Oranges Smoranges!!

Today our room smelled like fresh oranges! That was because we were participating in an activity for Social Studies that would forever remind us of the global grid. We compared our oranges to the globe! Studying the outside of our oranges, we held them between our fingers at the north and south poles. Then, we carefully carved the equator halfway between the north and south poles, around the middle of the orange. If we were cutting straight through, we would be dividing the orange into its northern and southern hemispheres! Then, we added the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. We discussed the direction these latitude lines run, what they measure, and why they're known as parallels. Next, we peeled our oranges. The inside of our oranges, when held between our fingers at the poles, revealed the longitude lines! We noticed that they were not parallel, and they look further apart at the equator than they do at the poles. We noted the direction they run, what they measure, and that they are also known as meridians. Finally, we divided our orange into the eastern and western hemispheres and shared it with our partner. Students received notes that they should study.

Language Arts was a time of review. Our team will be tested this Wednesday on the story Teammates, as well as the assigned spelling list for the story with the tricky ie, ei patterns. Today, we reviewed the story and the skill of Author's Viewpoint. We also played a game with our spelling words.

In Math, we met Aunt Sally who is helping us with our Order of Operations. The students are enjoying working through the different steps of the problem. Tomorrow, the students will use their own white boards to practice.

Wow! Did you feel the Earth move? The students learned the different ways that the plates can move. Our restless Earth is continually changing, as a result of forces that build landforms and wear them down.

Homework:
Language Arts - Spelling and Reading tests on Wednesday.
Math - Pg. 26 (8-28)
Social Studies - Study notes, vocabulary, and complete the What End is Up? activity.
Science - Read pages D12 - D15 and finish vocabulary