Watch the Rock Cycle in Action!

Don't you wish you could watch the rock cycle in action?  It's hard to imagine how a process that takes millions of years works, because it's nothing we can observe in our lifetimes. 

Well, someone put together an animation that shows you exactly what happens as rocks travel through the cycle, becoming igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary!


CLICK HERE to watch!

Fossil Lab

Oh dear, another late post!  Well, better late than never, right?  :)

To kick off our unit on rocks, minerals, and fossils, we had the fabulous experts from Science To Go come to our school and teach a one-hour lab all about fossils!  Students learned how both mold and mold-cast fossils are formed, then they worked in teams to visit stations, explore real fossils, and answer questions to increase their knowledge of how fossils are formed and what they can tell us about the past.

 



Wayside Wednesday

My apologies for taking so long to post photos from our very fun Wayside Wednesday book celebration! 

We had a fantastic time seeing each other's costumes, testing our knowledge of the Wayside School books, and pretending to be students on the 30th story of Wayside School!  A big thank you to parents for helping your children put together such imaginative costumes!

Three "Leslies" and a "Paul"

Two "Bebes"

A very green-haired "Stephen!"

The faculty of Wayside - "Louis," "Miss Zarves," "Dr. Pickell," and "Mrs. Drazil"

Six very sleepy "Sharies" - aren't they wonderful students??

"Calvin" and his potato tattoo!

"Eric" - the nice one!

"Hobo Bob," "Todd," and "Mac"

A very grumpy "Kathy,"  two "Myrons" (and his bird, Oddly), and Xavier as "Xavier!"

Bob Jackson's Mineral Lab

Yesterday local geologist Bob Jackson came to our classroom to teach us all about identifying minerals!  He brought the materials needed to test 18 different minerals for hardness, streak color, and cleavage (how the mineral breaks).  Working in teams, students tested and identified the mystery minerals as quickly as they could - and every mineral they correctly identified, they got to keep!  Every student went home with a brand-new mineral collection, along with an identifying sheet.

Mr. Jackson runs Geology Adventures, which gives people the chance to go hunting for crystals, amber, and rocks with this fabulously knowledgeable retired geologist.  If you're interested in learning more about what geologists do, be sure to check out his site!

Fun Website!

Hey geologists!  Ms. DeTolla just told me about this very fun website, full of links to geology games and quizzes.  Check it out!

http://www.minsocam.org/MSA/K12/games.html

Storm Drain Plaques

Thank you to everyone who came out Wednesday afternoon to help glue down plaques for the storm drains!  We had a beautiful, sunny, dry day - which was essential for the glue to set!  We got 50 signs glued down all over our neighborhood.  These signs will remind our community that anything that goes into a storm drain will drain to Puget Sound - and affect the salmon habitat!  What a great way to take responsibility for our community!