Week of 4-28-08

Problem Solving

Today students fired up their brains with two logic problems, a challenging perplexor, and a word boggler. Our students have learned to use their deductive reasoning skills effectively and consider the implications of each clue given to help solve the problem at hand.

Unit Work

Students brainstormed words associated with weather as a class and discussed how weather impacts their daily lives. We examined a real thermometer and noted the temperature at several different times during the day.

Classes examined the meaning of the expression, " Be careful what you wish for." Teachers then read the book Bartholomew and the Oobleck to their students. After thoroughly discussing the book, students made their own cup of oobleck.

We conducted a number of experiments with our oobleck, followed up with a lesson on solids and liquids, and introduced the term non-Newtonian to our students.

Vocabulary words this week were precipitation, non-Newtonian, and floundering.

In the afternoon, teachers read Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs to their classes and encouraged students to make a text to text comparison of this book to Bartholomew and the Oobleck.