We may be crazy, but we don't do drugs!

Check out the students who dressed up for crazy outfit and hair day! We had such a wonderful Red Ribbon Week!

In science we have been learning about the reason for the seasons.

	In Winter, the Northern Hemisphere points away from the Sun.  It spends more time in darkness (has longer nights) and the sun's rays are not as concentrated.
	In Spring and Fall, the days are nearly equal in length for both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
	In Summer, the Northern Hemisphere spends more time pointed toward the Sun, and the sun's rays are more concentrated and warmer.
	Throughout the seasons, Earth is almost the same distance from the Sun:  93 million miles.  It is closest to the Sun on about January 3rd (the middle of our winter!) and farthest from the Sun on about July 3.

We have been learning about division in math. We know how to use base ten blocks to break apart a number to see how many equal groups we can make.

23 Degree Tilt

Today in science we learned why the seasons change!

The seasons are caused as the Earth, tilted on its axis, travels in a loop around the Sun each year. Summer happens in the hemisphere tilted towards the Sun, and winter happens in the hemisphere tilted away from the Sun. As the Earth travels around the Sun, the hemisphere that is tilted towards or away from the Sun changes.

The hemisphere that is tilted towards the Sun is warmer because sunlight travels more directly to the Earth’s surface so less gets scattered in the atmosphere. That means that when it is summer in the Northern Hemisphere, it is winter in the Southern Hemisphere. The hemisphere tilted towards the Sun has longer days and shorter nights. That’s why days are longer during the summer than during the winter.

In math we learned how to use arrays to solve division problems. Like our tens and ones cubes that we used yesterday, we can create arrays to find out how many of something goes in a group.

 We practiced independently in our journals.

Reason for the Season

Today in science we each got one sticky note. On that sticky note we wrote why we think the seasons change.

 Then we got together with our tables to work as a team to come up with why the seasons change.

We learned that we will be learning about seasons this week and wrote down definitions in our journals.

 In math today we worked on division. We read a story problem and used base ten blocks to divide out and solve the problems!

Shadows and Partial Products

In science we have been working on shadows! We know that shadows change during the day, depending on where the sun is. We went outside and played "shadow tag"!

We got into groups and answered the following question:

 We had 2 minutes to answer it, then we switched with another group who "finished our thought".

 Then we turned our information into a poster!

In math we have been learning partial products. This just means breaking the numbers down into smaller numbers to make it easier to solve. This is the 4 Square example:

Watch Andrew solve a 4 Square problem!

Rise in the East, Fall in the West

Today in science we learned more about shadows. We know that we can use shadows to find directions! The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. If we know the time of day and the direction of the sun, we can figure out each direction!

 In math we practiced breaking multiplication problems apart to make them easier to solve.

 We used cubes to make arrays, then we broke the array into smaller pieces to make it easier to solve!

Sundials

Today in science we learned about shadows. We know that before there were clocks, people relied on the sun and the shadows it made to tell time. We made our own sundials!

 We traced over the shadow and recorded the time. We went back outside around each hour to see how the shadow had moved!

 We recorded the information in our journals.

Today in math we practiced solving multiplication problems by breaking them down into smaller problems to make it easier to solve. We had to come up with four different ways to solve a problem!

 Here are some examples that we came up with. We will be using the strategies for the rest of the week.

 Today was James' birthday!