Science Study Guides

We began our new unit on Monday. We will test in two parts and have periodic quizzes.  We will test adaptations (below) on Tuesday.  

Today we got to see an opossum, owl, and a snake up close at our in house field trip from the Chatahoochie Nature Center.  It was AWESOME!  We learned all about their adaptations!!!

Check out this snake adaptation 

Cool links:

Song http://www.lilburnes.org/Students/Habitats/index.htm

Video on teacher tube introducing the habitats http://teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=152755

Online flashcards for habitats and adaptations http://www.studystack.com/flashcard-282221

Teacher tube of Julian and Vincent http://www.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?title=Georgia_Habitats&video_id=91806

Adaptations Study Guide

Test on: ____________________________________________

Write the definition for each vocabulary word:

trait: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

survive: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

adaptation: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

reproduce: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

migrate: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

hibernate: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Answer the following questions:

What happens to an animal’s body when it hibernates? ______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

Why do animals hibernate? What does that say about their environment in winter versus summer? ______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

Why might an animal have a bright skin color? ______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

What is an example of camouflage? ______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

What is one adaptation that people have to help them survive? ______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

Habitats Study Guide

Name _______________________________  Date ________________

Science Unit 1 Study Guide:  Georgia Habitats

A.  Vocabulary:

1.      adaptation- a characteristic that helps a living thing survive; ex. hibernation, camouflage, sharp spines, thorns, waxy leaves

2.     habitat- the home of a living thing (plant or animal); ex. nest, house, cliffs, trees, cave

3.     environment- everything that surrounds a living thing

4.     balanced environment- an environment where there are not too many and not too few of any kind of living thing

5.     region- a part or section of land; Georgia has 5 land regions—Blue Ridge Mountains, Piedmont Plateau, Coastal Plains, Swamps/Marshes, and Ocean.

B.  Be able to label a map of Georgia with the 5 land regions.  The names of the regions should be spelled correctly with capital letters. 

Mountain           Piedmont      Swamp & Marsh         Coastal Plain      Atlantic Ocean

(map of Georgia)

C.  Be able to describe the region and name 3 plants and animals in each region.  Make sure to study the highlighted parts of each book of the regions of Georgia.  

*There will also be 10 “name that habitat” questions with characteristics and animals listed.  

          Habitat                           plant                               animal

Mountains	1. 2. 3.	1. 2. 3.
Piedmont	1. 2. 3.	1. 2. 3.
Coastal plain	1. 2. 3.	1. 2. 3.
Swamp and marsh	1. 2. 3.	1. 2. 3.
Ocean	1. 2. 3.	1. 2. 3.

D.      Be able to explain how drought, fire, and floods can change an environment.  Be able to draw an environment before and after one of the above changes.

ex.  Draw a forest before/after a fire.    

               Before:  In balance                            After:  Not in balance

Explain how this event changed the environment.  _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Book Order is Out! / Pictures of the kids

Hi yall!  A slew of book order options came home on Monday night!  The kids have two weeks to order - I told them to try to earn some money to order and to budget so they can buy a new book or two!

You can click the link on the right or here:  https://orders.scholastic.com/GTHBQ

Kate at her piano recital

Rebecca, Kate and I after their recital at Piano Works

 

Trinity and I after her cheerleading competition at the Gwinnett Center

She did so well! 

Thank you to my students that came out to Heritage Night for Story Book Lane!  We had about 25 visitors total!!

Some of the kids from the first reading!!

Brandon and Devika were my main characters, Papa and baby boy, from the book, a Masaai tale from Kenya, Papa, Do You Love Me?  We know that nothing we can do will ever separate us from our Father's love!

  

On Wednesday, Brooke from Mrs. Usher's class read to our class about service dogs (like in Rosie, A Visiting Dog and Therapy Dogs.  We met Kai III - he was very sweet and gentle!!

Our Winter Party was awesome! Thank you so much to Mrs. McCormick for all of her planning as well as Mrs. Eggerton, Mrs. Kinnamon, and Mrs. Cantor for volunteering!

Wed. 1/9 HW

Math

• HOTS POW
• Quadrilaterals practice (identifying angles inside of quadrilaterals, identifying quadrilaterals)
• Review geometry vocabulary for quiz (lines and angles quiz tomorrow!)

We added three new words today:

Quadrilateral:  polygon with 4 sides

Trapezoid:  a quadrilateral with one set of parallel lines

Parallelogram:  a quadrilateral with two sets of parallel lines

ELA

• Spelling Contract (the kids have a hard copy this week - it's attached to their cursive practice - the copy machine was down earlier in the week!)
• Read 15

Tomorrow we have a visit from the Teaching Museum for an in-house field trip!  Wahoo!!   

