It May Be Cold Outside, But It Is Burning Hot in Our Classroom!

This week the boys and girls settled into class quickly and were ready to work hard!  We started our day by meeting our newest Quirkle, Hallie Heat.  From Hallie and her friends, we learned that dark colored clothing captures the sun's heat, while light colored clothing reflects the heat.  We also learned that heat rises and cold falls.  Ask your child to share their Quirkles science log, to tell you about their hypothesis and about our experiment shown below.

After our hot and cold water experiment, we conducted two more using a candle and balloons.  You can watch them in the video below.



After recess and lunch, we worked on our individual Exploratory tasks.  The new students each chose a center, filled out their Exploratory contract and began the knowledge level task (reading and watching a video) to learn more about their center topic.  The rest of the students continued working on their projects. Ask your child about his/her current center and task.

In the computer lab, the boys and girls continued to explore Microsoft Power Point.  After getting our new students set up with a presentation, we all learned to insert a shape, resize it and move it around the slide.  The students also learned to format the shape's fill color.

Understanding the basic tools and functions of this program will transfer in the application of other Microsoft products and web based slide show applications.  Power Point is a good slide show program, but it is also great for digital story telling, book reports, posters, and even holiday cards.  Primary students soak up the functions with minimal instruction.  When my own children lost their "computer gaming privileges" for one offense or another, they would always say, "But can we still do Power Point?"

If you have Power Point available on a home computer, consider allowing your child to practice.

Another busy, but fun day!  Have a great week!

There's Not Too Much That Beats Gilbert Gas!

Wow!  This week we added two new first graders and three new kindergarten students.  They had a bit of the "deer in the headlights" look when they arrived, but to be fair, so did I!  LOL  Seriously, they are an incredibly fun class.  I loved the way the E day SAGE students welcomed and helped our newest friends!

We started our day with an activity to get to know one another better.  The students created simple drawings to share some of their interests and a little about themselves.

 

 Next we worked individually in the TOPS Math program.

We had a really fun day!  We have been waiting for the exciting arrival of our favorite Quirkle, Gilbert Gas.

Thanks to Steven Spangler Science and a Google search or two, I was able to find some exciting experiments that teach the states of matter.  We discussed the different forms water can take.  The students easily shared what they knew about the water cycle.  They knew water was a liquid and when it it frozen, it forms ice which is a solid.  They knew water evaporates when it is heated and becomes steam or water vapor, a gas.  A few students knew clouds were made of water vapor and when the clouds are too full of moisture, the gas changes to liquid in the form of rain.

I wanted to explore the states of matter with something with which they are unfamiliar.  Dry ice was perfect.  We learned dry ice is a solid and that it is the frozen form of carbon dioxide.  We discussed carbon dioxide freezes at -109 degrees Fahrenheit so we needed to protect our skin from it by using gloves or tongs to handle the ice.  The students also learned dry ice sublimates and goes from solid straight to a gas.  Check out some of our experiments in the video and slide show below.

Boys and girls, what was your favorite experiment?