More about the food chain

We need to clarify our previous post because we have learned more about the food chain.

The food chain has four parts as a pyramid.  The first level is the producers.  The second level is herbivores.  The third level is carnivores.  The final level is decomposers.  Decomposers are bacteria, fungus and worms.  When an animal eats part of a plant and leaves some, the decomposers break down the rest of the plant and make it into soil.

We learned that if part of the chain breaks, it affects the entire chain.

Science

Today in science, we talked about:

• the human body and about the nervous system.  Specifically, we learned that nerves are connected to the brain.
• ecosystems and what they are.  They are places where abiotic (non-living) and biotic (living) entities depend on each other.
• changes in our terrariums and aquariums, like the water in the aquarium decreasing and the plants in the terrariums grew.
• food chains.  A video said that the food chain is like a game with 4 levels that look likes a pyramid.   The first level consists of herbivores and where plants die and decompose.  The second and third levels include carnivores.  The fourth level includes worms, bacteria and bugs.

Recent News

In math we have been talking about angles.  We have been measuring the angles of different shapes with the angles of other shapes.  For example, we use a square and put the vertex of a rhombus into the vertex of the square, and we discovered that three of the rhombuses' angles fit into the right angle of the square, so we know that the acute angles of our rhombuses equal 30 degrees each.  Then we can use those angles to help us measure other unknown angles.

In sadder news, Perla and Katelyn left our classroom, and some of us were crying.  We didn't know that Katelyn was leaving until her cousin came to pick up her things because she was returning to the Dominican Republic.  With Perla, she left because she moved to a different place in Boston, but the bus wouldn't pick her up where she lived, so she had to go to a different school.

Today

In Writing, we were adding transitions words.  These are words that we use to help the reader understand the flow of our writing.  For example, we could use "first," "then," and "after that" to show the reader the order of our thoughts.

In Science, we discussed how we are going to improve our bridges next time.  One idea is to expand the bridges to cover the 12 inch gap and use the cable design.   To do this, one uses an acute triangle and cables or wires hang off the triangle and connect to the other acute triangles.

In Math, we talked about geometry, specifically about quadrilaterals, which are shapes that have four sides, four vertices, and four angles.  Some specific quadrilaterals are squares, rhombuses, trapezoids, and rectangles.  Since we are looking at the attributes of polygons, we also found synonyms for the word "attributes."  Some these include "characteristics," "features," "qualities," and "traits."

Bridge Challenge Continued

Dear Readers,

After a week of anticipation, yesterday we held our bridge competition.  Here is the link to the video of the tests: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tU3Oc0oAtDw.  We have already started reflecting on our designs, and the students have begun to excitedly discuss how to make their bridges stronger for next time.

We would appreciate any feedback.

Sincerely,

Mr. V

Multiplication and Division

We have written story problems like:

• Natalie wants to buy 54 pencils for each student in her classroom.  There are 27 students.  How many pencils will she need to buy?
• Natalie has 100 apples, and she had 13 students.  How many apples does each student get if they get the same amount?

Can you figure out which is multiplication and which is division?

We also talked about mathematical symbols, like less than (<), more or greater than (>), and does not equal (≠).

In addition, we have discussed exponents, which mean a small number that goes on top of the big number.  For example, 21^3 = 21x21x21 = 9,261.


On Wednesday, we're having our test.

A few notes

Over the past few days, we've been involved in a number of projects, including:

• creating arguments and gathering supportive evidence for persuasive letters on the topic of euthanasia of stray cats and dogs;
• exploring and using multiple multiplication strategies;
• discussing the exact definition of "congruent" (i.e., besides having the same size and shape, does it also mean having the same orientation?);
• summarizing chapters to two or three sentences that provide the main topic and the most important details; and 
• learning about and practicing bike safety.