This week’s theme at BASE was Winter Solstice. Even though the 50 and 60 degree weather feels nowhere near close to winter, it is quickly approaching! Third grade shared so much prior knowledge on what the winter solstice is. It marks the beginning of winter and falls on the shortest day of the year and longest night of the year...December 22nd this year! Right around the corner!
In third grade we discussed the climate and environmental changes that occur during the winter. We then talked about the change in animals that we see during this time of year. Where do they go? What do they do? How do they survive the frigid weather? Hibernation! Although we know that not all animals hibernate, we were able to generate a long list of animals that do hibernate during the winter and where exactly they hibernate. With this knowledge, we each created diagrams that showed the various animals we discussed and their hibernation spots for the winter. Check out their amazing work below!
This week third grade also engaged in a winter solstice Shadow Science experiment. During our discussion about the winter solstice, we talked about how the days get shorter and why this happens. We talked about how the Earth is tilted and how it travels around the sun causing it to be at different spots during different times of the year. Ultimately where Earth is compared to where the sun is will affect the different shadows that are casted on Earth. Shadows on Earth also change as the sun rises and sets. Using legos, students built structures and made predictions as to how the shadow that is casted from their structure will change as the sun rises and sets. To simulate the sun, we used flashlights. We moved the flashlights to five different positions over our structures and took note of how the shadow changed during each position. We then compared our predictions to the outcome of our Shadow Science experiment. Check out the pictures below from our experiment!
In third grade we discussed the climate and environmental changes that occur during the winter. We then talked about the change in animals that we see during this time of year. Where do they go? What do they do? How do they survive the frigid weather? Hibernation! Although we know that not all animals hibernate, we were able to generate a long list of animals that do hibernate during the winter and where exactly they hibernate. With this knowledge, we each created diagrams that showed the various animals we discussed and their hibernation spots for the winter. Check out their amazing work below!
This week third grade also engaged in a winter solstice Shadow Science experiment. During our discussion about the winter solstice, we talked about how the days get shorter and why this happens. We talked about how the Earth is tilted and how it travels around the sun causing it to be at different spots during different times of the year. Ultimately where Earth is compared to where the sun is will affect the different shadows that are casted on Earth. Shadows on Earth also change as the sun rises and sets. Using legos, students built structures and made predictions as to how the shadow that is casted from their structure will change as the sun rises and sets. To simulate the sun, we used flashlights. We moved the flashlights to five different positions over our structures and took note of how the shadow changed during each position. We then compared our predictions to the outcome of our Shadow Science experiment. Check out the pictures below from our experiment!