Mammal Lab

Today, a staff member from the Thorton Burgess Society of Sandwich came in to teach us more about mammals, especially those found in a Cape Cod forest. We saw evidence that an animal was in the forest, we saw their scats, exoskeletons, and their fur.We have been talking about invertabrates and vertabrates in class, there was a shell from a turtle and you could see its spine. Finally, we observed a live rabbit and a box turtle! Did you know a box turtle can live up to 150 years?!
      By: Callia and Nick

What's Happening?!

   The fourth and a half week of school was interesting. First thing to explain is that Ms.Martin brought in an unbelievably HUGE sunflower from her mother's farm. Ms.Martin told us we would save the seeds and feed some to the birds this winter and, we will also take some home for our own and plant them in the spring.
   We also learned about invertebrates. Ms.Martin brought some REAL sponges in last week from Mrs. Richard's art room and it was cool to see that it used to be a real animal. We like mollusks including snails, octopuses, squid, clams, and mussels. We eat some mollusks on Cape Cod!

   In writing workshop, we worked on finding the main idea/topic sentence in a paragraph. We also looked for details in the supporting sentences. We noticed that the topic sentence is usually the first or second sentence and it tells you what the paragraph is going to be about. We are working on writing informative paragraphs on our earthworm observation. We enjoy combining science and writing.

    Written/Typed By: Averi & Haley

Species of Trees in Cape Cod Forests

In science class we identified different kinds of trees. We had specimens of trees for hints. We had to follow along with the words to get the species of trees. The things we used were pinecones, pine- needles, acorns and leaves. I never knew there was such  thing as a Black Oak and I never knew only female holy trees have berries and I think that is amazing. It was interesting to identify the species of trees. I liked how we got to handle the pinecones and notice the features. Next time I'm in the forest I want to try to identify some trees too. We learned evergreen trees always keep their leaves/needles and deciduous trees shed their leaves/needles.

By: Jordan & Beau

Typed by: Jonah, Troy and AJ.

Using a Mathematical Compass

Today we used a mathematical compass.At first it was difficult.We got the hang of it after a few tries.It was fun and two kids came in from Ms Manning's class.They showed us a demonstration.We made a perfect circle from the mathematical compass and made it into a square. It was a fun day in Ms Martin's class! By: Haley

Earthworm Observation

Scientists in Ms. Martin's class worked very hard to complete an observation this past week. We worked on creating a detailed hypothesis and then observed a worm in several different settings: Choice between wet and dry surface, choice between darkness or light, and reaction to "danger" ( vinegar on a Q Tip) We loved watching the worms move and were able to infer that they were able to move so easily/freely because they do not have a back bone. The students are very excited to continue our animal unit!

First Week of School!

Welcome to Room 124...Ms. Martin's 4th grade class. We are always working in different spots of our beautiful classroom...here we are at the "meeting spot" on our Falcon Blue carpets! ;)