What's the Buzz? It's All About Matter!

We have been learning about the states of matter in fun ways! We started with liquids. We learned that liquids take the shape of the container that they are in. We raced drops of water, corn syrup, vegetable oil, and rubbing alcohol down a flat surface. By doing this we learned that some liquids flow faster than others. Then we put the four liquids together in a container. The corn syrup sank to the bottom while the vegetable oil stayed on top. By doing this we learned that some liquids are more dense than others. Then we took green punch and filled ice cube trays. We put the ice cube trays in the freezer. At the end of the day we took the trays out of the freezer. We no longer had punch, but popsicles. We learned that matter can change from a liquid to a solid when the temperature changes!


Our Four Liquids!

Some liquids are more dense than others!

Matter can change states when the temperature changes!

Yummy!

What's the Buzz? We Are Rainbow Catchers!

What do you need to catch a rainbow? We learned that you need sunlight and water to catch a rainbow. We learned that sunlight looks white but is really made of different colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. When sunlight travels through water the light bends and separates into all different colors. So we went outside to catch a rainbow with water, mirror and a sun. However, we were unable to catch a rainbow. We think it had to do with the time of day that we went hunting. We went back to the classroom. We were determined! We took a vase of water and put it on a table in a sunny section of the room. We reflected sunlight from a mirror through the vase of water. Guess what! We found rainbows!

Our Prediction and Our Rainbows!

What's the Buzz? Whole Group Conferencing!

On Friday we worked with partners to create Storybirds that have a problem and a solution. Monday and Tuesday we reviewed the stories. We read the stories as a class to see if they had an identifiable problem and solution. If the story did not have a problem and solution the class offered ideas to the authors. The authors had the final decision on how to complete the Storybird.

Basically we completed peer conferencing through a whole group discussion. This was such a valuable lesson. The peers were able to ask the authors for clarification on ideas and sequence. The peers also offered great ideas and suggestions. We will be able to take the skills we practiced in our whole group conferencing process and apply that to one-on-one peer conferencing.

Check out this Storybird:
The Lost Friend on Storybird

Here is another Storybird:
Food land on Storybird

More Storybirds will be coming!!!