August 28 - September 1, 2017

We are gearing up for another exciting week!  We will continue our STEAM investigations through station rotations.  Students will complete six activities by the end of the week.  Last Friday, students took a quiz on last week's vocabulary as well as more on the Scientific Method.  They should be bringing their quiz results home to you Monday if they did not already bring it home on Friday. (Some students did not want to wait until Monday!)  If your child has a grade they would like to improve, simply sign the quiz report and return it to me and they will be able to take a retake in the library on Wednesday. The expectation is that students will do the studying necessary to improve their grade at home.  Their Science Techbook is a good resource of information as well as Khan Academy.

Monday

Science: Vocabulary Flashcards - Observation, Inference, Data, Bias, Differentiate

Engineering: Balloon Tower Challenge - Students will be challenged to work in groups to build the tallest free-standing balloon tower.  They will complete the full scientific method protocol in their science notebooks.

Tuesday and Wednesday
Technology: Republic/Scratch (students should be at approximately Unit 1 Lesson 3)

Arts: Word Drawings - Write as many vocabulary words from your key ring (15 words currently) in a way that help shows what they mean.  For instance, if the words were nervous, epic, flashy, loud, heavy, or thoughtful you might use these pictures to the right.

Math: Measurement Olympics with Mrs. Preston - Students will practice taking precise measurements while making predictions about units of measure and making inferences about an objects size based on its unit of measure.  For instance, a millimeter would not be used to measure an asteroid, but it might be used to measure rain amounts. 

Career: NewsELA: Many articles have been assigned to you, but you just need to choose one Dream Jobs article that interests you!  Write a summary, draw a mind map, answer the quiz, or create a 3...2...1... about the article.

Thursday

Students will revisit their learnings and communicate them to the class by creating a paper slide video about their station activities.  They will then rotate through each of the other group videos to learn about the other groups’ experiences.  If students have personal technology like phones or tablets and would like to bring them to my class, please allow them. For an example of a paper slide video, here's one that Ms. Brown, Ms. Meston, Ms. Valerie and I made about why STEAM is important to kids.

We will also have a review discussion about our vocabulary words in context.

Friday

Students will take a quiz on Scientific Method (yes again!) and Vocabulary, and complete any rotation activities undone.

Homework

Monday - Make 5 observations about the street you live on.  

Tuesday - Using ONLY the 5 observations you made about the street you live on, make 3 inferences about your neighborhood.  You may not use what you know to be true, only your observations.

Wednesday - Review the inferences you made about your neighborhood.  How does bias play into how you feel about where you live compared to the inferences you drew?

Thursday - Research and document data about your neighborhood.  This might include number of houses on your street, colors of buildings, etc.  Remember researching may involve interviewing people you know who may have information.

As always, feel free to contact me with any questions, comments, thoughts or concerns!

Mrs. Preston

August 22-25, 2017

Happy eclipse day!

I hope you have the opportunity to see the eclipse and share the experience with your child.  Be sure to wear your safety glasses!

Fun fact: Total solar eclipses have not always been visible from Earth. In the past, the Moon was too close to Earth and during eclipses it completely blotted out the Sun’s disk. Over time, the lunar orbit has changed at the rate of just over 2 cm per year and in the current epoch, the alignment is nearly perfect at times. However, the Moon’s orbit will continue to widen, and in perhaps 600 million years, total solar eclipses will no longer occur. Instead, future observers will see partial and annular eclipses only. (space-facts.com)

When we return to class on Tuesday, students will continue to experience station rotations this week.  Because of the long weekend, we will complete 4 rotations instead of 6 rotations. 

Tuesday and Wednesday

Science - Hands-On Bubble Experiment with Mrs. Preston (Scientific Method)

Technology - Republic CS/Scratch (Computer Programming)

Engineering - Create a lego model and document the model in your notebook

Arts - Vocabulary Flashcards: independent variable, dependent variable, control, model, protocol

Thursday

Students will revisit their learnings and communicate them to the class by creating an anchor chart about their station activities.  They will then rotate through each of the other groups posters to learn about the other groups’ experiences.

We will also complete guided notes on models, repeated trials, and the difference between independent and dependent variables.

Friday

Students will take a quiz on Scientific Method and Vocabulary, and complete any rotation activities undone.

Homework

Tuesday - Hypothesis Worksheet or Discovery Education Hypothesis

Wednesday - Draw a model of your bedroom or Discovery Education Modeling the Experiment

Thursday - Variables worksheet or Discovery Education dependent variable

As always, feel free to contact me with any questions, comments, thoughts or concerns!

