Classroom Blog
Today we got to visit a silk farm and factory. We had recently started learning about silk worms and their life cycle, so students went in with already knowing a lot and had great questions to ask. We started off seeing the eggs. They were VERY small. The farmer puts the female silkmoth in a cylinder to keep all the eggs together, which is why they are all in the shape of a circle. There were so many eggs! After we learned about the eggs, we moved over to the silkworms that had already hatched; called larva. There were some that were ready to molt. We learned that you can tell because they hold their head up high. We already knew that when a larva spins a cocoon, the workers boil them to kill them and use the thread for silk. We saw the machine they use to unravel the silk. Students noticed that the machine was made up of many simple machines we learned about in our previous UOI. They did a great job picking them out and naming the machines they saw throughout the factory. Lastly, students got the chance to spin silk onto smaller spools to get ready for weaving. We saw that it was a lot of work to spin one spool of silk! Next week we will be getting our own cocoons that will hatch in our classroom. The moths will hopefully survive, mate, and we will get to see the whole cycle in our class!
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Over the last month or so, I noticed students losing interest when writing during their Daily 5 time. They were feeling a little bored with the routine that had been doing on for the previous months, and I realized something had to be done! Over the break, I got our new Writing Station for Work on Writing organized! Our board shows students the many options they have for writing -- it does not just have to be a story they create or about their weekend. I could be a letter to someone, a comic strip, a car, newspaper article, book review; the list could go on. Everyone was really excited to get started! I also introduced class journals to the students. Each journal has a different topic. Students will write in each journal on the same topics, allowing others to read what they wrote after! I started off each journal with my own entry. I'm excited to see everyone's creativity come out during Work on Writing with our new station. Writing anything at home is great, too! Can be a letter to a relative or friend, email, a chapter book, anything that interests them!
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