This year in science we will learn about many
exciting topics through investigations and readings. The units
that we will be studying include How Living Things Function, Living
Things and their Environment, Earth’s Surface, The Earth in Space,
Matter and Energy and Change. Click on the links below for more
information.
How Living Things Function
Family Newsletter
In this unit of study we will focus on three
different areas:
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Parts of Plants |
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Classifying Animals |
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Living Things Grow and Reproduce |
In order to really understand these concepts, we will
complete hands-on investigations that will let us experience
first hand how living things function. For our first
investigation, Bean Bags, we will plant our own seeds in
plastic baggies and observe the needs of plant. Check
back soon to see how our class does at growing seeds.
Hopefully, we will have some survivors this year!!
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Bean Bag Worksheet
Parts of a Plant
In class, we learned about the different parts of
plants and what each part does. We learned that a plant has leaves,
a stem, and roots. The leaves collect sunlight and turn it
into food. The stem moves water throughout the plant and holds up
the leaves. The roots absorb water and nutrients from the soil.
During class, we got to eat some leaves, stems, and roots.
We ate:
broccoli = flower
celery = stem
lettuce = leaf
radish = root
carrot = root
Vertebrates
We learned that vertebrates are animals with a
backbone. We used beads and washers to create a model of a backbone.
Then we looked at pictures of a bird and snake and moved our models
to match the movement of each animal.
Invertebrates
Worm Work
Question: Do earthworms prefer darkness
or light?
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We conducted an investigation to see whether or not
earthworms prefer the darkness or light. Some of us
hypothesized that earthworms like the light, but most of us
hypothesized that they prefer the dark.
First, we
made observations about our little, wiggly friends. Here are
some of the observations we made:
~It is very wet and slimy.
~It moves by
stretching its body out and then squishing it back together.
~It smells
like dirt.
~It has lines
that go all the way across its body.
~It curls into
a circle when you place it in your hand.
~It tries to hide under
the wet towel.
Next, we conducted an experiment to see whether worms
like the light or dark. We placed a black sheet of paper
over half of the tin and then placed the worm in the middle.
Then we waited two minutes to see which side it preferred.
We completed four different trials.
RESULTS: Each group found that the earthworm preferred
the dark side of the tin more times than the light side.
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Life Cycle of a Plant
We have been studying the life cycles of plants. We talked about two
different kinds of plants: flowering plants and conifers.
Flowering plants grow blossoms that are pollinated in order to
create fruit and seeds. Conifers are trees with cones. The cones
contain the seeds. In order to show our knowledge of the life cycle
of these two plants, we created Photo Stories. Please take
some time and watch our videos in order to learn about the life
cycle of plants.
NOTE: Since we saved our pictures from the internet, some pictures
and words look blurry in the videos.
Click to watch a video of the Life Cycle of an
Apple Tree
We are currently learning about Earth's Resources and how we impact
these resources.
Natural Resources
Our class learned about Earth's different natural resources. A
natural resource is something that is useful to people that comes
from nature. Some different natural resources include animals;
plants; rocks, soil, and minerals; oil; water; and metals. We
created a flipbook to organize our thinking and listed ways we use
natural resources in our daily life. For example, we use the natural
resource of metal for making jewelry and tools.
To get our brains thinking about natural resources we completed an
activity where we sorted different objects based on what they were
made of. Check out our learning below.
"What's It Made Of?" Activity
Sheet
Energy Resources
We also learned about different energy resources. Since most of the
energy we use comes from fossil fuels, which is a nonrenewable
resource, we began talking about alternate energy resources. Some of
these resources include geothermal energy, hydroelectric energy,
wind power, and solar energy. Most of these different energy
resources are renewable which means we can use them over and over.
To get our brains thinking about energy, we created solar ovens to
demonstrate the power of the sun. We made them out of pizza boxes,
black paper, plastic wrap and tin foil. We had to use a lot of
teamwork in order to build these ovens and we did a great job! Check
out our work.
A special thanks goes to Bashas' for donating pizza boxes to our
class.
Solar Oven Investigation
Sheet
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