Monday, April 4, 2016

Welcome back from spring break!  Today marked the beginning of a new week, a new month, a new unit (ecosystems) and a new quarter - the 4th and final quarter!  

With this being the last quarter of the school year, testing will be upon us in about two months.  This Thursday will be the mock EOG for reading which will involve a testing simulation of students staying in their homerooms.  The math will be on Thursday, May 5th and will be similar in how it is administered.  

How will it be similar?  The students will remain in their homeroom class and will have at least three hours to do the test.  There will be no switching of classes that day and there will likely be an extended recess time.  Also, testing accommodations will be in effect so those who require a separate room with a read aloud will get it.  

How will it be different?  I will not be covering up posters nor taking them down.  Lunch will be at the normal time and students who have not finished will be able to resume after we return from recess.  Specials will likely be held since 4th grade has it at the end of the day.  Lastly, the test will not count but will be a valuable tool in seeing where students are and where they need to go for the final stretch.  

In science we began the new unit on ecosystems by taking notes.  First, there was a warm-up that didn't count for a grade since it is the very beginning.

Afterwards, the students took notes since this is the first day of the new unit on ecosystems.
​
Environment – all that surrounds us
Adaptation – the ability to respond to change
Behavior – the actions of a living thing
Survival – the ability to remain alive
Drought – a prolonged period of little to no rainfall
Predator – an animal that hunts another to obtain food
Prey – a hunted animal that becomes a food source
Camouflage – the ability of an organism to blend in with its environment to avoid predators
Ecosystem – all of the living and nonliving things in an area
Population – all of the living things in the same group, living in the same area
Individual – a single member of a group
Interact – how organisms respond to each other
Overpopulation – too many of a species for the environment
Habitat – where an organism lives
Producer – plants that create their own energy
Consumer – animals that eat plants and/or other animals for energy
Decomposer – bacteria and fungi that break down dead organisms and provide nutrients to soil
Pollution – harmful things to an environment and its inhabitants
Ecology – the scientific study of the relationships between living things and their environments
​Food Chain – the order of what is eaten in an environment to obtain energy
Food Web – a series of food chains
Nocturnal – active at night
Instinct – behavior that you are born with and didn’t have to learn
Thrive – to do very well
Perish – to die
Flood – too much water for an environment to handle
Basic Needs – what an organism requires to survive
Impact – how something affects another
Competition - the fight between organisms for a limited amount of resources, usually food
Biotic – living things
Abiotic – nonliving things
Invasive Species – a nonnative plant or animal that takes over an environment
Renewable Resource – something that can be replaced
Nonrenewable Resource – something that cannot be replaced
Recycling - taking something and making it into something different
Defense – the way a plant or animal protects itself against predators in order to survive

If any student was not able to finish taking all of the notes due to time constraints, I will allow some class time tomorrow.