Puffer Fish Belly

By Jamaine, Andy, and Max

Lying at the bottom of the sea.

Deep,

floating happily,

Washing up on shore dried out,

go to classroom, smelling like air,

dried out and stiff, 

and that's the rest of the puffer fish.

Small Poems

This week we've been reading "small poems" from a book called All the Small Poems and Fourteen More by Valerie Worth. Small poems are unique because they're written about one object and they use only the necessary words to describe that object and tell its story...no unnecessary words!

After reading lots of small poems, we wrote down specific observations about this interesting starfish. Using our observations we then wrote our very own small poem called starfish. Check out our observations and the finished poem below.

starfish

by Miss Payne’s class

Walked,

Silver and sparkly,

Glinting through the bright sea.

The mute sound of the starfish moving,

Five bumps like popcorn kernels,

A sandcastle attaching to each leg.

Old,

Scaly underside,

Narrow and light brown like coffee stains.

Curled tips like feet,

Tapping along at the bottom of the ocean.

Now lying dead and dry in a classroom,

Smelling of old seafood.

How Much is 1,000?

Our class had a great  time making the 1,000 chart. We are so thrilled to have the chart in the class room. We had to color the chart different colors to make it first-class. Each different color represents a group of 100. Do you know how many groups of 100 you need to make 1,000? We found out you need ten. After we made our 1,000 chart we discovered pattern after pattern! Come in and check it out sometime if you'd like to see it. 

Our new 1,000 chart

Up close with 200

A Good Game of Capture 5

Andy and Dylan playing Capture 5

We found out about a new awesome game called Capture 5. It was pretty challenging but fun at the same time. The first person to capture 5 chips off of the hundred chart wins. The way you capture chips is that you take out 5 cards, then pick how many cards you want to use. You try to pick the cards that will get you to a red chip. There are numbers on the cards like +20 and -30 that help you get to the red chips.

Dylan's Score Sheet

Already Hoping and Dreaming

Hopes and Dreams quilt

This quilt holds all of our hopes and dreams that we would like to do this year. Learning all multiplication facts, reading the Magic Tree House series, and building a marble machine are just a few of our hopes. First we drew our own pictures to go with our Hopes and Dreams for this year. Then we put all of the pictures on a big piece of black paper to make it look like quilt. We had a very fun time making this quilt. Our class was very creative.

Water Cycle Investigations

On Friday we did some investigations into the different parts of the water cycle - condensation, precipitation, and evaporation. To experiment with evaporation, we've left 5 cups of water on our window sill for the past few days. We want to measure how much water is turned from a liquid back into a gas by the sun. 


For our condensation experiment we put ice cubes into a cup of room temperature water. As the ice cooled the water down, the water vapor around the cup was also cooled down and turned back into a liquid. We observed the water droplets on the sides of the cups. 

Did you know that hydrogen and oxygen mixed together form water? Isn't it amazing that two gases come together to make a LIQUID!? If you want to try our experiment at home, just light a candle and place a glass cup over it until it burns out. You will see the droplets of water left on the sides of the glass! Check out the pictures to see the proof. Our Earth has an awesome water cycle! 

Stunning Soil

Last week our class observed and studied soil samples from our own backyards. We were surprised at how different the soil samples from two kids' yards could look! Some soil samples were dark brown with small bits of mulch and others were deep red and clumped together. In some soil samples we found pieces of decaying leaves and grains of sand. The soil samples from Meagan and Casey's yards looked and felt like red clay. 


After studying our own soil we looked at soil graphics from books. We found out there are 3 layers of soil - topsoil, subsoil, and bedrock. Within those 3 layers are different types of soil - humus, sand, silt, and clay. Another type of soil is called loam...this is the type of soil that plants like the best because it has the most nutrients and the best drainage for water. Check out the soil graphics Liam and Ella D. created...