Cloud Parfaits

Cloud parfaits were a big hit last Friday! Have you heard about them yet? This was a combination of science, writing, and...eating! We have been studying weather for the past several weeks, so making a yummy treat with a weather theme seemed appropriate. Next up is Solids and Liquids. Finally, we're writing "how to" books. So, we followed directions to make something that changes state (Jello) and ends up looking like clouds in the sky. I'm hoping some students will use this as a how-to writing topic soon. And there's no question it was FUN! 

It's great to have our document camera to show what the student helpers are doing--it allows us to zoom in on the action!

 

 

 

I'm not a fan of Jello OR Cool Whip, but it seemed most students enjoyed this weather-themed treat. 

 

 

 

 

 

Check out this student iPad lesson!

One of our wonderful first graders created this wonderful water cycle lesson on her own at home. We have used the iPad app Educreations quite a bit in class, and soon students will be creating their own lessons on our iPads at school to share about something they've learned. I was so happy to receive this in my inbox last week! (I'm also glad to see that the water cycle song was a very effective teaching tool!)

Nick Johnston (a meteorologist) Visits UMS!

Nick Johnston, meteorologist with ABC22 and Fox44 News, visited our class and Mrs. Hughes' class today at school. He came with a great slideshow and a miniature tornado science experiment he designed himself! Students asked many questions about weather, and Mr. Johnston was very patient about trying to answer everyone's questions--there were a lot! (Students seem especially interested in severe weather.) It was neat to meet a meteorologist in person and find out more about his job. I was impressed with how much students could share about what they know about weather too!

I took a few photos on the camera too, just in case the iPad pictures and video did not turn out...

Classes smiling with Mr. Johnston

Classes being silly with Mr. Johnston!

He was blocked in the group photos, so he got his very own personal photo with our special guest. :-)

Skypin' about the weather

We put our web cam to good use again on Friday--we had a great Skype visit with a 2nd grade class in Ohio. The plan was great--our students would ask questions of the 2nd graders to try to figure out their location based on clues, and then our 1st graders would do the same. It worked great for figuring out the mystery location of the class in Ohio...until I let the cat out of the bag about our "secret" location. Oops! I inadvertently mentioned Vermont as the Ohio kids were describing their weather (we all had unusually warm weather last week). Oh no! Our class was pretty good natured about it, laughing that I was worried about them revealing our location accidentally and then it was ME who actually let it slip! The main focus of this virtual visit was to compare and contrast weather conditions as a part of our science unit about weather. It was a great activity for that, and it really got students thinking about US geography! We will have another Skype visit this week...and I will do my best to keep our location a secret! ;-)

 

 

 

 

I just loved seeing this student hard at work on this letter during dismissal time on Friday. I don't know if it was the Skype visit or what it was, but he left school very happy on Friday! :-) (There was more about how much "school rocks" but he wanted to take it home to work on it.) 

The Water Cycle Song

Our study of weather has been great so far! Have you heard the "Water Cycle Song" yet? If not (or even if you have), check out our video below. Students are learning some pretty sophisticated scientific words! Evaporation, condensation, precipitation...impressive! This video was taken on the iPad--our favorite classroom tool!

The Water Cycle

We are learning about the water cycle as part of our weather unit in science. Students have learned a water cycle song (video to come!), completed a water cycle labeled diagram, studied the cycle on a poster, and watched a cool stop-motion video about it. One student requested I post the video, since she likes it so much! So, here it is! I will add a "Cool weather sites" sidebar on this blog very soon. Stay tuned:

The Water Cycle stop motion from StopMoGo on Vimeo.

Lino It!

We have been using a cool tool during our science time recently--Lino It. It's a web-based program that allows us to make virtual sticky notes and to change them in many ways--content, color, font, etc. Last week, we made two Lino It virtual bulletin boards with sticky notes to answer the questions, "What do you THINK you know about weather" and "What do you want to learn about weather?" It's important to find out what students already know about a subject and also to learn about any misconceptions students might have going into the study. If you look at our first board, you'll see there are some misconceptions we'll have to address during our unit. And it's extremely valuable to find out what students want to learn to make sure everyone's engaged and motivated!

It was great to hear students' thinking and to hear them discuss how we should move the sticky notes around according to commonalities, subject matter, and more. Very impressive first grade thinking!

Click on the links below to see our "Lino It" bulletin boards!

Weather

Weather Part II