Astronomy

Astronomy test study guide

The Astronomy unit test will be on Tuesday, December 11, 2012 for Ms. Whalen’s class.

One theory that scientists believe is that the universe was created with a “Big Bang”. There are other theories about how the universe was created.

 Our universe is so large, it is beyond imagination. It continues to get bigger all the time.

 Ptolemy believed that our solar system revolved around the Earth. This was believed until Copernicus (scaredy cat) published his book, right before he died, that stated we were heliocentric (sun centered).

We live in the Milky Way galaxy. Milky Way galaxy is a spiral galaxy. Other types of galaxies are barred, elliptical, and irregular.

 A star is a huge hot ball of glowing gasses. When a star dies it implodes creating a supernova. Black holes are created when a large enough star dies. The mass of the star packs into a dense ball but its weight is the same. This causes an extreme pull of gravity. Anything that comes close will be pulled in. Nothing can escape its pull.

Gravity is the force that holds our universe together. Gravity keeps our planets in their oval orbits around the sun. The amount of mass something has determines how much pull its gravity has: The heavier the planet/star/moon, the stronger the pull of gravity.

 Our nine planets orbit around the sun (eight planets and one dwarf planet). My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto. The inner planets are the rocky planets. Past the asteroid belt, we have the gas planets. Pluto is an icy ball, but classified as a rocky dwarf planet.

There are other things that orbit around our sun such as asteroids and comets. A comet is a ball of ice, dust and gas. As it gets closer to the sun it speeds up and begins to melt. As it melts, the solar winds of the sun create a “tail” on the comet. When we see a comet, the light is seen for days or a week at a time. A meteor is space dust. As this dust enters our atmosphere the friction creates a spark that we might call a “shooting star”. The spark only last a few seconds. There are two times of year when meteor showers happen: August and November. An asteroid is a large chunk of rocky material in space. There is a large collection of asteroids orbiting the sun between the Jupiter and Mars called the asteroid belt.

For Ms. Wetzel's homeroom class

          Ancient Rome Study Guide

Ancient Romans worshipped many gods and goddesses

Pompeii was buried when Mt. Vesuvius erupted

Patricians- were members of powerful and wealthy families

Plebeians- ordinary working Romans

The city center was called the forum.

A dictator for life during the last days of the Roman Republic was Julius Caesar

Roman Senators killed Julius Caesar

Octavian’s name was changed to Augustus after he took power

Well-built roads connect the provinces to Rome

Roman Empire surrounded the Mediterranean Sea

 At the Coliseum Romans watched fights between gladiators and wild beasts

At Circus Maximus Romans watched chariot races.

Legendary twin brothers who founded Rome- Romulus and Remus

Romans persecuted Christians because Christians refused to worship Roman gods

First Christian Roman Emperor-Constantine

Rome defeated Carthage in all 3 Punic Wars

What were at least 3 reasons for the fall of Rome?

1. Greedy, selfish emperors;
2. provinces unprotected from attack;
3. corrupt generals;
4. murder of senators and powerful Romans;
5. civil wars that destroyed towns and farms and disrupted trade;
6. lack of food and people without jobs and homes;
7. army made up of foreigners and soldiers were poorly treated;
8. Barbarians attacked and drove Romans out.

 

Eye, Ear, Light and Sound quiz

The Ear and Sound Study Guide

You need to be able to fill out the parts of the ear.

Sound is vibrations that travel in waves.

The reason you feel dizzy after spinning for a period of time is that your brain is confused. It is receiving two messages from your body. One- your semi-circular canals have liquid in them that continues to move after you stop which tells your brain that you are still moving. Two- your legs tell your brain that you have stopped moving. You become dizzy and may fall.

There are many ways to keep your ears healthy. Some of them are…

• Let a doctor remove your earwax when necessary.
• Don’t listen to loud noises for long periods of time.
• Wear hearing protectors like ear plugs or ear muffs if you are going to be around loud noises.
• Don’t ever place sharp things into your ears.

The Light and Eye Study Guide

Know these definitions:

- Refract: to bend
- Reflect: to bounce back
- Transparent: You can see clearly through it and light can pass through it. (A window, eye glass lens, glass, water.)
- Translucent: You can not see clearly through it, you can see shadows of objects. Light can pass through it. (Most colored glass or glass with a design, fluorescent light covers, some shades, gauzy curtains).
- Opaque: You can not see through it. No light can pass through it. (Person, car, tree, wall, desk, chair.)
- Convex: curved outward- Larger view, used in stores to see around corners. Used in microscopes.
- Concave: curved inward- smaller view, objects appear upside down. Used in telescopes.

