Bay Bridge Construction WebQuest: Withstanding Earthquakes

http://www.eduweb.com/portfolio/bridgetoclassroom/earthmoves.html

Students, please click on the above link and complete the "Bay Bridge Construction" webquest.  After learning about the interior of the Earth, do you think you will be able to design a bridge that can with withstand an earthquake of 6.7 or higher on the Richter Scale in the San Francisco Bay area?

University of Colorado Fiske's Planetarium

Great Lakes Debate!

On Thursday students participated in our inaugural classroom debate, "Health of the Great Lakes Ecosystem." Students selected a position as a "Great Lakes Booster" or a "Great Lakes Doomer" whereby students used background information from our classroom work to debate the current health of the Great Lakes and created a mini-poster with claims.  Those students in two of the blocks were able to debate with and against with Ms. Bamford's class in a cross-program debate which was a unique experience too!  This was a great opportunity to hear the positions and supporting details of these young debaters!  The video segments did not turn out and will post a video when the next debate falls on us.  Thank you debaters for a fun day! 

Great Lakes Ecosystem

How should we best use and protect Earth's freshwater ecosystems?  This is the guiding question that students will research over the next two weeks in an in-depth case-study of the Great Lakes ecosystem.  Yesterday, we looked at the 1972 Great Lakes Water Quality agreement between the United States and Canada that took measures to start the cleanup efforts of the polluted Lakes.  The students are pointing toward a girl's shirt that says, "Happiness is Lake Erie!" How fitting after our study of the "Lorax!"   

7 Line Country Poems

Students,

Please use the following websites to help you find information about two countries you would like to research further.  (Please refer to page 21 in your SS Journal for research categories.)

http://kids.yahoo.com/reference/world-factbook
http://www.factmonster.com
http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/places/
http://www.countryfacts.com/
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/

Fall Intersession Postponed to November 14th

Our Fall Intersession has been postponed from October 26th to November 14th due to the winter storm.  All of the details remain the same.  Here we come Fiske Planeterium!

Land & Water Features PowerPoint

EarthBuzz Students,

Please use the following resources to help you find definitions for land and water features of Earth.

http://dictionary.factmonster.com

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/geography/glossary/

http://dictionary.com

Fall Intersession #1

 Field trip to the University of Colorado’s Fiske Planetarium

“Cosmic Collisions”

Interaction laser and light laboratory included!

University of Colorado Campus

Wednesday October 26^th, 2011

9:00 – 1:30

http://fiske.colorado.edu/

*Students will need to return their permission slip to Ms. Donahue by October 14th

* Students have received a hard copy of information regarding this Intersession!

Twitter Account: EarthBuzzMorey

If any students or parents have twitter accounts, you can also follow classroom happenings on Twitter.

http://twitter.com/#!/EarthBuzzMorey

Here you will work that should be reviewed at home and/or a listing of homework assignments for the week.  Also, I will post current event articles for the students to browse and make connections with!  

Shifting Gears To Social Studies: KidBlog.Com

EarthBuzz students have begun their first transition from Earth Science into Social Studies.  Last week kicked off our new course looking at current events on Earth with a lens for any of the following type of news stories; local, national, or international.  The students self-selected articles based on personal interest using the "Helpful Links" section on the right hand side of the blog.  There was excitement in the computer lab on Thursday and Friday as students were sharing their findings with each other!  The next step involved digesting the news article using a new format for note-taking technique, inotes.  After completing their inotes, students used the notes to write a summary which was uploaded to KidBlog.com!  Take a look at some of these summaries and we will use this track our paragraph writing this year!  On the right hand side of the this screen scroll down under the "Helpful Links" section to find "KidBlog."  (See Image) Take a minute to see what EarthBuzz students find news worthy!

Fossils in Kitchen Counters?! What clues can fossils give us about our geologic past?

Fossil Project - Wholly Mammoths in Colorado Bedrock!

