The Rock Cycle and Leprechaun Traps
/On Monday morning students were eager to check their leprechaun traps. Unfortunately none of us caught a leprechaun. We did notice suspicious green footprints around the classroom and found gold coins in our traps, however! On Tuesday we got to examine our rock tumbler rocks after they had been tumbling for three weeks. They are looking increasingly rounded and smooth. We examined the rocks and made observations before returning them to tumbler for a final ten days of tumbling with fine grit and polish. We can’t wait to see what they look like after spring break! This week we also got to examine Ms. Maile’s amazing rock and gemstone collection. We learned about metamorphic rocks and about the rock cycle. We played an active game that simulated moving through the rock cycle by becoming a sediment, sedimentary rocks, magma (melted rock), igneous rocks, and metamorphic rocks. On Wednesday we got to read with our Dolphin buddies. During writers’ workshop this week our student authors worked on free verse poetry and acrostic poems. We also created word clouds for Roland and Luke Z. On Thursday Ms. Fern came in to bake chocolate chip cookies for Roland’s birthday. Students used measuring and other math skills to follow the recipe. The cookies turned out delicious. On Thursday afternoon students did a major classroom clean-up and helped care for their classroom materials so that we could return to a clean and tidy classroom after break. We ended our week together by showing off our mismatched socks that we wore to celebrate World’s Down Syndrome Day. We read a book about Down syndrome and ended with a dance party led by DJ Hudson and his strobe light machine.