Know this information:

• - Light travels in a straight line.
• - Light is energy.
• -We can only see things when light hits an object and bounces off it. The light from the object then travels through our pupils which creates an upside-down image on our retina. The image then travels on the optic nerve to the brain, where it is turned right side up again.
• - Dark objects absorb more light than light colored objects. This is why dark clothing is hotter in the summer. It is collecting more energy from the light.
• -When light is blocked by an opaque object, a shadow of the object is formed.
• -White light is made up of a spectrum of colors (all the colors of the rainbow).

An oldie but goodie post...

Aiding your child's understanding of Literature

During conference I spoke to many families about how to help increase their child’s comprehension (understanding) of what they are reading by asking questions about what they read. I thought this information might be important to shall with all of you!

These are some quality questions that provide different levels of understanding you can ask while they are working on their homework or after reading together for fun.

At the beginning of the book-

What does the title tell you about the story? Have you read any other books by this author?

What do you think will happen in this story?

What background knowledge do you already have about the character or setting?

Have you read any other books based in this time period?

How might the story relate to you?

Middle of the book:

What questions do you have about the story?

Why did the character act the way they did?

Predict how the story will end. What clues did you use to make your prediction?

How would you have solved the problem?

How could the character have avoided the problem?

End of the book:

Summarize the story

How was the problem solved?

How would you end the story differently?

If you could re-name the story- what would you name it?

What lesson can you learn from the story?

Compare and contrast you and the main character.

What is the main idea of the story?

Retell just one main event of what we read.

Thank you so much for your support and reading with your child at home!!!

Tara Whalen

1st Interim Assessment

The results are in for the 1st round of interim assessments and our students did extremely well!! All three class teachers are so proud of how our students worked. It was so obvious to us how much effort the students put into their writing. Thank you, parents, for your support during this process. It means the world to us!

Fun Skeleton labeling game!!!

My daughter, Bailey, found this fun skeleton game online. You can either build a skeleton or label the bones. This is great to study with for those in Ms. Miles' class who are learning it now, or just for fun with Ms. Wetzel's class and mine.
Enjoy!

Skeleton game

Class snack

Ms. Whalen's class is out of school snack. Please provide your student with a home snack or if you are willing, we would love to get some healthy donations! :)

Donations are appreciated but not required at this time. Thanks!

Language Arts Interim

Hello Parents!

Our first interim assessment for language arts is just around the corner. On October 24, your child will be taking an exam which will cover several topics.

Parts of Speech ~ Students will need to identify and explain the purpose of nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and pronouns. 

Spelling ~ Students will be tested on grade level words from the Sitton units that we have covered.

Expository/Informational Writing ~ Students will plan, edit and write a 3-paragraph essay over the course of 2 days.  Students will be tested on their ability to organize their writing, use a strong topic sentence, utilize transitions and an effective conclusion.

Websites:

            Parts of Speech –

http://www.missmaggie.org/scholastic/cleanup_eng_launcher.html

http://www.funbrain.com/grammar/index.html

Spelling –

http://www.funbrain.com/spell/index.html

http://www.spellingcity.com/ Sign up on this site, find Highline Academy in the list of schools, and you will see the 3^rd grade words for the entire year.  Students can play games and study spelling online.

Writing –

http://www.readwritethink.org/parent-afterschool-resources/grade/3-4/

 

Please let me know if you have any questions or find more websites to share.

Thank you

Recorders

Dear Parents,

We are playing Recorder Karate in music class, which means whenever we pass an assigned song we get another belt towards earning the black belt. The students are allowed to take the recorders home to practice and must bring them back for each music class.

In the bag is a rod and a piece of cloth to use for cleaning the recorders, please do not throw them away. Recorders may also be washed in the dishwasher on the top shelf.

The first belt is white and is awarded for successfully playing "Hot Cross Buns" with the left hand on top and also producing a pure tone. Students are encouraged to initiate sounds with their tongues as if they were spitting out a watermelon seed versus a whooing sound like an owl.

If you have any questions, please contact me, Ms. Tobias, at stobias@highlineacademy.org.