Students, please explore these websites to help us launch our "Fossil Project!" Create mini-wordles on your note-taking sheet as you pull out key words or unknown words you see or hear.  Also, there is a final section to write notes or ask questions as they arise when you are exploring.  Have fun!

1.) http://www.snowmassiceage.com/

2.) www.dmns.org/science/the-snowmastodon-project

3.) http://www.fossilsforkids.com/


4.) http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/fossils

5.) http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/permanent/fossilhalls/

6.) http://www.sdnhm.org/kids/fossils/index.html

Rock Cycle Story - VoiceThread #1

Rock Abrasion Lab

Tomorrow students will be designing an experiment in cooperative pairs to better understand how different types of rock weather through abrasion.  This will be the first attempt for these young scientists in designing and conducting an experiment!  Students will be analyzing and manipulating several variables to see which design best tests their hypothesis.  Stay tuned for a potential video/pictures that demonstrates our learning in action!

Other notes:
*Please click on the new link entitled, "Daily Learning Goals" to see our classroom learning.  Students and parents can use this as a resource to check student planners confirming the learning of each day, classroom work, and homework assignments.  This will be a great resource during absences as well.
*Edmodo will be upcoming shortly as this is dependent upon computer lab time.  I hope to have this up and running soon.
*On Friday, students will be publishing their "Rock Cycle Journey" in a VoiceThread.  This will be posted the following week!

Early Work in EarthBuzz!

The school year is officially under way!  We began the week examining our individual cultures and will continue to develop our collective classroom culture to begin the year.  Students have been asked to create a "Coat of Arms" or a "T-Shirt" (This was assigned as homework if they need more than ten minutes to finish in class) that reflects their individuality and we will be using these items to create classroom ideals and standards.  

I am very pleased with the eagerness and motivational levels of the students thus far!  Way to go 6th Grade HS students, keep up your hard work.

Welcome Morey 6th Graders!

Dear 6th Grade Mustangs & Parents,

Welcome to Morey Middle School!

If you are reading this blog entry, I would like to officially introduce you to "EarthBuzz," your Grade 6 Earth Science and Social Studies class!  This blog will be a tremendous resource for both students and parents this year and will serve several purposes.  Primarily, we will be sharing out and celebrating classroom learnings in "EarthBuzz" through short narrations, photographs, videos, or other multi-media tools.

Other features of the blog include Edmodo (more details to follow about this), a collaborative project with classrooms around the world (Classroom Bridges Wiki), and a list of websites for coursework or additional student exploration of topics of interest!  Please explore on your own and in the future I will provide instructions to help guide you through the various sections.

I hope you fill find this blog easy to navigate and a tool that enhances communication for the 2011-2012 school year.  There will be many postings as I strive to capture at least one story a week that represents our classroom.

Tomorrow will be a tremendous first day as we have many fun activities designed to kick off the school year!  I look forward to meeting each and every one of you as we begin our journey together in "EarthBuzz!"

Sincerely,

Ms. Donahue

PS.  Our room is #114B/115!

What Kind of Rocks Are There?!

http://www.classzone.com/books/earth_science/terc/content/visualizations/es0607/es0607page01.cfm?chapter_no=visualization

Different Types of Rocks

Highway 21

Thank you for attending!

Conference in Action - Part II!

Western Hemisphere Expo in Action!

See how our media center has been transformed into the regions of the Western Hemisphere!  Torrey's Peak united with the other two 6th grade cores for a country/province scavenger hunt.  Students are comparing aspects of culture amongst the different regions in the Western Hemisphere.  We have so many creative posters, kudos to the students for the hard work they put in to this project! 

Western Hemisphere Country/Province Expo!

EarthBuzz students are almost to the finish line for their 6th grade Social Studies curriculum!  We end the year researching a country or province in the Western Hemisphere.  Students have been using a combination of online resources, books, and encyclopedias to tell the story of their self-selected country or province and displaying the information on a creative poster!  Stay tuned for pictures and videos tomorrow!

Local Park!

Some hard working students in Torrey's Peak earned a field trip to a local park!  The weather made for an afternoon of fun and time to relax with friends. 

