Spring has Sprung

Over these last few weeks, we have been able to accomplish quite a bit in the classroom.  We completed our year-long project of Digital Citizenship with a culminating project of student filming videos about a specific topic.  The students were in groups and each group had an area of Digital Citizenship: Digital Footprint, Internet Safety, Privacy and Security, Creative Credit, and Communication.  In the previous post, the students had each written their own reasons as to why different areas of Digital Citizenship.  Here we continued this process and the students were able to be in the groups that they thought was the most important part of Digital Citizenship.  The students had to get together and write scripts.  Since they had done this before with their habitat projects, writing the scripts went very smoothly.

As a part of our Digital Citizenship filming project, we were able to receive some extra help from Mr. King from the Lake County Office of Education.  He was very helpful and gave the students lots of tips and advice about how to improve their videos.  The students were very excited to have him come and help our class, so we thought that Mr. King deserved a crown.... a crown about Digital Citizenship.  Thank you so much, Mr. King!

We also had our school-wide Earth Day and Recycling Event.  In honor of that, some of the students had the opportunity to build some words using recycled bottle caps.  (Of course, now the bottle caps are a very highly favored way to build words.)

Building words using bottle caps with letters written on the bottom side.

We just finished our unit in science on plants.  As a class we talked about how plants get the food and nutrients that they need to survive.  With that, we did an experiment using very simple items that can all be found right in your kitchen.  Each group had 2 celery stalks (one with leaves and one without leaves), a cup of water, and some food coloring.  Each group in the class had a different color of food coloring.  Through this experiment the students made great observations about how a stem works.  The part of the celery that we eat is actually the stem, and the students were able to see how the water and nutrients are carried up through the stem.  After 2 days of soaking, we had some pretty colorful celery.

Another part of our plant unit in science we focused on was growing plants.  We found out that plants need only water and sunlight to grow.  There were some students who thought they needed soil as well, but we discovered that is not always true.  Each student grew their bean seed in a CD case that sat in a tray of water for about 2 weeks.  With the grid that you can see in the picture, the students were able to measure the actual growth that their plant had made.  After observing these almost everyday for 2 weeks, we could have almost had  a "Jack and the Beanstalk" in our classroom.  The students were very excited to be able to take their bean plant home and then continue to help their plant grow at home.

Some of the plants even started growing out of the cases!

Studying plants at this time, lined up perfectly with our school-wide Earth Day and Recycling Celebration.  For Earth day, the students memorized a pledge that all of the students said together out on the blacktop.  We also were able to create and view some art made from recycled materials.  With this exciting day, each student also made their own kite which they were able to fly with the rest of the students at the school.  We even managed to have a little bit of a breeze to get the kites started.

Getting ready for the Earth Day pledge.

Flying our kites!

As a class we created pictures to help us remember the Earth Day pledge!  

The Earth is my home

I promise to keep it healthy and beautiful

I will love the trees, the air, the water, and all living creatures

I will be a defender of my planet

United with friends I will save the Earth!

Learning about Earth Day

 Don't be a Litter Bug! Recycled Art Project with Newspaper Print People underneath!  Some of the kites before they were flown.

Our main focus in math over the last few weeks, has been two and three digit subtraction both with and without regrouping.  (FYI... Regrouping is what used to be called borrowing.)  One of our math activities was matching watering cans to their answers, or flowers.  The students had a great time solving subtraction problems that tied in to Earth Day and our plant science unit.

Our current unit in science is focusing on insects and pollinators of plants.  On Tuesday of this week, we started on our expert groups.  Each group is researching a different type of pollinator.  Guess what... there is more than just bees that help pollinate plants.

A couple of weeks ago, one page was sent home giving basic information about our field trip to Fort Bragg (the ocean).  Please look for the field trip permission slip that should be coming home on May 9th.  Permission slips are due on May 16th.

Have a great weekend!