Thank you for the wonderful opportunity to share music with your children.

Ms. Tobias
Music Teacher

Science study guide for Muscles, Bones and the Nervous System

Ms. Whalen's class will take the assessment on Thursday, September 13th.

Muscles, Bones and Nervous System

Study Guide

Students should be able to:

• Label 15-20 bones of the human body. (word bank will be provided)
• Identify the number of bones in an adult human body. (206).
• Name the three functions of the skeleton as form, protection and movement.
• Name the largest, longest bone in the body as the femur, or upper leg bone.
• Describe how bones are made up of four layers: “bone skin”, compact bone, spongy bone and bone marrow.
• Explain the reasons how we know that bone is a living thing. They heal themselves. They grow. They make blood.
• Name the four types of joints and be able to label them on the skeleton.
• Hinge joint- fingers, toes, knees and elbows
• Pivot joint- wrists, elbows and neck
• Ball and socket- shoulders and hips
• Gliding joint- spine
• Name the three types of muscles as voluntary, involuntary and cardiac. They will also need to give examples of how each is used. Voluntary muscles are muscles that we can control such as kicking a ball or writing a letter. Involuntary muscles are muscles that we do not control such as our brain functioning, our lungs breathing, our digestive system working. Our cardiac muscle is our heart.
• Define
• ligaments as tissue that connects bone to bone
• Tendons as tissue that connects muscle to bone
• Cartilage as the tissue that is known as soft bone like that in our nose and ears. Also, as the jelly like substance found in between bones which reduces friction.
• Joints are where two bones meet.

There are 3 parts of the Nervous system- the brain, the spinal cord and the nerves.

There are 3 parts of the Brain that they need to identify- the cerebrum, the cerebellum and the brain stem.

 Extra Credit: If you can name some of the things that each part of the brain does, you can earn some extra credit. Examples that you can use are below…

Cerebrum-

Actions that take place in the cerebrum:

• Voluntary muscles. (voluntary muscles are those that we can control- for skiing, walking, jumping, writing, etc)
• Thinking
• Learning
• Personality
• 5 senses
• Memory- long term and short term
• Left side of the cerebrum controls the right side of the body. Right side controls the left side of the body.
• There is a thick bundle of nerves that connects the hemispheres so that they can “talk” to each other.
• Left hemisphere of the cerebrum:      
• Math
• Science
• Logical reasoning
• Right hemisphere of the cerebrum:
• Art
• Music
• Creativity

Cerebellum-

• Balance and Coordination

Brain stem (also called the Medulla)-

• “central computer”
• “Post office”- sorts messages received from the body and sends them to the brain. Receives messages from the brain and sends them to the body.
• Involuntary muscles (involuntary muscles work on their own such as breathing, heart beating and digestion)
• Reflexes

Spinal cord-

• Carries messages from the body to the brain
• Carries messages from the brain to the body

 

 

 

Welcome to the 2012-2013 school year!!

Wow! How has a week of school already gone by? We are off and running and really looking forward to a great year with your children.

This year we will really focus hard on writing skills. The first language arts unit has a focus of expository writing. Most students in our school come out of 2nd grade already strong writers in expository writing therefore we can build 3rd grade skills within a style that they are already comfortable.

Ms. Whalen's class will be starting the year with Science- Muscles, Bones and the Nervous System.
Ms. Wetzel's class will begin the year with map skills and then will travel on to Canada and World Rivers.
Ms. Miles' class is beginning with her readers and writers workshop.

Thank you for supporting us and your student as we travel through this year together!

End of the year

Ms. Wetzel and I would like to take a minute to thank you all for an amazing school year!! We are so grateful that you share your children with us. Your partnership with us this year has truly helped your child be so successful. They are all better readers, mathematicians, and are incredible writers! We hope you enjoy your summer and remember to keep your child reading!!

Ms. Whalen and Ms. Wetzel

PS: don't forget to work on those summer packets!

love and logic

The Crippling of America's Youth
Weekly Tip from the Love and Logic^® Experts

Dear Tara,

I just received this email from one of our wonderful customers:

Dear Mr. Fay,

I have been to many Love and Logic trainings and have been passing along the lessons for some time. I just wanted to share with you a personal story of something that happened today which just proves what you have been teaching all this time. I thought of you instantly. I will keep all details out to protect the business and the person involved.

