The Big Bang of Space Inquiry

We had fun learning through our reading, writing and researching about space.  Here are some of our thoughts.

My favorite part was putting my constellations poster on display. It was interesting that the Big Dipper is not a constellation.  There are 88 constellations.  There are so many. I hope people noticed how much work I put into my display.

It is fun and I learn.  The Milky Way can hold up to 400 billion stars.  The Milky Way is big.  That it has 400 billion stars.

The best part was gathering information for my trifold.  The Kuiper Belt is 20 to 200 more massive compared to the Asteroid Belt.  The Oort Cloud is outside around our solar system.  The Hale-Bopp comet has three tails.

Making the trifold and doing research it was so fun!  Kuiper Belt Objects are called KBO’s.  Pluto was downgraded in 2006.  Pluto has three moons.

Finding out about the dark spot on Neptune.  Neptune has a 165 year orbit around the Sun, but it only has a 16 hour day.  All the amazing pictures and facts.

 

 

 

 

 

I had a lot of fun learning all about Mars like the volcano, moons and water.  There are two moon.  I think that is very cool.  There is water on the top and bottom and that was cool because I never knew that.  Most people think there is only one moon called Demios, but there are two: Phobos and Demios.

 

 

My favorite part of the museum was sharing with everyone.  The pressure at Uranus’ core is 8 million bars.  Uranus is the only planet found by telescope.  These are my favorite facts.  I hope people learn something new and enjoyed my display – also all the the displays.

 

 

The best part of the research was working with my friend and learning about Saturn.  The two most interesting facts I learned about Saturn were that Saturn’s core is the size of Earth and that Saturn’s rings are organized by the first seven letters of the alphabet.  Saturn is interesting.  Even thought Saturn is a gas giant it has six layers.

I had a lot of fun learning with Garrett about Saturn.  Saturn’s moon, Titan, is bigger than Mercury.  The tiny core of Saturn is the size of Earth.  The facts and the trifold and we got to work together.

The best part of the research was getting to put the trifold together.  The two most interesting things I learned were there 12 people gone to the moon.  I thought only Neil Armstrong went to the moon.  The moon can show up in different colors.  The moon can be orange.  I hope people noticed that it worked on it to impress people.

The easiest things for me to do were:  the research, planning and making my display and the typing.  Lightning is hotter than the Sun.  I was amazed.  I didn’t know that before.  The sun will die in about 5.6 billion years.  I was amazed because I thought is would be shorter.  They noticed the research and how I put the display.

 

I like making Venus – the little planet for my poster.  I like that its a planet that rotates backwards compared to all the other planets.  I think it’s a cool display and it had cool facts on it.

 

 

 

I like making my trifold and seeing how great everybody else’s was.  I think the most interesting thing I learned is that there is an Asteroid Belt.  I just thought asteroids were flying out in space.  I liked by 3-D asteroid.  I put two pieces of black paper together with tape nad made a slot in the tape.  I put a gray oval through the slot and it was 3-D.

In my research the best part was getting the information.  One of the most interesting pieces of information was that there are 88 constellations.  It is amazing how many there can be.  There’s probably thousands of stars making them.  Another one of the most interesting pieces of information is that the Big Dipper is not technically a constellation.  It’s part of one called Ursa Major.  During our museum I hoped that people would notice my hard work and my information.

I liked making my poster and learning new stuff about black holes.  The first most interesting fact about black holes is you can escape from them.

The best part about the inquiry was learning new information.  I was excited to learn that a meteorite crashed in Russia while I was learning about it.  A meteoroid goes 2,500 time faster than the fastest baseball pitch.  I thought that was exciting.  How large is the second largest meteoroid?  It was 15.5 tons.

I liked all of my research.  I liked going on the computer and with books and building my model.  Jupiter is 480 million miles from the Sun.  Jupiter in named after one of the Greek Gods.  I liked sharing all my work and my model of Jupiter.

3E’s Inquiry Museum Info-Written by the entire class

This week we had our Inquiry Museum.  Inquiry is when you study something and become an expert on it.  Everybody studied their own topic.  At the museum it was really fun to talk about our subjects and teach people about our topics.  We got to spread our information around.  A lot of people studied animals, but we also had a good variety of topics.  It was good to see our families learn about things they did not know before.  Some people taught us more about our topics when they came to talk to us and ask us questions.  It was really fun teaching people information they did not know.  We did not think kids could teach grown-ups, but we did!

Here are the topics we chose to study and some of the interesting information we learned:

Collin – It was really interesting to learn about Pocket Bikes and spread the information around. They are small, but they can go fast.  Ellie – It was fun to learn about lightning and hear people say they did not know that lightning occurs inside an active volcano. Elijah – I liked learning about dogs and teach people about dew claws. Joe – I think it was fun to learn about skunks because I never know they could swim or that they could run nine miles per hour. Daniel – It was fun learning about the army and that German Shepherds are mostly used as Army dogs.  Catherine – It was fun to learn about chinchillas.  I learned they have to take one or two dust baths a week.

