Upper El Update

It isn't very often that you see Meadowbrook students sitting in rows of desks, all engaged in the same activity. However, the biology curriculum seems to have that effect on the upper elementary students!

 

 

The students were recently introduced to LUCA, life's universal common ancestor. They were fascinated by the idea that all living things can thank this mysterious single-celled organism for their existence. We created a tree of life to illustrate the shift from the two prokaryote groups - bacteria & archaea into the eukaryote groups of plants, animals, fungi and protists. We discussed the parts of the cell, photosynthesis, and symbiosis. In previous years, we have skipped over the Archaeozoic Era and simply labeled it as a time when living things basked in the sun to collect energy. With this new information, we are able to zoom in on early life forms and research organisms that are neither plant nor animal.

 

 

 

After drawing the tree of life, we took a close look at the humpback whale and traced its ancestory from LUCA to the present day. Ask your students to tell you about some of the animals that they saw on this 3 billion year journey (some prompts: morganucodon, tiktaalik, icthyostega). 4th-6th graders are all working on research about a whale species of their choice.

 

The article, Uprooting the Tree of Life from Scientific American is a good read if you are interested in the tree of life.

 

Students asked lots of questions about the make up of the cell and how each part functions. We are examining both prokaryote & eukaryote cells. Last week, we made edible eukaryote cells (specific to animals). Some new vocabulary words to ask your student about: mitochondria, ATP, cell membrane, nucleus, golgi complex, ribosomes, endoplasmic reticulum, DNA, RNA. We also discussed the role of the cell wall & chloroplast in plant cells.

 

 

To help us understand the cell, we watched this video of the Cell Song. I promised students that I would send out a link.

 

We began our new book groups on Monday. At the request of the students, this month's books feature more adventure than the previous choices. One group is reading Island of the Blue Dolphins & the other group is reading The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle. So far, everyone seems to be enjoying both books, which makes my job easier. in other language work:

 

*4th graders are working with pronouns. We have looked at nominative (subjective) & objective cases. Next week we will explore the possessive case. Some students took out the logical analysis board to guide their work, which provided a nice refresher on subject & direct/indirect object.

 

*5th/6th graders wrapped up their study of tenses (I could almost hear the collective sigh of relief! They have been calling this work 'the tedious tenses study'). They completed a several page packet that requird them to write sentences in the correct tense & identify which tense was being used. We are very fortunate in our school that we spend very little time on rote memorization, but this was a time when it was necessary.

 

An arithmetic update will follow shortly. The binomial equations & powers of 2 are better explained in pictures. Remember: We love observers in our classroom! If you are interested in spending a morning in the elementary classroom, please get in touch with me to schedule a time.

 

 Lower elementary parents - a 1st-3rd grade post will be up soon. They have several big works wrapping up this week.