open the celery?When we cut the celery, we observed that the tubes were red or blue depending on which color water that part of the celery was in. When we cut open the celery, the water that dripped out was colored red or blue. We observed that it was split right down the middle!

Group 1: "In between the tubes there was not color because it was the skin of the plant which protects it. "

Group 2: "On day 1, our celery was brownish and on day 2, the celery was either blue or red."

Group 3: "We observed that the celery was either red or blue because of where the stem was."

Group 4: "Our celery was cracked on the blue side, so the water still traveled to the parts even though it was broken. We could see the water in the celery."

Science Lab: Classifying Shoes!

Last week in Science we did a lab activity classifying our shoes! At first it was a little awkward :) But once we began our discussion it was a lot of fun! See our before picture:




Now, our "after" picture:



 

I will update later today with a few student summaries about our activity and the reasons why scientists classify things.