Where is the windiest spot near our school?

 We designed and built anemometers to measure wind speed.  Here we are testing them in the classroom to make sure they work before taking them outside.

Then we measured the wind speed in five locations around school using our anemometers.

Weather Cams in Different Climates

We've been learning about different climates around the world, which has gotten us thinking about what we would wear if we visited those climates and what are the animals and plants like in those climates.  Later on this year, we'll investigate animal survival more closely.  For now, if you want to see what the weather is like in different places around the world, check out these weather cams.

Doing Engineering: Designing Anemometers

Engineers design solutions to problems using their scientific knowledge and math skills.  We want to build anemometers to measure wind speed but we had to find out what materials will catch the wind the best.  Is it better to use something flat or cup-shaped?  Lightweight or heavy?  Big or small?  Stiff or flexible?  We attached sails made out of different materials to a toy bus to see how far they traveled in the wind that we created using a fan.

After collecting some data, we began planning.  Students discussed their ideas with the teammates in order to decide which design to try out first.  Next week we'll begin building.

Back-to-School Night

Thanks to everyone who was able to come and meet our class!

Stories that Gooney Bird Greene Tells

We LOVE Lois Lowry's book Gooney Bird Greene.  

Gooney Bird tells some amazing stories, and they are all absolutely true.

We made this bulletin board to help us keep track of all the characters in the book and all the stories that Gooney Bird tells.

Using arrays to multiply

We've been learning how to use models to help us multiply.  Here are some arrays that we've made.  Can you figure out what we did?  What's the next step to find out how many total m&ms there are?

Here are some pattern block arrays.  What multiplication equation would you write to represent each array?

Welcome to the new school year!

This class loves to read!