Eclipses

Today, we watched the Brainpop video on Eclipses and took notes on the graphic organizer.  After that video, we watched a clip from NASA about Lunar Eclipses. 

We created a group definition of an eclipse and put a foldable in our notebook about eclipses - it is a 2 flap foldable made from the Brainpop activity page. 
We discussed perspective and why we can see the sun and moon and the limited areas that you can see the sun in.  The most interesting part was showing them this photo to explain solar eclipses and why you can only see it in certain areas

We used our thumbs to cover a light and then moved our heads to see just how specific a location you had to be in.  I also hung a ping pong ball from the ceiling and used a flashlight and globe to simulate the shadow.  We described a definition of a solar eclipse thoroughly and we talked about the moon's tilted orbit. 

Tides - Day 3

So today, we reviewed tides and took our notes for identifying tides on TCAP questions.
The four steps I taught my kids are:
1) Figure out what you are looking for.
2) Draw a straight line across from the x, because tides are always equal.
3) THe moon is always in line with the high tide
4) The low tide is perpendicular to the high tide.

Here is a notebook file I used to practice these questions... it is far from perfect- one of my first attempts.  And, I couldn't get it to save as anything other than "untitled" ... go figure. 

Tides - Day 2

This is a Voki I used to be a hook as I introduced our new word of the day and our review of tides.  It was made using voki.com and is free to teachers.

Welcome to Class!

We also demonstrated the movement of tides using a golf ball moon, a flashlight sun, and a beach towel to show the movement of water.  We made a tidal spinner from NOAA that can be found here at the bottom right hand side.  There is also a link to a video of the Bay of Fundy where the tidal variance is exaggerated greatly.