Mrs. Preston

August 14-18, 2017

It was a great first week in our class and I am looking forward to another fabulous one!  This week we will continue to learn and practice classroom procedures as we begin to dive into more academic content.

Monday

Students will take notes in their Science Notebooks about the steps of the scientific method. 

                Scientific Method

·         Ask – Ask a question to which you plan to find the answer.

·         Research – What background information do you have?  What can you find?

·         Hypothesize – What do you think is going to happen?

·         Test – Create an experiment to see what happens!

·         Analyze Data and Draw Conclusions – Did the experiment work?  Did it support your hypothesis?  Why or why not?  Did it work partially?  Why? What new questions do you have now?

·         Conclude and communicate – What do you think it all means?  Summarize your results and share the information in a written, visual, or digital way.

They will also create vocabulary index cards on key rings to be used as a study tool.  Our vocabulary this week will include research, evidence, analyze, interpret, communicate, hypothesis, and experiment.  Many students know these words, but need help understanding their meaning specific to science.

Homework: Review vocabulary flashcards for 5 minutes.  Complete any cards that were not completed in class.

Tuesday

Students will use their Science Notebooks for an open-notebook pop quiz on the scientific method. This will hopefully encourage them to be on task each time they take notes!  They will also review station rotation procedures before the end of class in preparation for exciting days that lie ahead!

Homework: Using the first 3 steps of the scientific method, describe how you would determine whether orange soda weighed more than grape soda.

Wednesday and Thursday

Students will work with their table mates to complete six Station Rotations (3 each day).  They will have 15 minutes to complete each rotation with one minute to transition in between.  These stations support our STEAM focus as students will use:

• SCIENCE: DiscoveryEducation.com to explore current science topic, the Scientific Method
• TECHNOLOGY: Scratch.met.edu to learn programming through MNPS’s platform Republic
• ENGINEERING: A hands-on activity requiring them to use problem solving and reflections
• ARTS: A foldable that contains helpful notes in a visually interesting way

In addition!  Students will complete stations to support their personal growth:

• CAREER: Learningblade.com to explore careers in STEAM fields through real life scenarios 
• LITERACY: NewsELA.com to read and understand articles related to our science content

Students have access to most of these websites via Clever Portal (clever.mnps.com/in/mnps) and will be required to document their work in their Science Notebooks as evidence of completion.   

Homework: Students will write a reflection about their activities each day and determine the Glows (things that they liked, went well, etc) and Grows (things they found challenging, or think would be better if done differently).

Friday

Students will take a trip outside with solar eclipse glasses to view the sun in its normal state.  They will make observations and formulate questions about what will happen during the eclipse. 

Homework: While I won’t normally give homework over the weekend, the eclipse is a rare opportunity!  Monday, students should make observations in their notebooks about the solar eclipse.  They should also formulate at least one new question.  We will review thoughts and questions when we return, while we continue to build upon our understanding of scientific method and begin to explore the objects of the solar system!

Have a great week and as always, please feel free to contact me with any questions, comments, thoughts or concerns!

Mrs. Preston

Lisa.reed-preston@mnps.org

Welcome Letter

Welcome to Mrs. Preston’s Science Class!

This year in order to save resources, all the information you will need throughout the year will be available on my website:

www.lisareedpreston.com

Here you will find information about me, my policies and procedures, and my blog that will have weekly updates and resources. You will also find a contact page that will go instantly to my MNPS email. Please take the time to access the policies and procedures and go over them with your child.

Please mark the policies as you go over them:

Quiz and Test Taking Policy ________

Retake Policy ________

Tiger Demerits _________

ROAR Points ___________

Homework ____________

Send me your email address and any necessary information via my contact page www.lisareedpreston.com/#contact

I am looking forward to being your child’s teacher. It is going to be an exciting school year! Please be sure to sign the bottom and return to me no later than Friday, August 11^th.

Mrs. Preston

Student Name_____________________________

Parent Name______________________________

We understand the policies and procedures as listed on Mrs. Preston’s website.

Student signature____________________________

Parent signature___________________________

Phone __________________________ and email_________________________

If you are not able to access the materials electronically and would like a paper copy, please mark the statement below.  Please, still fill in the information above.

______ I need paper copy of the policies and procedures for Mrs. Preston’s Math class.