Week of October 1-5

Parent - Teacher Conferences

The first quarter ends this Friday, October 5 and parent-teacher conferences are set for Thursday, October 25 and Monday, October 29. About half of you signed up for conference times at our Meet Your Teacher Night in August and will receive reminder/confirmation notes next week. Everyone who still needs to reserve a time should have received a form Friday afternoon. They were sent home in your child's Gold Take Home folder. Please return the form with your first three choices to school as soon as possible. Alternately, you may e-mail your choices to me at jellars@gcsc.k12.in.us
Reservation times will be filled first-come,first-served. Conferences may also be conducted by phone (just let me know your phone number and the most convenient time after 2:00 pm to contact you) or on an alternate date after 2:00 pm.

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OOPS! - Just noticed on the school website that I've listed social studies assignments in the science section and science in the social studies area.  Mea Culpa!

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This Week's Agenda

Science
Monday: Finish up work on the Flight Investigation
Tuesday: Prepare study guide for the flight quiz on Thursday (Homework-Study for quiz)
Wednesday: Review for quiz (Homework-Study for quiz)
Thursday: Flight investigation quiz
Friday: Video on flight with viewing questions

Social Studies
Monday: Homework-Study for Western states and capitals quiz coming on Wednesday
Tuesday: Native American projects are due. Share projects with class. (Study for quiz)
Wednesday: Western states and capitals quiz
Thursday: Finish up project presentations and play Native American game

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October 8 - 19 Fall Break
Have a great two weeks and we'll see you back at Maxwell on October 22.

Week of September 24-28

This past Friday students saw a video presentation by Bill Nye on the principles of flight. Included in the presentation was an explanation of Bernoulli's Principle. Daniel Bernoulli was a Swiss mathematician and scientist whose discoveries in the field of fluid dynamics helped create the possibility of heavier than air flight. Students learned that the differences in the speed of air going over and under an airplane wing create lift that allows a plane to fly.

 

Here are some experiments you can try at home to demonstrate Bernoulli's Principle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-xNXrELCmU

 

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Science

 

Monday, September 24 (Gold Day)

Work on flight logs. We'll fly the planes the learning teams built last week to determine how winds of the propeller it takes to fly the full length of a flight line; and how many winds are required to fly half the length of a flight line. No homework.

 

Tuesday, September 25 (Blue Day)

Continue the study of how variables affect flight patterns by adding weight to the planes. No homework.

 

Wednesday, September 26 (Gold Day)

Short quiz on vocabulary. Read "Build Your Own Paper Airplane", page 29 in the FOSS reader.

Construct and conduct shuttle races. No homework

 

Thursday, September 27 (Blue Day)

Finish shuttle races if not done from Wednesday. Graph flight data using a two coordinate grid.

 

Friday, September 28 (Gold Day)

Read "Great Names in Aviation", pages 29-28 in the FOSS reader. There will be a writing assignment with this and a short video on the history of aviation.

 

Science work should be shared at home and then returned to the science binder to be used as  study guides for quizzes, tests, and portfolio work.

 

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Social Studies

 

Monday, September 24 (Gold Day)

Create Western states study guide. (Quiz on Wednesday, October 3) Discuss progress on Native American projects.

 

Tuesday, September 25 (Blue Day)

Native American activity centers

 

Wednesday, September 26 (Gold Day)

Anti-bullying discussion with Mr. Stroud

 

We're working on the location of states and state capitals by region and will have weekly tests. Our next region will be the Western states with a quiz on Wednesday, October 3. That will be the last quiz before our two week Fall Break.

 

Students are continuing to work on their Native American projects due October 2. (Check the blog archive for the week of September 17 to see the original assignment sent home with students.) This week students will receive information on what is expected from their presentation of the project to the class that week.

 

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Parent-teacher conferences are coming up the week after the break. Many of you signed up at the Meet Your Teacher night in August. This week I'll be sending home a reminder of appointment times and an opportunity to schedule an appointment if you haven't done so yet.

 



 

 



 

 

 

 

 



Week of September 17-21

(I wasn't at school Friday due to a doctor's appointment, so some of the plans for the end of last week and ongoing into next week have changed.)

