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The Wax Museum has come and gone. As I had mentioned before, I was very impressed and pleased both by the effort of my students and how much they took ownership of their work. Though it was time consuming, I feel that it was well worth it considering how students were able to apply what they had learned in literacy and do something that they were interested in! I believe we will soon be shifting towards a science project once we really get into the ecosystems unit of instruction. As always, any relevant information will be shared via Parent Square, the newsletter, and by creating a dedicated page on this website. First, we began with a warm-up to review theme:  In literacy, we are continuing the study of how poetry, prose, and dramas are similar and different from one another (comparing and contrasting). For today's lesson, I had the class get on their Chromebooks and do a Nearpod lesson. I originally had it as a live lesson then switched it to self-paced. In science, we are finishing up the rocks and minerals unit. Our focus today was a hands-on simulation of the Law of Superposition and of metamorphic rock. The Law of Superposition states that with sedimentary rock, the lower layers are the oldest ones since sedimentary rock is the result of a gradual build-up. Sediment gets dropped in layers (sedimentation). As layers above it accumulate, the lower layers are hardened over long periods of time into rock (cementation). The simulation involved each student getting a sheet of wax paper and five Swedish Fish in different colors (after washing their hands). The Swedish Fish represents layers of sediment. Students placed layers of "sediment" one after another on top of each other to make a small stack. We waited one minute between layers and wrote down the time on the wax paper. They then noted which layer was the oldest (the bottom) simply by looking at the times written down. The second part of this simulation involved metamorphic rock. As layers of rock accumulate more and more on top of existing rock, the heat and pressure eventually become great enough to cause the rocks to change, which is exactly what metamorphosis means. This process was simulated by covering the layers of the "rock" with the rest of the wax paper and smashing it down. After unwrapping it, they drew a picture of how it changed. Comments are closed.
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