In third grade we are starting to learn about world biomes, ecosystems, and habitats. Below is a Symbaloo that Mr. Soskil made for us to do some research on world biomes. Clicking on the tiles will take you to websites with information.
We are lucky to live in a place where nature surrounds us. After learning about the life cycle of plants and insects, we decided to hike the nature trail to see if we could find examples of what we were learning. We also were hoping to find some amphibians, since we'll be studying their life cycle next.
There were lots of insects, and we saw bees pollinating flowers, lots of examples of seed and fruit, and a few caterpillars. Mr. Soskil did find one frog, but it hopped away before we could catch it. We also found some different kinds of mushrooms. We learned that they aren't plants or animals, but are a kind of organism called "fungus." Since the 5th graders are learning about fungus, Mr. Soskil took a few mushrooms back to the science lab for them to study. Some pictures from our hikes are below. Our third graders are learning about different parts of plants. We learned that roots take minerals and water from the soil to help the plant grow. The stem has little tubes in it that transport that water and those minerals to the leaves. We learned that the leaves take energy from the sun and turn it into food for the plant. We even learned a great new science word - "Photosynthesis." That's what the leaves do when they turn the sunlight into food. We were wondering, though, what is inside a seed before it starts to grow? First we made some predictions by drawing what we thought would be inside. Then, Mr. Soskil cut some seeds open for us and let us look under a magnifying glass. We found that each seed had a protective shell called a "Seed Coat", food for the baby plant called "Seed Leaf", and a little tiny developing plant inside. The best learning is messy. Today we planted seeds so that we could learn about how they grow over the next few weeks. Since we learned that plant roots need water and minerals from the soil to grow, we went out to the garden fill our containers with dirt. Then, we used rulers to plant our bean seeds 1 inch deep, just like the directions on the seed bag said. Each class over the next few weeks, we'll check on our plants to see how they are growing. Below are some pictures from when we got soil from the garden.
Mrs. Rickard's class took a virtual field trip to the Bahamas today to learn about sharks from marine biologist Jillian Morris at Sharks4Kids. During the Skype call, Jillian taught us about lots of different kinds of sharks, answered our questions, and told us about her job. Mrs. Rickard's class is now going to make posters to teach the other students in the school what they learned about sharks, to tell people how important sharks are for our oceans, and to encourage others to help save these great animals.
To kick off our studies about animals this year, each of the three third grade classes got to play Mystery Animal Skype, where we videoconferenced with another class or teacher. Each side took turns asking yes/no questions to try and guess the other's animal. Afterwards we talked about ways that we could use our questions to split groups of animals in ways that could help us find the answer quicker. We connected with kids and teachers in Kenya, Nepal, and New Hampshire.
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AuthorMr. Soskil and the South Elementary 3rd grade science students Archives
March 2017
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