Owl Pellets

Here's the great thing about our school community...  A fourth grade teacher is telling me about what her students are studying (birds of prey) and I exclaimed, "Oh my gosh, my students are very curious about that topic.  Can your students come and make a presentation?"  The teacher said, " Of course!" Several fourth graders came to share with us about Snowy Owls, Red Kites, Eagles and other birds.  It was all very exciting and informative.   The best part was they left owl pellets for us to explore just like a scientist would!  We worked in groups to discover what animal the owl had eaten.  

Gingerbread Stories

The Superheroes have been working very hard on their own versions of a gingerbread story.  First, we read several different versions of the stories.  We determined what was the same in each story such as someone makes a gingerbread man, several people chase him/her, the gingerbread man always sings a little song or rhyme and then the ending.  Does the gingerbread man get away or does someone eat him?  We had a great time inventing our own versions of the story!

Moon Sand??

As we come to the end of our current planner:  How The World Works - we investigated what would happen when you put a dry substance with a wet substance.  First, we took a look at flour and the properties of it.  Next, we explored baby oil.  The big question was why does the flour take the shape of the container yet it's not a liquid. (The Superheroes are great inquirers!)  Then we combined the two substances and we created a new substance: Moon Sand!  Not only does it feel good-it smells good too!  The properties of the substance changed from white to tan and the consistency was different.  As the kids said, "It's more springy"  We were able to create shapes like a 3D cube!