At a current place of business, which is a corporate/professional level, highly skilled type business, a young (meaning twenty-something) gentleman showed up for an interview today with his parents. Yes, they really did sit in on the interview. No, he did not really need them there.

Apparently, they were to help with his nervousness and morale, and they wanted to help him with the discussion regarding salary.

Now here is the very definition of helicopter parents that do not have a grasp of boundaries and have enabled their "baby."

Needless to say, this particular candidate was not the one chosen.

Hope this story may help you during some presentation to get the point across that we are crippling our youth.

Sincerely,

Marlene, a loyal Love and Logic advocate

The audio CD, Helicopters, Drill Sergeants, and Consultants has been one of our most popular audios for many years, but never before has it been so important for parents to understand the damage that can be done out of love. If you don’t own it, get it today. Listen first for the laughs and several more times for the skills. And, yes, it’s great for your kids to hear it with you in the car. If you're interested in learning more skills to raise responsible kids, come out to our Summer Conference.

Thanks for reading.

Jim Fay

Our goal is to help as many families as possible. If this is a benefit, forward it to a friend.

©2012 Love and Logic Institute, Inc. All copyright infringement laws apply. Permission granted for forwarding and/or for a single photocopy or electronic reproduction of one email tip only. Please do not alter or modify. For more information, call the Love and Logic Institute, Inc. at 800-338-4065.

Ecology study guide

Ecology Study Guide…..Test Tuesday May 29 (Ms. Wetzel’s class) or Thursday May 31 (Ms. Whalen’s class)

What is a food chain? Transfer of energy through producers, consumers and decomposers that creates the balance of nature.

The members of a food chain

Sun: the first step in the food chain- gives energy to producers

Producer (plants): They make their own food from the energy they get from the sun.  (bushes, trees, grass, weeds, veggies, fruits, etc)

Primary Consumer (herbivores): They eat the Producers which gives them energy. (bunnies, squirrels, deer, caterpillars, etc)

Secondary Consumer (Carnivores): They eat the Primary Consumers which transfers the energy to them. (foxes, bears, cats, mountain lions, dogs, wolves, birds, people, etc)

Decomposer (fungi, bacteria, worms): They break down the dead bodies’ of plants and animals which in turn transfers the energy back into the soil.

Things we can do that help the environment

Reduce- use less water, turn off lights or TVs when they are not being used

Reuse- clothing- donate or hand down, water bottles, plastic containers

Recycle- paper, cardboard, steel, aluminum cans, plastic containers, newspapers

Why is it important to have a balance in nature?

It is important to have a balance in nature because when there is more of one resource such as deer and not enough of another such as food, all the food will be eaten up which in turn will cause the deer to die out. It is important to have enough food to feed the deer, wolves to help keep the herd sizes down, which in turn will allow more food to grow.

Other Vocabulary:

Water pollution: To make water dirty from harmful liquids, trash or gas.

Air pollution: To make the air dirty from harmful gases such as exhaust from a car or smoke from a factory.

Land pollution: To make the land dirty from harmful trash not being thrown away properly.

Ecosystem: A specific community of living and nonliving things interacting in an environment.

Environment: The natural surroundings of a living thing

Compost: Adding nutrients back to the soil through old food and grass clippings

Recycle: Use again

Pure Stream: Sorting things so that like things being recycled are together

Help!!!

In science right now we are studying Ecology. One service project that I like to do with the classes is an environmental cleanup. My plan is to walk over to the Highline Canal walkway on Thursday afternoon (2:30 to 3:15ish) with Ms. Wetzel's class. On Friday, I will take my class (also 2:30 to 3:15ish).

If you are available to walk with us to help keep us safe and on task I would love, love, love you to come!!! Please email me twhalen@highlineacademy.org to let me know if you can come. Thanks!

Quiz 1 Southern Colonies

 Test Wetzel’s 5/21 & Whalen’s 5/22

Jamestown was the first permanent English settlement.

John Smith said that colonists that did not work could not eat.

Jamestown almost did not survive The Starving Time.

Maryland was begun as a refuge for English Catholics

The first cash crop in the colonies was tobacco.

South Carolina’s cash crops were rice and indigo.

The Middle Passage was the trip from Africa to America.

Slaves did most of the work on plantations.

James Oglethorpe tried to start a colony for poor people in Georgia.

Many of the colonial settlers were from the continents of Europe and Africa.

Be able to Label the five southern Colonies on a map.