Today, we made the water cycle.  How could we “make” the water cycle?, you ask.

 We acted it out. We acted out evaporation, condensation, and precipitacion.
 

Evaporation is when the water goes up when it gets heated by the sun. The liquid water turns into water vapor.

The Green Team 

Condensation is when the water vapor turns into water again and forms a cloud.

The Yellow Team 

Precipitation is when the droplets get heavy enough so it rains.

The Blue Team 

And then it starts all over again, and over again, and over again, and over again…

The Red Team

We are wrapping up our endangered animals unit, and as the final assessment, students have been creating a movie to show that they have understood the central idea, “Human actions can cause or prevent extinction”. The movie showcases an animal, giving some background information and stating the reasons why the animal is endangered. The students also include suggestions about what can be done to save the animals from extinction.

 We are making these movies in Windows MovieMaker, which the students have already used to create a short movie about themselves. Parents were able to see those movies at the Student-Led Conferences held earlier in the year. Their animal movies are more elaborate, as they include photos, music, sub-titles, and narration.

The screenshot below shows Jong Min’s movie project file on manatees.

Annelie became interested in sunspots at an early stage in the unit. She found out that sunspots are dark spots on the surface of the sun, and that they are cooler than the rest of the sun, but still very hot. She also found out that they are a little like magnets, and that when the sun has many sunspots it is colder on Earth.

Our students practiced being communicators today when they visited 2M to present their completed posters and models. 2M is now starting with their final projects for the unit and we were able to help them get ideas as to what could be done.

Max works on his model of the earth and the moon. He will use the model to explain how tides on earth are caused by the moon.

We are almost finished with our solar system unit. We had two unit periods today, and we used them to finish our posters and models about the sun, the moon, and Earth.

Do Ah was one of the first to finish. She answered the question: “How long does it take the moon to go around the Earth?” Do Ah answers, “Just over 27 days to go once around the earth.” She says she liked this unit because, “I made the poster.”