We are BUSY in science!  The next few weeks will involve many fun and interesting experiments, lessons, and opportunity to learn a lot of new concepts.  I LOVE teaching these units.  I've had the pleasure of teaching the third grade units for a number of years and think they are really well done.  I am also enjoying the 4th grade curriculum and learning soOoooOOO much myself!  In our science adventures, we meet as a whole group, work with partners, work in small groups and independently.  Our science notebooks are an important aspect to our learning and offers a place to write about the experiments we are doing.  We have TWO science journals - one that correlates with each unit, and a larger composition book that will be packed full of things from EVERYTHING we do in science.  Here are some pictures of Group A learning about organic and inorganic material.  They have planted seeds in potting soil (organic) and perlite (inorganic) and are watching closely to see what will happen.  They've made predictions, written about what they've done and will continue to monitor and journal what they see happening.  We've also used mycelium plugs and plain wooden plugs and placed them both in petri dishes with coffee grounds.  They will monitor the petri dishes and observe what happens to each plug.  We will continue our mold studies as the next two weeks unfold.  In group B, we are learning about how birds use their beaks to eat and why the shape of their beaks is important.  The Bird Beak Lesson is a lot of fun...using beak models (tongs, sieve, eye dropper, long nail, clothes pin, and cootie catchers) to eat what each bird eats (marshmallows on a stick - mouse meat, small container with herbs floating on top - duck weed, bowl of rice with gummy worms underneath - earth worms, a tall vase full of water - flower nectar, Cherrios - flying insects (they toss them), and paper plates stapled together with marshmallows or raisins inside - grubs in a tree).  We will dissect OWL PELLETS this week.  Warning!  This is one of the BEST science lessons of, well, all time.  They LOVE this lesson.  They will find actual bones, skulls and fur in the pellets.  They will also want to bring them home.  These pellets are purchased from a company that cleans them, and are safe for them to handle.  Watching their faces when they discover bones and skulls is priceless.  Oh the fun we have!