Earth Day Project!

Thank you to these volunteers for their time and effort in cleaning up the school grounds!

The Columbian Exchange Activity

EarthBuzz Students,

1.)   Please listen to this description of the Columbian Exchange:

          http://goanimate.com/movie/0CVxpgengo7Q

2.)   Please select a recipe you would like to make from either of these websites!
          http://allrecipes.com/   or   http://www.rachaelray.com/food.php

3.)  Open Microsoft Word 
      - Copy and Paste to Word a recipe you would like to try :)
      - Research each ingredient in your recipe using Wikipedia: 
        Examples: history of grapes & history of pecans
          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grape   &   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pecan
      - Please list the history of the ingredient as "Old World or "New World" and country or region of origin.       
        Example:  Summer Curry Salad
        1/2 cup grapes =   "Old World" product native to Turkey
        1/3 cup pecans = "New World" product native to North America
        3 cups spinach =  "Old World" native to Asia

* We use the terms "Old World" and "New World" carefully and realize there are multiple perspectives to consider (especially that of the Native Populations of the Americas) when studying this time period of history.

African Cats - Earth Day Celebration!

http://disney.go.com/disneynature/africancats/

Geography Practice: MAPS 101

Do you have additional free time at home and want to test your knowledge of geography of the world? Take a moment to view Shadow Ridge's latest online subscription, MAPS 101! There are several core features of the website including current event happenings, interactive maps, map collections, and a "Learn and Play" section. Did you know that April is "Earth Month" with "Earth Day" on April 22nd?! Check out the "Earth Month" happenings and maps to learn more! PS. Students check your planner for the username and password!

http://www.maps101.com/

Great Lakes: Canada and USA's Freshwater Treasures

Inuits: Masters of the Arctic

Masters of the Arctic! Do you wish to learn more about the Inuit people from the Canadian territory of Nunavut, parts of Greenland, and parts of the United States? The "People of the Ice" still survive and have lived in this harsh environment near the Arctic Circle and around the North Pole for thousands of years. Students are focusing on one aspect of culture and creating a poster that displays their learning. Later this week, we will have a gallery walk of all the posters to piece our understandings together with a special focus on what resources did the Inuits use to survive in this Arctic and Subarctic environment?

Geography Bee

Congratulations to Brandon from Torrey's Peak for competing in the 2011 Shadow Ridge Geography Bee! Brandon made it to the 2nd round and competed against other core champions. If you want to learn more about geography awareness, view National Geographic's website in the study corner!
www.nationalgeographic.com/geobee/study-corner/






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Aztec Marketplace

Student Choice in Current Events!

Every other week EarthBuzz students report out on international, national, or local news stories. Here are some of the headlines for January.

IPOD Touches

I am very excited to announce the addition of 4 ipod touches and 4 wireless keyboards to our classroom! The ipod touches will be used to enrich learning in the classroom. So far we have uploaded typing applications, Scrabble, and Boggle to improve our keyboarding and literacy skills. We will also be tapping into the WIFI in the room to view search engines to learn more about topics. In the picture you can see one student using the ipod touches while other students are preparing for our "Current Event Round Table." Every other Friday students self-select a current event to report on - if you click on the right hand side of Earth.Buzz there are Current Event Wordles that display the monthly headlines students have selected!

Guide to the Glyphs

Maya Calendars - Sacred Round

We have continued our studies of the Maya Civilization following the holiday break. This week students are investigating several aspects of Mayan religion. In the video students are in choral reading groups to extend our studies beyond the textbook with this topic. Students are in the process of creating their Sacred Round (Tzolk'in) which is the 260 ritual calendar. They will soon learn about different problems that have been presented to the Mayan priests of Chichen Itza. Students will be taking on the role as the priests and interpreting the Tzolk'in to give the advice to the respective ruler. Look over your glyphs over the next few days to become more familiar the great Sacred Round! You do know that priests that gave poor advice were sacrificed ;)