Welcome Back

I can't believe it has been nearly a year since I posted on my Science blog! Time has flown by, as we have been busier than ever! It is a new year, with the same issues: Which are more destructive, hurricanes or tornadoes? Tomorrow we will look at the facts and decide. I can't wait to see what this group comes up with!

Hurricanes vs. Tornadoes

It was a little heated today in Science class as we debated the topic: Which is more destructive, hurricanes or tornadoes? Students chose a stand and gathered evidence of support from the AMSTI textbook. Two students from each side of the argument were given 1 minute to state the facts to the audience, as we wrote down the statements they made for their argument. Once both sides stated their arguments, "objections" rang out. We looked at each of the statements made by the debaters and determined whether their statements were fact or opinion. The debating team with the most convincing argument (the largest number of true facts) was...well, the team with the most convincing argument (sorry, guys, we were all winners with this one!) It was fun to see the students get involved in stating their case (some more passionately than others!) In the end, 3 out of 4 classes resulted with hurricanes being the most destructive. Only one class had a very strong argument for tornadoes.

After you look through our pics, feel free to weigh in with your arguments! We'd love to hear your views as well!

AMSTI

We finally began AMSTI this week! We have begun thinking about catastrophic events that take place around our Earth. We are thinking about where events take place, and why we think they happen there.

On Friday, we tossed around the globe to discover that our Earth is covered mostly by water (we already knew that, but it was fun to throw the inflatable globe around!) We explored various maps and globes and coded them with colored dots to represent where we think certain catastrophic events take place.

Feel free to leave comments for us about your ideas on catastrophic events!

A trip through the carbon cycle

On Friday, the students did a writing integration activity that allowed them to be a little bit wacky and creative. The assignment was to pretend they were a carbon atom traveling through the carbon cycle.

I have been reading their stories this weekend, and they are GREAT! My sixth graders have really entertained me this weekend with their creative minds! I hope to be able to post some of the papers soon!

Thanks, guys! Keep up the fantastic work!

New Year

We are off to a great start in 2009! For those of you who did not know, I moved from 3rd grade to 6th grade this year. I am very excited to be teaching Science!

I am learning as much as the students about the 6th grade Science curriculum! I attended AMSTI training over the summer, where I learned a lot of techniques and methods for making Science more meaningful with hands-on activities and labs. Unfortunately, we will not be getting our AMSTI kits until after Christmas for this year. After attending the training for the other 1/2 of the year next summer, I will be fully teaching AMSTI curriculum from then on. For this year, however, I am taking the methods and strategies that I learned in AMSTI and applying them (the best I can) to the first semester curriculum. I think it's going to be a great year!

Please feel free to contact me at any time with any questions and/or concerns. We are working together to make our children responsible citizens!

Memories..........

I would like for you, my students, to leave this year remembering the many fun things we experienced throughout the year.

Your final "homework assignment" is this: post a comment to my blog, telling me your favorite memory of this year. Can't think of just one? Tell me something about one or two (or even three or four)! I can't wait to see who posts.

But first, I want to share mine:

It's so hard to think of just one thing, but I guess I would have to say it was The Talent Show. I was SO proud of my third graders! You all did such an amazing job! Many of you really "showed your stuff". It was fun to sing songs altogether. But the best thing was seeing some of you overcome your fears to put on a great performance! It was a LOT of hard work, but it all paid off in the end! You guys are the best!

Now, tell me your favorite memory. Don't forget to put your name.

Mother's Day Surprise

I hope everyone had a rewarding Mother's Day! We worked hard on our flower vases and pens. I hope all of our mothers enjoy using them!

I was pruning my rose bush when I found a great surprise! Can you see what it is? It was very unexpected!