This week we started working on our Thanksgiving Research Projects.  We are learning so much and can't wait to write a book to tell you all about the first Thanksgiving.  We will spend the next couple of weeks researching and then we will write a class book in ibooks author.  Some of the groups may want to add a video to their section of the book.  So if your child comes home and needs help coming up with a costume for their area of the book please help them find something simple to meet their needs.  Here is the project they are working on.
project

Every Thursday morning on KCan they have a math challenge and the class that calls in the answer first wins the Math Challenge Stick for the week.  This morning our math smarties won!!!!!  I am so proud. 

The library held a pumpkin decorating contest.  The pumpkins had to be decorated like a character from a book.  There were some amazing entries.  If you get a chance you will want to stop by the library and look at them.  We had 1 entry from our class.  Here is Jada's pumpkin.

Today we tested our latest engineering challenge.  What is the strongest paper bridge you can build using a single sheet of copy paper?  They were only allowed to use one sheet of copy paper.  The bridge had to be constructed on top of two textbooks.  Their bridge had to be freestanding.  They all did a great job.  But congratulations to Bella, Jack, Paige, and Nandini for the strongest bridge.  Their bridge held 19 crayons.

Today in science we are still working on our study of light.  We reviewed how light effects what we see.  Then I told them I had a challenge for them.  I wanted them to use light to figure out was inside a plastic egg.  They were not allowed to open it or shake it.  They all ended up using shadows to see the objects.  They figured out they needed the light source to be close to the egg and then they need to look on the opposite side for the shadow. 

Report cards will be going home today.  You will keep the report card but please sign and return the envelope.  I will be out of town for the next couple of days.  I will post more amazing work on Monday.

In science this week they are working on how light effects what we see.  I told them that I run early in the morning and I have almost gotten hit a couple of time.  I know it is because the driver can not see me the way they do in the daytime.  I want to get something to help them see me but I am not sure what would help.  They are going to learn all about how light effects what we see and then build something that will help me.  We will test them and then I will know what to go and buy to help people see me with the light from their headlights.  Today we looked at ways different light sources effect what we see. We had different light sources set up around the room.  (flash light, table lamp, pretend candle, string of Christmas lights, LED)  I gave them two different pictures and divide them in groups.  They worked their way around to the different light sources. They observed and interacted with the light sources. We discussed that we noticed that when the amount of light is lowered, objects often become difficult to see, When we lower the amount of light on an object, we are dimming the light.  They wrote about their observations in their science Evernote notebook.  You will have to take a look at their results. 

 

Tonight our homework will not come home on a sheet of paper.  Homework will be in Evernote.  They will scroll to the bottom of their notebooks and there will be a Homework Notebook shared from me.  They will work this week on the note titled 10-21.  They have a writing assignment, their spelling words, reading, math, and science to complete by Friday.  They can work on this however it is convenient for you as long as it is done by Friday.  They will need to use pages for the writing and we have used this app before and they should be familiar.  They will also do a sound recoding in their reading Evernote notebook.  We went over this together as a class.  I am so excited about the iPads going home and our homework going digital. 

Also, don't forget to encourage your children to participate in the district's Red Ribbon Week Poster Contest. District winners will receive prizes and an opportunity to be featured at an upcoming School Board meeting. Click here for the Red Ribbon Poster contest rules.

Red Ribbon Week: October 28 – Nov. 1st
Theme: iHaveBetterThingsToDo than Drugs: Cannon has an APP for that….

Monday: Fishing APP
Wear: shirt with fish on it, fishing hat, vest, T-shirt, jeans, & hat
Pledge to say no to drugs – students write their name on a fish
Tuesday: Sports APP
Jersey, sports team shirt
Students will receive bookmarks
Wednesday: Beach APP
Wear: Lei, Hawaiian shirt, grass skirt, flip flops
Students will receive leis (hopefully – still working on this)
Thursday: Camping APP
Wear: Camo, hiking boots, flannel, sweats
Friday: Gardening APP
Wear: red & gardening hat, gloves, sunglasses
Students will plant tulip bulbs

Today was our last day of play dough today.  They did their last mix and then as a class they came up with a final recipe.  They are all bringing home a small sample to showcase their engineering.

This morning we had a visit from a Chemical Engineer.  She discussed all the different responsibilities that chemical engineers have.  She also demonstrated for the kids a lot of everyday items that a chemical engineer would be responsible for making possible. Then she discussed their project and gave some advice.

 Today in our STEM lesson they all decided on a process for their first test of play dough.

Then we walked around and observed every groups play dough and decided which process was the most successful.

 We examined it and looked at the areas is scored low.  Then the groups decided how  they could change the amount of materials that were added. We went back to our groups and have come up with a process with new amounts of materials to improve tomorrows batch.

Today for our STEM Lesson we continued to work on our driving question: How can we determine the quality of a play dough process and how do the play dough materials change when they are mixed together? Yesterday we worked on the quality section today we worked on the mixing materials and the properties of the mixtures. We looked at our materials and their properties first. Then we came up with rules for our tests.

After that we started to conduct tests with different combinations of materials. Here is our results.

Then we drew some conclusions about different combinations of materials. Then welooked at the engineering design process and worked on finishing the plan stage. We watched Mrs. Ganus make a low quality batch of play dough. We then recorded her steps in a flow map. We then brainstormed how to change the order of the process to make a higher quality play dough. Here is our plan.

Yesterday in our STEM lesson we tested high and low quality play dough and wrote down their properties. We then made a rating scale for texture and usage using those properties.
















Next we worked on a test we could use to determine the quality scores for any play dough. This is our final test we will use throughout the rest of this project.

We then tested the high quality and low quality play dough using our Quality Test and determined what score they would receive.

Check out some safety tips from our nurse.  tips

This week is National School Lunch Week, October 14-18, and this year’s theme is “Take a Texas-Size Taste Tour.” That is a big, big taste tour!
MONDAY — PROTEIN IS BIG IN TEXAS

TUESDAY – IT’S A TEXAS-SIZE DAY FOR VEGETABLES

WEDNESDAY – BRING YOUR PARENT TO LUNCH DAY! ALL ABOARD THE WHOLE GRAIN TRAIN

THURSDAY — NEXT STOP IS A FRUITY TREAT!

FRIDAY – FINISHING STRONG WITH DAIRY DAY


Thanks for helping to make a great week of nutrition fun and for reminding your scholars to make every day complete with nutritious meals.

Today for the STEM lesson we surveyed classes to see the best color for the Strawberry Orange Juice that Creative Juices is creating. Container A was our overall winner. We then graphed the results of our product research survey. After we completed the graph we filled out a Product Research Report sharing our results to the Jenny of The Creative Juices Company. Check out our results.

Today in our STEM lesson we heard from a chemical engineer named Jenny who works for Creative Juice Company. video She asked us to help her with some product research. She needs us to find out what color she needs to make their new strawberry orange juice. We decided we would collect our data in a graph. Then we mixed many color choices. As a class we picked the best 3 to present. The three colors we picked were combinations of yellow and red food coloring.