Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Lots of Water Under the Bridge

It's been a long time since we've posted an entry. A month, to be exact. Lots of things have happened during that time. Mrs. Bruno's class would like to reflect on the past four weeks.

We had spring break a couple of weeks ago. Some of us went to Orlando, some to the beach, and some to the mountains. Others visited with family and logged lots of books for our March reading program!

We've learned about the moon's phases and how it goes through a cycle. There are eight phases that occur over about 29 days. We've been observing the moon each night and recording it in our moon journal. Over the last few days we've had so many clouds and storms that we haven't been able to see the moon. We know, however, that the moon is still there, even though it's not visible. The moon orbits the Earth, while the Earth orbits the sun. We've also learned about the moon's craters, caused by meteors. We love studying space, and we think it's the best science unit so far!

We are also working on a space project. We're split into bunches of different groups to study different aspects of space. There's a group studying Project Mercury, the project where America got animals and people into space to orbit the Earth. One group is studying telescopes. The biggest land-telescope is in Puerto Rico. The largest space-telescope is the Hubble Telescope. We watched a video of the new spacecraft that will replace the ending shuttle program. We saw some short videos of the Challenger and Columbia disasters. We also looked at a powerpoint that put the size of Earth into perspective for us. It also showed us how little the sun, our star, is compared to other stars in the universe. We also discussed the eight planets in our solar system.

March is also Youth Art Month. Our class made yams to celebrate. John Patrick made Admiral Yambar. Daniel had a yamburger and fries. Caroline's yam was a porcupine. Owen made a yamamma! Samantha's yam was a sea lion. Raya had a yam dog. Bella had a fashion designer yam.