Archive for the ‘Science’ Category
Third Grade Update
Feb
Wondering what we’ve doing in third grade lately? Here’s a little look:
Language Arts:
We are still using Daily 6-Trait Writing. Hailey is working on organizing thoughts, and how to group similar ideas and details together.
Bible:
I ordered the next Old Testament Overview from Grapevine because Hailey has enjoyed it so much. We are now working on Part 2- Joseph to the Promised Land.
Geography:
We use Daily Geography Practice. It is supposed to be done every day, but we only do it once a week and get everything done in one day because it’s pretty simple. It’s been great for learning how to read maps, but we definitely need to add some more.
Health:
Hailey learned in health how nutrients travel through your body. We used red water and a celery stick to show how nutrients can travel.
The leaves turned all red even though they were never in the water.
Science:
Hailey has been learning about the scientific method, why science is important, and why we do experiments. I’m using this Intro to Science Unit.
Hailey has been practicing using the scientific method by doing some experiments. In this experiment she put 4 different colored M&Ms into a bowl of lukewarm water.
Then we observed:
It’s nice to do some fun, simple experiments while learning the scientific method!
So, there is a little look at just a few of the things Hailey has been working on. I need to remember to take more pictures of what Hailey is working on so I can do third grade posts more often.
Scientific Method
Jan
Hailey loves to do science experiments and she would gladly do one every day if I would let her. I don’t want her to do experiments just for the sake of doing experiments (although that is fun too!) so I have been trying to help her see the purpose behind experimenting. I started teaching Hailey about the scientific method and how that works with experimenting. I found a really easy experiment to try to help her understand the scientific method. We went through all of the steps as we did the experiment.
We had three glasses of water- one cold water, one room temperature water, and one hot water. Then we had three effervescent tablets. We asked questions, formed a hypothesis, observed what happened, got results, came up with a conclusion, and finally shared what we learned.
Hailey’s hypothesis was that the tablet would dissolve fastest in the hot water. So, then we put the tablets in to test it out to see what would happen. The tablet in the hot water dissolved the fastest, within just seconds it was gone. The cold water took the longest. It was a fun way to put the scientific method into practice!
Third Grade in Review
Nov
Here are some of things we have been up to. These activities are almost a month old, I just can’t keep up anymore!
Language Arts:
We read my favorite Halloween book Big Pumpkin by Erica Silverman and then Hailey did this beginning, middle, and end activity.
We used some activities from the pumpkin unit at The Razzle Dazzle Classroom. For this activity Hailey pretended that she went to the pumpkin farm and picked out a pumpkin. When she got it home is grew legs and started walking around. Hailey wrote a little story and then made a pumpkin. Harper loves this pumpkin and she smiles at it, laughs at it, and talks to it whenever she sees it hanging on the wall.
History:
We have continued our study of Ancient Egypt. We followed the directions at Creekside Learning and mummified a Barbie.
It was messy, but fun.
Hailey added some amulets just like they did in Ancient Egypt.
The completed mummified Barbie.
And just for fun- Hailey as a mummy.
Science:
Using printables from The Razzle Dazzle Classroom, Hailey made a book about the life cycle of a pumpkin.
After reading several books about the life cycle of a pumpkin, she described each step in the process and drew a picture to go along with it.
On Halloween, Hailey made a self inflating ghost using an idea I saw at Mama Smiles.
Math:
Hailey did this fun Spooky Sums math paper on Halloween. I wrote out the questions and then used a white crayon to put the answer inside the ghost. After Hailey did the math problem she used water colors to paint the ghost to check her answer.
We’re actually working on Thanksgiving themed activities right now. Hopefully I’ll get those posted before Christmas 🙂
Third Grade Weeks in Review
Nov
Here are some of things Hailey has been busy learning about over the last couple of weeks.
Language Arts:
We used the Johnny Appleseed unit from The Razzle Dazzle Classroom to take a little break from our regular language arts curriculum. We read several books about Johnny Appleseed and learned about what a tall tale is. Hailey made this cute craftivity to show what she learned about him.
A little closer look
We also read “Amelia Bedelia’s First Apple Pie” and then Hailey described the characters, setting, problem,
steps to solve the problem, the solution, and her opinion of the book.
History:
We have been studying all about Egypt and made a representation of the Nile. This is what it looked like after 1 week. Hailey flooded the Nile again.
We took a break from our Egypt study to learn about Columbus Day. We used a unit from The Razzle Dazzle Classroom for this too- I just love her stuff!
This is the inside of the lapbook that we made.
Science:
We did this fun experiment as Hailey is learning about light and reflection- there is a clear plastic container with water in it on the edge of the counter. There is a fork on the bottom of the container. When you kneel down on the ground and look up at the surface of the water the fork looks like it is upside down the on the surface of the water.
We did this demonstration to see how a lunar eclipse works. The flashlight is the sun, the big ball is the earth, and the little ball is the moon. Hailey was able to see how the earth is the the path of the sunlight.
So there is a little look at a few things we have been working on in 3rd grade.