Xylophones, Kalimbas, & String Beams, OH MY!

We have LOVED our unit on sound.  The kids have played and played and played.  Yesterday we learned about how length affects the pitch of an instrument/sound source.

We played with several instruments and arranged them from highest pitch to lowest pitch.

We played with a xylophone,

a waterphone,

 a kalimba,

  and a string beam.

We also recorded all of our results in our science notebook as we always do.  

Once we finished working in our science notebook we took some time to make predictions about instruments and their pitch based on their size.  We listened to the flute, clarinet, bassoon, tuba, trumbone, bass drum, and snare drum.  

Ask your child what they learned about length and pitch!

Pitches and Data

Today in science we learned how vibrations and length effect pitches.  The students used a tongue depressor to investigate how different lengths create different pitches. 

By the end of the experiment students knew that longer lengths created lower pitches and shorter lengths created higher pitches.  They also learned that slow vibrations create low pitches where fast vibrations create high pitches. 

Our daily data for this week is I'm an Alabama Fan.  I'm an Auburn fan.  Each student placed their magnet where it belonged this morning and following art and library we made a few observations about our data.

We observed that 9 more people like Alabama than Auburn, 5 people like Auburn, 1 person likes Auburn and Alabama, and 1 person doesn't like either Auburn or Alabama.

We then took some time to learn a new piece to our daily data routine, probability.  We created several probability statements about our data using terms like likely, unlikely, certain, impossible, less than, greater than, and equal to.

We also took another multiplication test today.  We were able to welcome NyKia to the "Smarty Pants Club" following today's test.  Way to go, NyKia!



Good Vibrations

Today we learned that all sound comes from a vibration.  We began by placing our fingers on our neck and feeling our neck vibrate as we spoke.  We then went through several rotations to learn more about sound and vibrations.

The first rotation was the tone generator.  The kids loved playing with this item because they could adjust the volume and the pitch and make the beans dance on the speaker.  They learned that the beans danced due to the vibrations from the speaker.

The next rotation was a ping-pong ball and tuning fork.  The students struck the tuning fork on their desk and then placed it against the ping pong ball.  The ping pong ball bounced off of the tuning fork due to the vibrations the tuning fork produced.

At the third station students were asked to strike the tuning fork and place it against their cheek.  This experiment tickles!

The last stop was the tuning fork and water station.  Students struck the tuning fork on their desk and then placed it into a cup of water.  They observed ripples, fizz, and even splashes of water from the vibrations.

Lots Of Classwork

 We have been super busy in the classroom this week.  On both Monday and Tuesday the only breaks we have taken were PE and recess.  We have worked our little fingers to the bone!

Each student received their Alabama History book this week.  We have begun talking about government to prepare for our upcoming trip to our state capital.  We looked at pictures of our state capital and the Alabama State House.  Ask your child if they remember the 3 branches of government we briefly discussed today.  If they remember all 3 of them then they deserve ice cream after dinner!

 In math today we took a VERY long assessment.  It was 50 HARD questions.  The new math curriculum we have adopted is very different from what we are used to.  It uses a very different vocabulary so the transition has been pretty difficult for the children.  

I will begin sending math homework home once I am comfortable with their knowledge of the material.  Right now I feel math homework would add unnecessary stress to your home due to the confusing terminology.  Bare with me and hopefully it will begin coming home next week.

We began our Physics of Sound unit in science!  Yesterday we discussed properties of sound and today we used our knowledge of sound properties to help us identify the sounds of various objects in our "Bag-O-Stuff."

BE PROACTIVE!  We used the book Bringing The Rain To Kapiti Plain to learn about being proactive.  Ki-Pat took control of the drought on the plains instead of placing blame on others.  Ki-Pat was able to use the resources that came to him to bring rain to the plain.  Along with learning how to be proactive, we also used this book to learn how to be VORACIOUS READERS, and also a little about rhyming.  

Ask your child what it means to be a voracious reader.  You may also want to ask them if they are a voracious reader.