Grade 4 - Inquiry Research

The inquiry wall is starting to fill up in Grade 4.  The students have been taking this unit into their hands by formulating all the questions and doing all the research.  I have just been helping them organize and prioritize their thoughts.  

They've come up with many questions, but we decided that the best starting places would be to think about "What is energy?", "What are the forms of energy?" and "How do humans use energy?"  We've also been starting to get into "What is electricity?" and "How do we get our electricity?" as they come to conclusions and sort out info about the first guiding questions.

Here they are at hard at work using books and videos to research!

 

Grade 1 - Gummy Bear Experiment

Our scientists in Grade 1 were busy this week! After learning about our five senses, we decided to use them to observe and respond, by doing an experiment. The first step was to come up with a question: What will happen if we put the gummy bear in vinegar, and water? We then wrote and drew a picture of our hypothesis (prediction), and then shared them with each other. Some of the hypotheses were: 

If we put the gummy bear in vinegar: The color might come off or change. It will melt. It will explode or pop. It will rise/float to the top. 

If we put the gummy bear in water: Nothing will change (it will stay the same). The color will melt off so the water will be colorful. The sugar will melt out into the water. 

We left the gummy bears in the cups overnight, and then observed them the next day. 

We were all amazed to find out that the gummy bear left in the water had gotten much bigger, and the color had become clearer. The gummy bear in the vinegar had melted and had lost almost all of its' shape! We wrote down our results and conclusion, and drew a picture as well. Some of our hypotheses were correct! We concluded that when we leave the gummy bear in a liquid, it changes its' shape. 

Grade 3 Art with Ms. Yuko

Grade 3 has been learning Geometry during Math class over the past couple of weeks.  They were struggling to understand 3D shapes, so Ms. Yuko, our grade 1 teacher, did an art lesson with them to teach them how to draw in 3D.  This lesson was very helpful for them as it made it easier to make the connection to Math.  The students also said now that they know how to draw 3D shapes, it is easier to count the faces, edges and vertices of shapes!  Thank you Ms. Yuko!