Squishy Squid!

Today we explored the phylum mollusca in science.  The animals in this group include snails, clams, octopi and squid. One of my favorite science labs is dissecting squid because they are slimy and stinky and when we are all done, we get to eat them!

Whole squid are available at the grocery store in Grand Rapids sold as calamari.  They really are fascinating little creatures. Each student got to draw a squid and then open it up to see what is inside. The best part is finding the piece of cartilage called the "pen" and the ink sac. After piercing the ink sac, students write their name on their papers using the squid's pen.

After cleaning the mantles well, I cut them into rings and we fried them up.  This year I also fried a few tentacles too.  Surprisingly, the kids seemed to like the tentacles better.  We've got some brave eaters in our class!

Happy Valentines Day!

Today we celebrated Valentines Day with a fabulous party planned by our committee. They organized a carnival with wonderful games and tickets that could be turned in for fabulous prizes. We had great food and some pretty creative Valentine boxes.

Wiggly Worms and Loopy Leeches

We have been busy studying invertebrates in science.  Each day we go over a different phylum of critters and then we do a little more exploring. I thank Mr. Mikles for letting us use all the "pickled" animals he has up in his science lab. It is cool to be able to see octopi and sea cucumbers - even if they are bottled in a jar.

Today we explored the phylum of annelids or segmented worms. The kids got to play with night crawlers and leeches. They brainstormed some questions and then carried out an experiment on the poor creatures.

6th Grade Engineering

The sixth graders have started an engineering unit. We will be exploring the design process as the kids work through engineering challenges. We started the unit with a simple tower that had to be built out of 20 straws and a foot of masking tape. Then the kids had to make bridges out of five index cards. The bridges had to be strong enough to hold 100 pennies. I think the strongest bridge held over 200! 

The third challenge was to develop a package for a s'more.  Each group was given $15 science dollars and had to purchase their supplies. The package was then dropped from 2 meters, submerged under water for 30 seconds, and heated with a heat gun for 45 seconds. It was then unwrapped to see if it survived.  Unfortunately, many of the s'mores were a little soggy...

Our final challenge will be to build a windmill out of paper cups and pencils. Stay tuned for pictures coming next week.

Straw Towers

Index Card Bridges

S'More Packaging

S'More Packaging

S'More Packaging

S'More Packaging

Welcome to the Zoo

We have finished our plant unit in science and have moved on to animals.  We start out our animal unit by talking about the ways scientists classify animals.  As an introduction to this, the students created zoo models. The objective was for the students to show different ways animals can be classified. Students put animals together based on where they live, how they move, and physical traits. The kids also added attractions to their zoos that would make them more interesting. These included roller coasters, dirt bike rentals, and even a Super Bowl stadium!  The fun part of this assignment was showing off the zoos by walking action figures down the paths and giving the class a grand tour.

History Fair

 The fifth graders have been working hard researching different Native America tribes. They each wrote a report with a fancy cover and a map of where the tribe lived. Then they worked hard on a project that taught people more about their tribe. We had a History Fair today so the kids could show parents, teachers and other students what they learned.

Angiosperms

I may be a bit crazy to hand out knives to a room full of 5th graders, but nobody was injured today as we discovered angiosperms.  Angiosperms are the other type of seed plant (remember, gymnosperms?)  They are plants that have flowers and store their seeds in a fruit. Today each student got a different kind of fruit and had the opportunity to explore it in detail. Then they cut it into pieces so we could each taste it.  We sampled the following fruits:  grapefruit, pineapple, kiwi, quince, mango, orange, tomato, papaya, cantaloupe, cucumber, pepper, apricot, starfruit, pomegranate, ugli fruit, and peas.