Science

Here is an amazing website about herbivores, carnivores, decomposes, pollinators, omnivores, plants, and what it what it would be like to make and ecodome on Mars.

research link

decomposition with definition and video

This website is full of games about wild life, climate change, the North, water, energy, land use, and Earth Day. Be sure to check out the game about the food chain and animal adaptations!

ecokids

Here is a website full of pictures. This is where I got all of those cool pictures when we were studying decomposers. Below is one example of turkey tail fungi from the website. To find the picture below, click on photograhps, then science, and then fungi.

EduPic Graphics for Educators

Day Light Savings- November 1, 2009

Another teacher shared this information with me about Daylight Savings Time. I thought you might want to know why we gain an hour in the fall and loose and hour in the spring.

Daylight Saving Time has been used in the U.S. and in many European countries since World War I. At that time, in an effort to conserve fuel needed to produce electric power, Germany and Austria took time by the forelock, and began saving daylight at 11:00 p.m. on April 30, 1916, by advancing the hands of the clock one hour until the following October. Other countries immediately adopted this 1916 action: Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Turkey, and Tasmania. Nova Scotia and Manitoba adopted it as well, with Britain following suit three weeks later, on May 21, 1916. In 1917, Australia and Newfoundland began saving daylight.

The plan was not formally adopted in the U.S. until 1918. 'An Act to preserve daylight and provide standard time for the United States' was enacted on March 19, 1918. [See law <http://www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/usstat.html> ] It both established standard time zones and set summer DST to begin on March 31, 1918.

Sand Crabs

Check out the sand crabs that we found in Pismo Beach. They were caught in a tide pool.

Inquiring Minds

Question:
When was World War I and World War II?

Answer:
WWI began with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophia on July 28, 1914.

The fighting ended on November 11, 1918, and Treaty of Versailles was signed on July 28, 1919.

WWII began on September 1, 1939 when Germany invaded Poland.

Germany surrendered to the Allied forces on August 29, 1945. Japan surrendered to the Allied forces on September 2, 1945.

Question:
How many people died from the bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima?

The atomic bomb called Little Boy was dropped by the United States on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Another atomic bomb called Fat Man was dropped on Nagaski on August 9th, 1945. The bombs killed as many at 140,000 people in Hiroshima and 80,000 people in Nagaski.

Theme Two Spelling

Theme 2 Spelling Games:

Tomas and the Library Lady

Tanya's Reunion

Boss of the Plains

A Very Important Day

Reading Stories

Here is a link that has the following:

* a weekly reader article

* information about the authors and illustrators from our stories

* a glossary with all of our vocabulary words

* an eWord Game for each story

eduplace link

Similes

Similes compare to unlike things using the words like or as.

Saturday is like a gift, because you get to sleep in.

Stubbing your toe is like kissing a gorilla, neither are good ideas.

Laughter is as good as medicine.

Feel free to post your own similes.

Sequencing

There are several sequencing games on this link.

Sequencing Games

Which one did you try? Which one was easy for you? Which one was hard?

Who was president during 1870?

Someone wanted to know who was president during the time that Laura Ingalls Wilder rode a train in The Shores of Silver Lake.

The answer is Ulysses S. Grant.

Here is some additional information on President Grant from the online website of the University of Virginia.

Ulysses S. Grant is best known as the Union general who led the North to victory over the Confederate South during the American Civil War. As a President, however, he has long been dismissed as weak and ineffective; historians have often ranked Grant's presidency as one of the worst in American history. Recently, however, some have begun to reexamine and reassess his presidential tenure.

Every President presents historians with some contradictions, but Grant might do so more than most. He was quiet and soft-spoken but able to inspire great bravery from his soldiers on the battlefield. He was an honorable man who was unable or unwilling to see dishonor in others. He disdained politics but rose to the country's highest political office. His intentions were honorable, and he made efforts that few had attempted before him, especially in the areas of African American rights, Native American policy, and civil service reform. He also executed a successful foreign policy and was responsible for improving Anglo-American relations.

Early Life

Ulysses Grant was born in Ohio, the first of six children. He was small, sensitive, quiet, and well-known for his talent with horses. He attended the United States Military Academy at West Point and excelled in mathematics, writing, drawing, and horsemanship. After graduating, he was assigned to an infantry company in Missouri. His company soon moved south to prepare for the conflict brewing with Mexico over the Texas territory. From 1846 to 1848, Grant fought in the Mexican War and was twice cited for bravery.

