Habitat Home Projects

These projects were made as a one-month homework assignment to coincide with our habitat unit in science. The students worked very hard on putting these dioramas together and can you ever tell!  The creativity and time put into these displays shows how much has been learned!  When the projects were brought to school, each student gave an oral report about their creation.  Click on the button below the picture to listen!  

Why do animals go extinct?

In our science class we have been studying habitats and how the organisms work and live together in order to survive in their ecosystem.  The class made wonderful dioramas (which I hope to have up soon!) showing what they had learned through out the unit.  The last unit of this biology section discusses how humans make changes on habitats, both for the good and for the bad.
When we look at Genesis, we are told "Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground." Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it.  They will be yours for food.  And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground--everything that has breath of life in it -- I give you every green plant for food." And it was so.  God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. (Genesis 1:28-31)

With such as responsibility how can we live with the pollution, waste, and damage to the environment?  We should be jumping up and down in eagerness to help and change the world to a better place! After all, it's the reason humanity began!  To take care of God's creation! Then when sin fell into the world, we were bound to mess up. Thank goodness for God's grace and His covenant with us to bring Jesus into the world to save us from our sins....and our filthiness on Earth and what it would become.

As we talk about pollution, waste and damage, we start to learn about animals that did not survive.  How does God feel about entire species dying out?  Are we as humans responsible? Why would God create animals knowing that they would die, like dinosaurs?  (As we discuss these questions, we learned that often questions just bring more and more questions!)

Sometimes we get answers and sometimes we don't.  It's best to trust in God in everything, even our questions.  And if we can't answer questions, we should at least continue to try and do the right thing.  And when it comes to our environment, it is our responsibility to take care of our world.

For some answers on extinction and why habitats can't keep organisms alive, we browsed this website: http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/content/animals/kidscorner/endangered_animals/overview.htm

Math Passports

So it's been awhile since my last post!  I hope to be more consistent...but time hasn't been my friend.  Man...teaching is a lot of work!  But I've been loving (almost) every minute of it!  School is going well!  We're busy into writing stories and publishing them.  We're starting up an awesome novel study on "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe", two field trips coming up for Social Studies and Science, and then there is math.  What's so exciting about math? So here is what I've come up with: math passports.

We are working on multiplication and division facts and I wanted to do this in a fun way, rather than flashcards (as fun as they are!)

In this multiplication passport, there are 24 pages.  Two pages for every number between 1-12.  One side is a practice page.  On the practice page, students record what online multiplication games they have done from the website http://www.fun4thebrain.com/mult.html.  Once the number has been mastered, the student can choose to challenge the number.

The second page is the challenge page.  For the challenge, students meet with me and I flip through flashcards to see if the number has been mastered.  (Mastery is going through 20 flashcards in 60 seconds).
If the student wins the challenge, that passport page is stamped.

*for students who know multiplication facts well, I've challenged them to do division facts!

I hope the students enjoy this invention!  It brings a fun element into math homework!

Totem pole website

http://www.papertotempoles.com/

From chains to webs....with food that is!

So our class has moved on to discuss how food chains are also connected!  All of these patterns are organized together to create a giant food web!  We've made webs out of paper and have drawed them.  Now we are going to do our final copy through the use of the website: http://www.vtaide.com/png/foodweb.htm . 

Also...stay tuned for our habitat projects to be posted online!  Students are busy working at home on the projects!  I'm really looking forward to seeing them!

Math Multiplication

Oh there is nothing like those mad minute tests that all students dread.  The moans and groans are unreal!  But....when you put it onto a computer....Kabam! It's now the coolest thing and its neat to try and beat your time.  Boy do I love technology!

Here is the link we are using in class to practice our multiplication facts.  (you can practice addition, subtraction, and division too!)

http://multiplication.com/quizzes.htm#MultFlashQuiz

Enjoy :)