The North Pole Burea of Investigations Needs Your Help!

Case #1225: Case of the Christmas Cookie Mystery

Mrs. Claus needs your help! Each Christmas, Mrs. Claus makes a batch of her special sugar cookies to give Santa all the energy he needs to deliver presents to all the good little boys and girls around the world. A bad little elf has snuck into the kitchen and messed up all the special baking powders. He has left a note with three mystery bags of white powder. The North Pole Bureau of Investigations has provided samples of six white powders found at Santa's house and the three mixtures left by the elf. Without your help, Mrs. Claus will not be able to make her cookies and there will be no Christmas! Help Mrs. Claus save Christmas!

Follow the directions on your lab card to help save Christmas!

More Physical and Chemical Change

Click here for some more review on the differences between chemical and a physical changes.

Problem Solving Strategies

Guess Check

When you are solving a problem, sometimes, it is a whole lot easier to guess the answer to the problem and then check it.

HOW TO:

So, you need to know HOW TO guess and check your answer. That is EASY (there's that word again, EASY!!!). OK, here is an example problem, DON'T WORRY, I am going to help you solve it!!

You have 4 (four) pizzas that are divided into 12 pieces each. You have 23 kids that want pizza. How many pieces of pizza does each of the kids have?

First you know that you have four pizza's that have about 10 pieces of pizza in each. As you know 4x10=40. So you have about 40 pieces of pizza. You have about 20 kids that you need to feed pizza. 40 divided by 20=2. You know that each kid may have about 2 pieces of pizza.

Now that you know that each child will have about 2 pieces of pizza, you have to check your answer. 4x12=48. You have 48 pieces of pizza. 48 divided by 23 (because you have 23 kids)=2 remainder of 2 pieces of pizza. Each child will be able to eat 2 pieces of pizza.

In this problem, using the Guess and Check strategy turned out to be the correct answer, but I'll have you know that there are some problems that when you use the Guess and Check strategy, the answer is different then what it would be if you actually solved it without rounding. Was that easy? Of course it was. Do you think you can handle a problem by yourself? I know that you can. Don't freak out, you can solve this problem using the Guess and Check strategy, but then you can check your answer!! This one will be a little harder though. Here goes nothing!!

Twenty-five dolphins and killer whales perform at Sea Circus. There are 13 more dolphins than killer whales. How many of each animal are there?

First of all, you have to make a guess. How bout 15 dolphins +10 killer whales=25. No no, there has to be 13 more dolphins, there is only 5 between there. Let's see how about 20 dolphins+5 killer whales. No, between those is 15, so I am much closer, but not close enough! I bet 19 dolphins + 6 killer whales will do the trick!! Yes, yes that is correct, we have solved this problem by using GUESS AND CHECK!! We did it!!! There are 19 dolphins and 6 killer whales performing at the Sea Circus!!

Click here for more examples of guess and check and for other problem solving strategies visit Math Stories!

Physical and Chemical Properties

Today we are going to examine changes in the properties of matter:

Physical property changes of matter do not produce a new substance and are typically described by the following:

• Color – every object has a color
• Odor – intensity of smell
• Density – mass divided by volume
• Luster – how shiny it is
• Ductility – ability to be drawn into thin wires
• Malleability – ability to be beaten into thin sheets
• Elasticity – ability to return to original shape
• Hardness – ability to be scratched
• Conductivity – allows energy flow, electricity or heat
• Insulator – resists flow of energy, electricity or heat
• Organic/Inorganic – was once alive or is alive/was never alive

Chemical property changes of matter produces a new substance and can be typically described by the following:

• Color – change in color indicates a chemical change
• Temperature – change in temperature indicates a chemical change

Using your balance and listening carefully we are going to cause some physical and chemical changes today in class! Have your journal handy to record your responses!

Now let's see if you can determine the difference between a chemical and physical change at QUIA!

For more fascinating information about matter check out www.chem4kids.com!

Time for Turkey!

Thanksgiving is just right around the corner and you know what that means... it is time for TURKEY!

This time of year brings about some questions:
Just when and how did turkey become the traditional meal for Thanksgiving dinner?
How did Thanksgiving become such a time honored tradition?
What in the world is a genetically altered turkey?
Adopt a turkey? What in the world?
What? Benjamin Franklin wanted our national symbol to be a turkey!@!#!

We are going to find the answers to these questions from ExpertVille.com and a CNN news video. So pay close attention, a journal entry is coming on some of these questions and the best ones will fill our Thanksgiving bulletin board in the hall! Get ready...

Happy Halloween!

I hope you all had a great time Trick or Treating last night! Let's see some cool Halloween tricks with Steve Spangler! Have you ever seen a pumpkin explode?

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween Everyone!

Those of you that have earned it by not receiving any letters this week, may go onto these Halloween sites and have some frightening fun!

Ben and Jerry's Ghoulish Games
Fun School Halloween
Meddybemps Halloween
Billy Bear's Halloween

You can also watch the BrainPop explaining the history of Halloween!

I hope you all have a wonderful and safe time trick or treating tonight!

Interpreting the Remainder in Division

Some times we have to DECIDE what to do with the remainder of our division problem. Click here for some examples and practice.

A total of 58 awards will be given away to the soccer team. Each box holds 8 awards. How many awards will be in the partially filled box?

Click on the award for the answer.

Let's Cast Our Vote!

Our Mock Election has begun! You will be able to vote ONCE until October 30. Please visit Youth Leadership to make your selections! You will need to see me to get our School Code. Your username is the first letter of your first name and your last name. (For example, I would be asturdivant.) Our grade level is 5th and our US Congressional District is 12. Make sure you have the correct ballot for our school and them make a selection for each office and issue. Then, click CAST BALLOT! Wait while your vote is recorded and then see me for an official GA Voter sticker! Happy Voting!

Hurricane Hanna Happenings!

Let's keep up to date on what's happening with Hurricane Hanna!

Cartesian Graphing ~ Graphing on the Coordinate Plane

Today we are going to learn how to graph on the coordinate plane! To begin, let's watch the BRAINPOP describing the COORDINATE PLANE.


Let's practice graphing by helping STOCK THE SHELVES!

For more practice visit GRAPH MOLE!

Welcome to Team 2 Thinks!

We are going to have a great year!

Well, the votes are in and our blog has been created! Mrs. Sturdivant had to make an executive decision about the title of the blog because we had so many diverse and interesting titles! Since we are such a great team and a lot of great thinking will go on this year ~ we are going to be called Team 2 Thinks!

We are off to a great start in Math and we have been buzzing away with electricity in Tech Lab! Since Tropicial Storm Fay (click on info about Fay) is in our midst, I have included some fun sites for us to visit during our possible rainy recesses this week and of course for you to try at home.
internet4classrooms.com
cyberkids.com