Food Share Month

My class has been collecting food for the food shelf this month and we collected a grand total of 111 lbs. 8 oz of food. The kids weighed each food item as it came in and got some practice adding pounds and ounces. Thank you to all those parents who helped their child bring in food!

Balloon Cars

The sixth graders have been learning about Newton's Laws of Motion in science class. To demonstrate the second and third law of motion, the students have been working on cars powered by balloons. The cars had to be made of only junk like tin can lids and styrofoam meat trays. Today we did time and distance trials. Here are a few of their cool designs:

Bird Brains

No, I didn't bring any real bird brains into my classroom, but we did have a gizzard, owl pellets and lots of feathers. In science my 5th graders are currently studying the vertebrates. We spent a few days on mammals and now we are learning about birds. Today each group went through 6 stations to learn more about these amazing creatures.

In this station the students compared a flight feather to a down feather and looked at them under a microscope.

This station taught the kids about a bird's gizzard. They got to take a close look at a turkey gizzard and then grind up some dried corn.

In this station we compared a moose leg bone to a chicken leg bone.

A student disected an owl pellet in this station. We found all kinds

of cool mouse bones inside the mass of hair.

In this station a student had to match a tool for a use. Each tool simulated a different bird beak. In this picture a student uses a nutcracker to crack a peanut which is like a grosbeak opening a seed with its wide, strong beak.

At Hill City School we are fortunate to have many mounted animals available to us. In this station the students compared and contrasted three different kinds of birds: an owl, a pheasant and a wood duck.

Civil Air Patrol

Today the Civil Air Patrol came into our class to talk about the dangers of drugs and alcohol. Their presentation was a nice addition to our DARE program. They brought along the Fatal Vision goggles which simulates how alcohol affects a person's coordination. Each student got to wear the goggles as they tried to walk a straight line. We also learned a little about the Civil Air Patrol program. We thank these teenagers for coming in to share with us!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Every Thursday we roll a 12 sided die to decide which fun and exciting activity we are going to do for spelling practice. Today it landed on number 7 - shaving cream! The kids write their words in the shaving cream I spray on their desks. It was fun in kindergarten and fifth graders love it too!

Because today was St. Patrick's Day, I also added a drop of green food coloring. It dyed the shaving cream a nice minty green, but unfortunately it also dyed everyone's hands green, too. Hopefully they won't have green hands forever.

Thicket

Here's a challenge for you...Can you find the 17 fifth graders hiding in this picture?

We are studying animal adaptations in science and today we talked about the many ways animals escape from predators. Many prey animals can hide by staying very still. We played a game called Thicket to demonstrate this. One student was the predator. While the predator's back was turned, the rest of the class ran into the thicket and hid within a close boundary. The predator turned around and had to find the class just by watching. If anyone moved, they were instantly spotted.

Even my very active kids were able to stay hidden.

Yakety Yak!

Today was our spring dance/music program and art show. My class did a great rendition of Yakety Yak (very appropriate, don't you think?) They also danced a lively dance and had some great artwork to show off. The gym was packed with parents. Thank you for supporting your children - they were very proud of their efforts!

Electricity

We are taking a break from our study of animals, to work with electricity. This spring the 5th graders will be expected to take (and pass) the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment test for science. A large portion of this test deals with electrical circuits and electricity.

On this day the students were making electromagnets that could pick up as many paper clips as possible. I think one group picked up close to 80!

Spelling Practice

Many of the 5th graders could benefit from a little extra practice with the weekly spelling words. This spelling website would be a great way for the kids to practice their words. The weekly lists are downloaded onto my site. If each student could spend a little time each night playing the games or taking the practice tests on this website, I am sure their spelling test scores would improve.

The site is www.spellingcity.com/dianamagner