Social Studies: People of the United States

This week in social studies we are studying the people of the US.  We are trying to learn more about different cultures and how they settled in the US.  We are also studying different cultures' contributions to the United States.  There are five main groups of people we have been studying:

Latinos:
Most Latinos moved here from Mexico and went to California in search of gold and to do mining in hopes of becoming rich.  Latinos brought tacos to America, as well as rodeos, sombreros, and chili.

American Indians:
American Indians crossed a land bridge (made of ice) between Asia and North America.  American Indians brought knowledge of planting fruits and vegetables to our culture today, as well as tepees, jewelry, pottery, baskets, tomatoes, and avocados.

Asian Americans:
Asian Americans also came in search of gold, hoping to become rich.  Many of them worked on railroads.  Asian Americans have contributed noodles to our society, as well as the word "shampoo" and sushi.

African Americans:
Most African Americans came to America as slaves, but they are free now because of the Civil War.  African Americans introduced hip hop and rap to our culture, as well as jazz music.  Lots of African Americans play sports, like football, basketball, and baseball.

European Americans:
Columbus came to the US and then it was colonized by other Europeans.  Many traveled by ship for freedom and to create their own government.  Some contributions from European Americans include waffles, pizza, the word "poodle", and the word "dollar".

The photo below is a collage of all of the cultures discussed above that was made by our class.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Johnson's 3rd and 4th Graders

Science Project: Mock Rocks

This year in science we are studying geology.  Geology is the study of the earth and rocks.  This week in science we are working with mock rocks.  A mock rock is a pretend rock that was made by our teachers.  Some of the ingredients in the rock include: red and green gravel, small sea shells, sand, and some mystery ingredients which we still need to figure out.  On our first day with our mock rocks, we observed them and recorded our observations in our science journals.  Some observations that we made included diameter, circumference and depth.  We also looked at it with a hand lens.  After we observed them, we took them apart.  We wore safety goggles to protect our eyes.  We then used nails as a geologist's pick to take the rock apart.  As we took them apart, we were able to pinpoint what our rocks were made of.  We know what some of the ingredients in the rocks are, we are going to conduct more experiments to figure out what the other ingredients are.  Below are some photos of us
taking apart our mock rocks.

Sincerely,
Mrs. Johnson's 3rd and 4th Graders

Welcome!

Welcome to Mrs. Johnson's class blog!  Soon, the students will be posting weekly updates of the happenings in our room.  Enjoy :)