After the war, Grant moved to various Army postings in Detroit, New York, and the Pacific Northwest. He resigned suddenly from the Army in 1854 and returned to the Midwest to be with his family. Grant then attempted a variety of jobs, including farming and insurance sales, before finding work in his family's leather goods store in Galena, Illinois. Through these difficult times, he relied on his wife, Julia Dent Grant. The two were a devoted couple and adoring parents to their four children.

Civil War Hero

When the American Civil War began in 1861, experienced officers like Grant were in short supply. The Illinois governor assigned him to make a disciplined fighting unit out of a rebellious Illinois volunteer regiment. Grant drilled the men, instituted badly needed discipline, and soon earned the respect of the volunteers. The Army noted his efforts and promoted him to brigadier general.

Grant garnered attention as he led his troops to fight and win battles in the western theater. He captured Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, forced the surrender of Vicksburg, Mississippi, and defeated a larger Southern force at Chattanooga. He was both praised and criticized for his willingness to fight because it often cost a disproportionate number of casualties. Grant helped end the bloody Civil War when he led Union troops to trap the main Confederate Army west of Richmond, Virginia and forced its surrender in April 1865. At that point, General Grant was the most revered man in the Union.

Lincoln's tragic assassination at the end of the Civil War was followed by the ineffective leadership of President Andrew Johnson. Johnson urged a moderate approach to Reconstruction that would not punish the South or protect the rights of the newly freed slaves. Radical Republicans wanted to protect the civil and political rights of African Americans. In the election of 1868, postwar social and economic policies were the major campaign issues. The Republicans backed Grant, who concluded his acceptance speech with "Let us have peace." The popular general won the election to become the nation's eighteenth President.

Presidency

Coming into office, President Grant alienated party stalwarts by eschewing party politics. When he appointed his cabinet, he did not turn to Republicans for their advice. Instead, he chose people he thought he could trust and to whom he could delegate responsibility. This strategy led to some good cabinet appointments but also to a number of dubious ones. Grant was also loyal out of all proportion to anyone who had helped him or worked with him. As a result, he was sometimes unwilling to remove ineffective people, and some areas of his administration suffered from incompetence and corruption.

In his first inaugural address, Grant spoke of his desire for the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment, which sought to grant citizens the right to vote regardless of race or previous servitude. He lobbied hard to get the amendment passed, angering many Southern whites in the process. He also, on occasion, sent in the military to protect African Americans from newly formed terrorist groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan, which tried to prevent blacks from participating in society. Grant incurred the wrath of citizens who blamed him for the economic woes that plagued the nation in the aftermath of the war. In 1872, however, Grant won reelection.

During his second term, a depression in Europe spread to the United States, resulting in high unemployment. Scandals also diverted attention from the administration's efforts. Although Grant was never personally implicated in any of the scandals, he did not disassociate himself from the members of his administration who were guilty. His inability to clean up his administration tarnished his reputation in the eyes of the American public. In 1875, he announced that he would not seek a third term. The Republicans nominated Rutherford B. Hayes to be their standard-bearer in the 1876 election.

After his presidency, Grant found himself in economic difficulties and dying of throat cancer. He lost his money in a financial scandal, yet he was determined to provide for his family after his death. After Century Magazine approached him to write articles about his Civil War experiences, Grant discovered that he enjoyed the process and decided to compile his memoirs. He approached this last battle as he had all others -- with grim and dogged determination. His final days were spent on his porch with pencil and paper in hand, wrapped in blankets and in fearsome pain, slowly scrawling out his life's epic tale. He completed the book just days before his death. It was hugely successful and provided for his family's financial security.

By the Shores of Silver Lake

Below is a hangman spelling game with the homophones for this week.

A Spelling Game

Below is all kinds of information about Laura.

Meet the Author: Laura Ingalls Wilder

Laura Ingalls Wilder

Research Laura Ingalls Wilder

Laura wrote The Little House on the Prairie books. She is one of the main characters in the selection "On the Shores of Silver Creek".

The Herbert Hoover Presidential Library

Reading

Many stories are on this website.

Starfall

Theme One Spelling

Grandfather's Journey

Finding the Titanic

By the Shores of Silver Lake

Look carefully and you will be able to see a tiny creature that Mr. Guess found in our basil plant!!! Do you like him?