Updated Spelling Contract/ Book

Updated Serafin Spelling Contract:

Every week, complete the mandatory assignments.  Then choose at least one activity for each of the areas:  Technological Literacy and Writer’s Craft/Vocabulary Acquisition.   

Mandatory Assignments:  -complete both

1.     Cursive 3x’s each

2.    End of the week Pretest with a parent/guardian signature verifying your score.  Write each incorrect word 5 times.

Writer’s Craft/Vocabulary Acquisition:   -choose one (any of these can be typed!)

1.     Pick ten words to write sentences that include Writer’s Craft.  Underline the spelling words.  Sentences must be at least 7 words long and have at least one element of Writer’s Craft (sassy sentences, strong verbs, sensory details, figurative language, etc.).

2.    Use Storybird.com to write sentences for ten words.  Each word has its own illustration.    

a.   Log in:  Jserafin  Password:  123456

b.  Click on students, then choose your name

3.    Picture Illustration Elaboration:

a.   Pick ten words:  write a synonym or antonym for each of them.

b.  Illustrate at least two of these words using the picture elaboration.  You may draw, cut out pictures from magazines (collage), or print pictures.

4.    Write poetry using any ten of your words. You may write one long poem or a few shorter ones.

5.    Write a letter (business or friendly) to someone.  Include ten of your spelling words.

6.    Powerpoint Presentation – Pick ten words (1 slide per word) and use writer’s craft.

7.    Write a play or reader’s theater that includes 10 words.

8.    Create a crossword puzzle using ten of your words on www.puzzlemaker.com – you must write the definitions for ten words, and then solve the crossword puzzle.      

Technological Literacy:   - choose one

1.     Create a wordle of this week’s spelling words.  Print and attach to your contract.  http://www.wordle.net/create

2.    www.spellingcity.com and do 2 different activities with your list.  Print one page if possible or have a parent/guardian sign here:  ___________________

a.   Log in: serafinj  Password: spelling

3.    www.puzzlemaker.com – create a word search, print, then find all 20 words.

4.    Storybird (see above)

5.    Powerpoint presentation (see above)

*Have another creative idea or suggestion?  Submit it to Ms. Serafin for approval!



------

Mr. Popper's Penguins - reading online
http://books.google.com/books?id=jdD8BLbsVbwC&pg=PT3&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=4#v=onepage&q&f=false 

HW/Geometry

Tuesday, 1/8 HW

Math

• pg. 100,101,102 f/b (it's about 20 very easy problems and 5 thinkers!)
• HOTS POW

ELA

• Spelling Contract
• Read 15 minutes on your lexile level

Yesterday we begin our geometry exploration!  Today we explored angles and polygons with marshmallows and toothpicks! 

http://www.mathsisfun.com/definitions/right-angle.html  on the bottom of the definition there is a moveable angle-maker/shower :)  The kids loved using it today! 

Review our vocabulary words every night.  We add words to our Geometry Glossary everyday.
*We have a quiz tomorrow on lines and angles.

Polygon:  closed (all sides are connected), plane (flat) figure with straight sides (no curves!)
Right Angle:  an angle whose measure is exactly 90 degrees.
Acute angle: an angle that is less than 90 degrees. 
Obtuse angle:  an angle that is greater than 90 degrees but less than 180 degrees
Bonus:  straight angle:  a 180 degree angle (straight line)

line:  a straight path of two points that goes on and on in both directions
ray:  a part of a line that has one endpoint and goes on and on in the other direction
angle:  formed when two rays have the same endpoint

Yesterday we read The Greedy Triangle - you can read along here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPuI4XyyZUE

Spelling/Homework - 1/7

Week 19

families

worried

ugliest

funnier

happily

easily

heavier

earlier

tiniest

supplied

luckily

relied

activities

countries

enemies

scurried

libraries

prettier

readily

carried

Monday, 1/7 HW

-new:  students will write first and last name in cursive on all papers in preparation for 4th grade!

Math:

• HOTS POW (it's hard this week!)
• Polygon hunt

ELA

• Spelling Contract
• Read 15 minutes

Science

• list one adaptation of a human, animal, or plant that we did not talk about in class today

Curriculum Updates

We will begin Unit 5 in Math:  Geometry
This is a 12 day unit.  We will begin January 7 and test on January 23rd.  We will identify polygons, compare and contrast quadrilaterals, investigate attributes in depth, explore partitioning of shapes, and symmetry.  We will continue to incorporate graphing throughout the unit and have our multiplication timings each week.

