Happy Veteran's Day!

Last Friday we welcomed our veterans to school for lunch.  It was so nice to have so many special guests join us!  Sgt. James Scott (Mason's grandfather) came a little early to lunch so that he could talk to us about his service and to show us the jacket that his father wore in the army 70 years ago!  The kids loved having him visit with us, and they were intrigued with the stories that he shared.

Investigating Capacity

Last week we continued our unit on measurement by exploring capacity.  Students created their one 1 liter beakers by measuring 100 mL into a cup, pouring it into an empty 2-liter bottle, and marking each 100 mL with a marker on the outside of the bottle.  We discovered that there are 1,000 mL in 1 liter.

Thank you for sending in 2-liter bottles and pitchers!

Kona Ice AR Reward

Weight/Mass Investigations

We have been learning about measurement in math.  A couple weeks ago we explored the concept of weight/mass by finding objects in the classroom that weighed about 1 gram, 10 grams, 100 grams, and 1 kilogram.  We then weighed our objects on scales to determine if our estimates were reasonable.

Pajama Day!

More Parent Visits

We had several more parents come visit with us in October to talk about how they use math in their careers and everyday lives.

Mr. Till came to talk with us about his job at BBVA Compass.  The kids had fun role playing different situations that involve math at a bank.

Dr. Falola came to talk with us about how she uses math in her job at UAB.  The kids learned about how math is used to create schedules, to identify patients, to calculate the dosage of medications, and to determine the health of patients.

Mrs. Santiago talked with Mrs. Ekonen's homeroom about how she uses math as a Physician's Assistant.  She showed us how to calculate our heart rates, and she answered our many questions about surgery!

 Coach Bromley also came to talk to Mrs. Ekonen's homeroom about how he uses math as a football coach and PE coach.  The kids learned all about percentages and how they help him coach football.

 Mr. Shipman talked to us about how he uses math as a pharmaceutical sales representative.  The kids were impressed with the different charts and graphs that he uses to help analyze his sales.

Living and Nonliving Things

Today we started a new science unit about living and nonliving things.  We will be using a webquest to learn about living and nonliving things.  Through this experience, students will be able to classify living and nonliving things at the beach.

Real World Math

This week we had several parents visit our classes to talk about how they use math in their daily lives!

Mrs. Shipman came to talk to us about how she uses math in her job as a speech language pathologist.  Although math is one of the things that she does not help children with, she uses math to track the progress of her clients, and she also uses math to schedule appointments and for billing purposes.

 Sergeant Marlow shared with us photos and videos of an aircraft that refuels other aircraft midair!  The kids thought this was very cool!

Sergeant Marlow also had the kids calculate how much gas would be needed to refuel different amounts of aircraft.  He was very impressed with our multiplication and division skills!

Mrs. Bowser spoke with us about area and perimeter and how we might use these skills in our lives outside of school.

She also had the kids calculate the area of sod or dirt needed to fill the space inside a little box that she made for each student.  We had a great time learning about area and perimeter!

Thank you to all the parents that have come in to speak with us so far this month!  We look forward to hearing from more parents this week.

The Rock Cycle - Part 2

After creating sedimentary rock by pressing the pieces of sediment together, we wrapped our sedimentary rocks in aluminum foil and applied heat and pressure with our hands.  The heat and pressure changed our sedimentary rocks into metamorphic rocks.

To continue the rock cycle, we applied even more heat (an electric griddle) to our metamorphic rocks to create magma.  Our rocks quickly melted and began to bubble!

Once the magma cooled, we were left with igneous rocks!

The Rock Cycle - Part 1

Today, students in Mrs. Owens' homeroom learned more about the rock cycle with a hands-on activity.  We began by creating sediment out of Starburst candies.  Students cut several Starburst candies into small pieces to form a pile of sediment.

Once we had a nice pile of sediment, we pressed the pieces together.  By adding pressure to the layers of sediment, we created a sedimentary rock.  Real sedimentary rocks are created when layers of soil, rocks, leaves, and other natural materials are pressed together over time.

Stay tuned to see how Mrs. Ekonen's students continue the rock cycle!