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Social Studies

• In social studies this coming week we'll be finishing the foldable we started on Thursday of last week. The foldable is a summary of Native American culture in four regions of the United States: the southwest, the plains, the woodlands, and the northwest
• Students will also receive an assignment sheet this week for a Native American project wrapping up the Chapter 2 study of Native Americans.
• On Friday, September 21, students will be taking a quiz on the 13 midwestern states and capitals. Everyone should have brought home a study guide done in class this past Friday.
  
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  Native American Project
  
  Directions: Choose a tribe to research and create a project of your choice. Among tribes mentioned in the book were the Iroquios, Tlingit, Lakota, Hodenosaunee, Mohawk, Hopi, Navajo, Crow, Algonkian, Seneca, Cherokee, and Inuit. These are only a few of many Native American tribes. Please see me if there is a tribe or a project not on the list that interests you, please see me for approval.
  
  Project Options: You have the ultimate opportunity to showcase your creativity and imagination. Use clay, paint, crayons, markers, fabric, scissors, wood, stone, string...the possibilities are endless! Depending on which tribe you choose, there are numerous things you can create. Based on your research (books, encyclopedia, internet, etc.), choose an option to reflect your findings.
      
       * Use poster board to display your findings
       * Dress up in a traditional outfit
       * Create a model of a village
       * Create a model of the housing for your tribe (wigwam, tipi, hogan, etc.)
       * Create an artifact - something used in daily life
       * Construct a totem pole, a kachina doll, a headdress, a dreamcatcher, a toy, etc.
       * Write a report
       * Create a Power Point presentation (saved on your own flash drive)
       * Other ideas??  Talk to me.
  
  Due Date: October 2  -  We'll set up a cultural exhibition. You need to present your project and give a brief description to the class on Tuesday, October 2 or Thursday, October 4.

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Science

• Monday: Begin planning construction of powered model airplanes for our investigation of the variables affecting flight.
•  Tuesday: Construct planes and begin test flights. Review concept of "systems." Also on Tuesday, a presentation on bullying by Mr. Stroud, school social worker.
• Wednesday: Describe and attempt flight challenges.
• Thursday: Work on flight logs.
• Friday: Design individual variable experiments.

Here are some interesting websites on flight:
http://science.howstuffworks.com/transport/flight/modern/airplanes.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bv3m57u6ViE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gk6rNFVc1Gs&feature=related

And one showing the variable "condition of the sea" from the lifeboat investigation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbueFXCsyD0&feature=related

Week of September 10-14

We're just about to finish up our investigation of the variables affecting the number of passengers (pennies) the paper cup lifeboats were able to hold before sinking. Along the way, we added two important words to our science vocabulary: capacity and density. Also, everyone had a chance to practice using a syringe and a graduated cylinder to measure capacity of the lifeboats before investigating how many passengers the boats would hold. The game "Will It Float?" helped in the understanding of density.
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Monday, September 10

• Mr. Stroud is visiting today to discuss bullying with the students
• Science: A quiz on the lifeboat investigation is scheduled for Wednesday. Today we'll be working on a study guide for that quiz. Make sure you have your science binder with you today.  Homework - Study for the Wednesday quiz
• Social Studies Homework - The southern states/capitals quiz is tomorrow.

Tuesday, September 11

• Social Studies: Quiz on southern states/capitals. The format will be identical to last week's northeastern states quiz. No homework
• Science: Class and partner review for lifeboat investigation quiz.  Homework: Study for Wednesday quiz.

Wednesday, September 12

• Science: Lifeboat Investigation Quiz. No homework.
• Social Studies: Start work on Native Americans foldable. No homework.

Thursday, September 13

• Science: Introduction of our next investigation, "Exploring Flight"
  - Discuss tools, materials, and plans for airplane construction
  - Begin construction of propeller driven airplanes
  - Introduce new vocabulary: system
  - No homework

Friday, September 14

• Social Studies: Study sheet for midwestern states and capitals. Quiz on Thursday, September 20. 
• Science: Finish construction of airplanes and conduct test flights.
• No weekend homework.