MCC3.G.1 Understand that shapes in different categories (e.g., rhombuses, rectangles, and others) may share attributes (e.g., having four sides), and that the shared attributes can define a larger category (e.g., quadrilaterals). Recognize rhombuses, rectangles, and squares as examples of quadrilaterals, and draw examples of quadrilaterals that do not belong to any of these subcategories.

MCC3.G.2 Partition shapes into parts with equal areas. Express the area of each part as a unit fraction of the whole. For example, partition a shape into 4 parts with equal area, and describe the area of each part as 1/4 of the area of the shape.

MCC3.MD.3 Draw a scaled picture graph and a scaled bar graph to represent a data set with several categories. Solve one- and two-step “how many more” and “how many less” problems using information presented in scaled bar graphs. For example, draw a bar graph in which each square in the bar graph might represent 5 pets.

MCC3.MD.4. Generate measurement data by measuring lengths using rulers marked with halves and fourths of an inch. Show the data by making a line plot, where the horizontal scale is marked off in appropriate units— whole numbers, halves, or quarters.

• Can a shape be represented in more than one way? How and why?

• How are quadrilaterals alike and different?

• How are solid figures different from plane figures?

• How can angle and side measures help us to create and classify quadrilaterals?

• How can I use attributes to compare and contrast shapes?

• How can partitioning a shape into halves, thirds, fourths, sixths, or eighths in a variety of ways help me further develop my understanding of fractions?

• How can plane figures be combined to create new figures?

• How can shapes be combined to create new shapes?

• How can solid figures be categorized and classified?

• How can we communicate our thinking about mathematical vocabulary?

• How can you create different types of quadrilaterals?

• How does combing figures affect the attributes of those figures?

• What are the properties of quadrilaterals?

• What is a quadrilateral?

• What properties do solid figures have in common?

• Why are units important in measurement?

• Why is it important to partition shapes into equal areas?

We will begin Unit 4 in Science:  Habitats and Adaptations 

This will be broken into two parts:  adaptations and habitats.  We will test twice and quiz throughout.  We will explore the five habitats as well.  It is an 18 day unit.  We will begin January 7 and conclude February 1.  

Standards:

S3L1. Students will investigate the habitats of different organisms and the dependence of organisms on their habitat.

a. Differentiate between habitats of Georgia (mountains, marsh/swamp, coast, Piedmont, Atlantic Ocean) and the organisms that live there.

b. Identify features of green plants that allow them to live and thrive in different regions of Georgia.

c. Identify features of animals that allow them to live and thrive in different regions of Georgia.

d. Explain what will happen to an organism if the habitat is changed.                           

EQ:

How do habitats affect living things?

Why are there different habitats in Georgia?

What is in a habitat that supports life?

Reading/Language Arts

We will begin Mr. Popper's Penguins in ELA.  All students will read it given that the accelerated group would have missed this opportunity to read such a great novel that connects with our science unit and is at a challenging lexile level.  

We will continue to draft, revise, and publish our research papers that yet again connect with our science unit (I thrive for Cross-curricular themes!!).  

We will begin personal narratives as soon as our research reports are published.  The students may save their work to a ZIP/USB/pin/thumb drive, but he/she may not work on it at home.  

Wednesday semester celebration

We will be celebrating our semester tomorrow with a few special things:

-during math we will have a math-in where the students can bring any games that require mathematical skills and reasoning

-a read in from 1:45-2:15 where the students can bring in something to cover the floor (towel, blanket, etc.) and one comfort item - pillow or stuffed animal plus lots of reading material!

-I will post the myriad of pictures I have from the last two weeks as soon as I have a moment.

For my faithful parent readers, know that my heart is heavy by the recent happenings, but I am so grateful to be in a position that allows me to influence your children daily, to speak into their lives, love on them, protect them, challenge them, and to encourage them.  It is a gift that I do not take lightly.  I appreciate this privilege now more than ever!

-J.

• Homework:
• Math:
• HOTS POW due
• Study and review for test
• SS 
• Study for FDR Test

·       Born in 1882

·       Had Polio, was in a wheelchair at the age of 39

·       Married Eleanor Roosevelt because they both believed in helping others (public service)

·       Followed in his cousin Teddy Roosevelt’s footsteps:  Politics:  Senator, Governor, President

·       Lived in Hyde Park, NY and Warm Springs, GA

·       He was committed to public service

·       Longest running president

·       Became president in 1933.

·       Radio speeches were called fireside chats

·       New Deal

·       Helped people face hard times and keep hope alive

Wednesday 12/14 HW

• ELA
• Read one more chapter (do NOT finish the books!)
• Math
• Review and study the study guide (test Friday)
• HOTS POW
• SS
• Study - FDR test (short) on Friday
• Heritage Night is tonight!  Come see Devika, Brandon and I!