Ella – It was fun to spread figure skating around. People did not know Michelle Kwan won the Olympics. Naish – It was fun to hear people say they were interested in learning a lot about snowboarding. The founder of snowboarding was Sherman Poppins.  The first snowboarder ever made was called a snurfer. Ella – It was fun teaching people about leopards and that leopards walk on their tip toes. Garrett – It was fun to let people know what happened to Abraham Lincoln a long time ago and to remind them what a good president he was. Caroline – It was fun teaching people about owls. Some people were shocked that the wing span of a Great Grey Owl was bigger than Mrs. Eaves. Trevor – I thought it was fun learning about blob fish. The question I got most was “Where did you find out about them?” My answer was that I learning about them in The Ultimate Weird but True book.

Julia – It was fun letting people learn about jaguars. The question I got most often was, “where do they live?” I told them jaguars live in South America in the Amazon rainforest. Brandon-It was fun learning about German Sheperds. There were a lot of facts about them. Questions I got included “When were they found?” “Who made the breed?” “Why I wanted to learn about German Shepherds?” They are really smart and brave and strong and I am German so I always wanted one since I was a baby. Gabby-I liked teaching people about Sunday River. The person who started Sunday River was climbing up it when he thought of creating a ski slope. His name was Tom Thurston. Sam-I liked teaching people about the wold populations. Calvin-I thought it was fun teaching people about macaws. An interesting fact is that they are at least three feet tall. Brandon M-It was fun learning about wild cats.  What surprised me was the lion had the loudest roar. You can hear a lion roar up to five miles. Noah-It was interesting learning about lemurs because I never knew much about them before. My favorite lemurs are the mouse lemur and the flying lemur.

We had so much fun at the museum we hope to do it again.  There will be new topics. We have to get used to presenting. There will be more information, different things, and some people might learn new animals and stuff.

Our “New” Principal Joins Music Share

Today we had a new principal – Garrett!  He spent the day touring and leading the school to see all that happens in each of the grades.  Garrett said he had a good time, was able to go into the staff lounge and enjoy many different snacks throughout the day.  The class thought he had been pretty lucky.  Garrett not only led the school, he also participated in the holiday music share. We have a talented and fun loving class when it comes to music.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a bit of what our music share looked like.

 

Happy Vacation!  Happy New Year!

Secret Friends Revealed

            I may say the same thing each week – but your children are truly wonderful!  Yesterday was so full of excitement and energy, and it was also full of thoughtfulness and work. We continued talking about the habits for success – specifically optimism and gratitude, because those were two of the three habits we hadn’t considered much before.  Now that we are thinking of them – we can see them everywhere: in our work, in our play, in our friendship.

Celebration of Friendship

            Thank you so much for supporting friendship in 3E. Yesterday we had our “Celebration of Friendship”.  The children had drawn their names randomly from a hat for this project and that combination couldn’t have gone better.  The work they did to write a letter, poem or story for their classmate was wonderful.  They thought about favorites and kindnesses they have seen or felt through the year.  Along with the writing they created a piece of art for their friend, wrapped it and brought it to swap.

Those gifts were beautiful!  The expression on the faces of the giver and the receiver were precious.  I wish I could fully capture the joy and excitement of each of the children as they discovered who their secret friend had been.  The joke in the circle was “thanks, a box…” the light in their eyes when the box was opened and they shear happiness on their faces was magical.   Each friend truly shared gratitude and appreciation for all that had done for him or her.  Each friend was thrilled by the time and effort. The letters, sharing how important they are to each other and to the class were beautiful.  They are something to keep forever.  They are truly a wonderful class of kind and caring friends.

The expressions, comments and affirmations were wonderful gifts in and of themselves.  “Wow!  I would like that…  Oh, look she included… It’s beautiful… thank you!”  We have an amazing group of friends. What a wonderful way to move into a new year.

 

 


 

Thank You to our Veterans

We were very proud to have the opportunity to be part of our school’s Veterans’ Day Assembly.  We practiced at home and at school.  We practiced with Mrs. Oliver on stage so we’d know how to stand and line up.

Click on this link to hear a few seconds of us practicing on stage.

 

 

On Friday we shared our song with the school and our special guests.

I am still trying to figure out how to compress and post the video of “Thank You Soldiers” , but thought you’d enjoy these images in the meantime.

 

Steve Cotler – Becoming a Reading Detective

Cheesie Mack Is Not a Genius or AnythingHere are some of the thoughts the class had when Steve Cotler, author of the Cheesie Mack series came to North Hampton School yesterday.

Steve taught us what a reading detective is.  It is a person who looks for clues in the books they are reading. To be a reading detective you look for words that surprise you.  There is a reason for that.  You should pay attention to that. He wrote the book Cheesie Mac.  He got the idea from the time he was a camp counselor.  Steve Cotler is a very good story teller. He is funny and nice, but strict.  He shared his books and his characters, Cheesie and Georgie, with us and because of this we think he is a good author.

This is when Steve was asking us to make inferences about the personalities of Cheesie and Georgie.

 

When Steven Cotler was telling stories or reading to us we couldn’t get enough.

 We even had Cheesie Mack for lunch.  We look forward to reading the rest of the story.  Will we do it in class?