Social Studies Photos

Check out these great photos of the valley!

San Joaquin Valley and Sierra Foothills Photo Heritage

Did you check out the railroads, disasters, oil, agriculture, portraits, and street events?  Which did you like the best?  What surprised you?

Spelling

Here is a game with different words that you have to pick the correct spelling.

Spelling Game

Did you find this game easy, just right, or hard?

Grammar

Here is a website full of grammar games.  Let me know which ones you played.  Let me know which ones you like and why.  Are there any that are hard or easy?

More Grammar Games

Career

If you could have any job, what would it be and why?  You don't necessarily have to be good at the job already, but it is something that you wish you could do.  

For me personally, I'd love to be an animator.  Wouldn't that be cool?  Maybe I could work at Disney!!!  I love how artists are able to make music come alive.  Fantasia 2000 is one of my favorite films.   This is the film that had Beethoven's Fifth Symphony which you all enjoy so much.

Easter Break

What is everyone up to during spring break?  I'm currently looking for math lessons for you guys when we come back.  I did read one book over the weekend and I listened to another one.  

Math Lessons

Understanding Graphing

Perimeter

Perimeter and Area

Probablity

More Idioms

Here is a link for idioms.  You can click on concentration to play a game.

Idiom Game

Coordinate Graphing

We are learning about coordinating graphing this week.  Check out this battleship like game.

Looking for the Top Quark

Fact or Opinion

A fact is something that can be proved right or wrong.  A fact can be check by a reference source. For example, Lou Gehrig didn't miss a day of elementary school can be checked by looking at his school records.  

An opinion is something that people can disagree about.  Green is the best color is an opinion, because not everyone agrees and you can't check it in a reference source.

Fact and Opinion Game

Another Fact and Opinion Game

Science Experiment

Last week we did an experiment about epson salt crystals and sugar crystals.  What did you like about the experiment?  What happened that you didn't expect?  Did you like doing the experiment more with epson salt or sugar?

Houghton Mifflin Reading

Houghton Mifflin Reading

Are you having a hard time remembering the vocabulary meanings?  Check out the link above.  There is all kinds of information.  To find the vocabulary game, scroll down until you find the story we are on.  Click on it.  Then click on the eword game.

Would you like to hear the definitions of words and hear them used in a sentence?  Click on the eglossary.  Find the word you are looking for and click on the sound icon.

Once you pick a story, you can learn about the author and you can even participate in an online poll.  The poll for Gloria Estafan is all about music.  

Leave a comment to let me know what you liked or didn't like about this website. 

Body Systems

You'll learn about body systems in 5th grade, but I found a great website that will give you a jump on the different body systems.  Enjoy!

You have to put the correct system back together.

All Systems Go

The Most Dangerous Cake

Make sure you ask your folks before you make this!!!
Here is the recipe that 5 hamsters asked for.

5 MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE

4 tablespoons flour (that's plain flour, not self-raising)
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons baking cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional) a small splash of vanilla extract
1 coffee mug

Put dry ingredients in mug, and mix well Add the egg and mix thoroughly.
Pour in the milk and oil and mix well.
Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla extract, and mix again.

Microwave for 3 minutes at 1000 watts. The cake will rise over the
top of the mug, but don't be alarmed!
Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired.
EAT!
Note: This can serve 2 if you want to feel slightly more virtuous.

And why is this cake the most dangerous cake recipe in the world?
Because now we are all only 5 minutes away from chocolate cake at any
time of the day or night!

Make sure you let me know if you tried the recipe. Did you like it? Did you add different things for to your cake?

Colorful Backgrounds

This is the third background for this blog.  Which one is your favorite so far?  Remember, we have had a green and blue one, a all blue one, and this one is oranges and browns.  

When you tell you your favorite, don't forget to sign in as anonymous, and put your number in front of an animal when you are done telling me your choice..

Tree Frog

This tree frog needs a name. Leave a comment telling me your name option. Remember to check with me about how to leave a comment.

To feed our class pet, click anywhere on the red screen.

Interpreting the Remainder

Here is a website that shows you how to interpret the reminder.  At the bottom of the link you can click to get more practice problems.

Interpret the Remainder

Music

San Fransisco Symphony Kids Website

Social Studies

Here is the link for Scott Foresman Social Studies.

Find links to a social studies library, current events, altas, this day in history, activities, and meet the people.

Math Games

aaamath.com