12/11 HW

• Math:
• Pink:  challenge page (some picked large number crossword puzzles, change from a store, etc.)
• Green:  all of #14 and the first part of 15 - on 15, only measure the bugs!
• HOTS POW
• SS:
• Study for FDR test

Heritage Night is Wednesday night!  Story time is from 5:00-5:20 in my room!  

We need supplies:

• band-aids
• clorox wipes
• kids need their own markers

12/10 HW

Pink group is reading "Pleasing the Ghost" by (one of my favorite authors!!) Sharon Creech.  Here it is electronically:  http://www.e-reading.org.ua/bookreader.php/1008334/Creech_-_Pleasing_the_Ghost.html

After addressing lots of area misconceptions, we seem to really have a strong grasp!  We will quiz again tomorrow, then I'm going to rearrange the test and performance task, so we will test on Friday.  If you want some step by step practice and visuals (we used them in class), this is a great site:  http://www.slideshare.net/emteacher/area-word-problems#btnNext

Homework:

• ELA:  none :)
• Math:
• HOTS POW
• Study guide:
• Pink group:  #14, 16-19
• Green group:  #8-13
• FDR - Study a bit each night - test on Friday!

Curriculum Updates

• ELA
• Next week we will have NO spelling contract or spelling words.  
• We are reading novels in both groups, so we will spend time using our HOTS to delve deeper into the novels.  Kids may have reading homework instead.  
• Our Hero powerpoints will be completed on Monday!  
• Math
• Please practice area this weekend if necessary - a few students need to retest - remember that area is an array, so we are multiplying length times width. 
• We will test on Wednesday, then complete a performance task on Thursday and Friday.  
• Please make sure your child has not lost their study guide (we've been working a few a day to help them prepare over time vs. "cramming") 
• See last Friday's post for the study guide
• We are also using the pretest to help us prepare
• SS
• We began FDR today.  We will test on Friday.  The kids already have the study guide (as well as the answers - but we will still discuss and fill in the blank study guide.)
• See last Friday's post for the study guide

Book fair:  we will browse Tuesday from 10-10:15 and shop on Wednesday from 9:30-10:00.  Your child will go with their ELA teacher.  

Thursday, 12/6 HW

• ELA
• Reread Junior Great Books Story (comprehension test is all HOTS!!)
• Study vocab for quiz (will include writing 4 great vocab sentences)
• Spelling Contract due/Study spelling words
• TAG:  pronouns practice pg. 234-5 #1-15 - write the answers only
• Math
• HOTS POW due
• Rectilinear practice - we are having some difficulty remembering which dimensions to use, so here is an example from class to show how you can break the shape into two different rectangles then add the area:  

• Study multiplication facts - we will have our weekly timing tomorrow

Writing Resource:

• We spent a lot of time today practicing writing using writer's craft to convey a complete thought.  
• We also spent time paraphrasing which is very important as we prepare to start our animal research reports next week.
• Here is the resource to help the kids with sentence variety:

Wed. 12/5 HW

• ELA
• Spelling Contract
• Write score rubric and writing sample were sent home today - please review the sample and the write score grade.  This is a diagnostic test and a starting point.  We will test again in March to see progress!
• Math
• Pink group:  #7-11 on the study guide
• Green group:  area of rectilinear shapes practice (2 problems) - break them down into two smaller rectangles then add up both areas for the total area of the shape
• SS
• Economics Test tomorrow!  Please study!  

• Signed papers:  please return as soon as yall are done reviewing them.

Tuesday, 12/4 HW

• ELA
• Spelling Contract
• Review figurative language if you need to retake the quiz tomorrow
• Math
• HOTS POW
• Word problems page f/b
• SS 
• Study for test!!!!
• The kids have a completed study guide as well - remember, it is just economics on Thursday, not FDR!
• Signed papers
• My ELA kids that are NOT in my homeroom - oops! I still have your papers.  They will go home tomorrow. 
• Write Score grades, rubrics, and sample will also go home tomorrow!

We have been hard at work in the lab on our American Hero Powerpoint presentations. When they are completed, a handout copy will also be in your child's signed papers for you to review.  He/She can also bring in a USB drive to copy the file. Your children are becoming technology masterminds!!!

Monday, 12/3 HW

• ELA
• Spelling Contract
• Math
• Study guide #1-6 
• HOTS POW
• SS 
• Study the economics side of the study guide

Today we spent the afternoon learning about Henri Rousseau (On-ray Ru-so) in the Mustang Museum - it was awesome! Ask your child what he/she knows about the very imaginative artist! 

The 3-D depiction of one of his pieces is AMAZING! Your family should definitely check it out on Heritage Night!

Listening and visualizing, then drawing based on Rousseau's dictated directions!