Mrs. Hughes' Blog

Describe the behavior of your pet or another familiar animal. Identify which of the animal's behavior are instinct and which behaviors are learned. Label your drawings of each behavior.

Each science group will need to bring in a shoebox by Tuesday. We will begin a project that will take two class periods to complete. The students are studying simple machines. Each group will be assigned a room in a house and create it using simple machines. The machines will be labeled and explained. We will put the rooms together to create the Simple House.

The fifth grade students are studying ecosytems. We are learning about the transfer of energy in a food chain. They have created their own food chain. The students have compared and contrasted how food chains/food webs are similar and different.

Looking for something fun to do with the kids? Starting on Wednesday, January 27th to Saturday January 30, Snow Days Chicago Winter Festival located along Michigan Avenue, south of the Art Institute will sure to bring excitement to your weekend.
Every year Snow Visions, Inc. sponsors a Snow Sculpting Competition. Often confused with ice carving, Snow Sculpting involves three person teams carving 6 ft x 6ft x 10 ft tall blocks of snow to create masterpieces like these pictured here. Professional teams from Wisconsin to Holland participate, as well as local high schools. The competition is free to the public. In the three day weekend crowds of 80,000 people come out to enjoy the statues.
My brother, Mike Dillon, has competed in this competition for the last three years. Last year, his team came in third place with the snow sculpture of Max and the Wild Thing. It is a great day. Please go to the website to view this years entries. Hope to see you there!.
www.snowvisions.com

This week will be the ending and the beginning of information. On Monday, we took an identification test on simple machines. The students have vocabulary for homework. The vocab is always done as follows: word-definition-example-question.
We then will begin heat, magnetism and electricity.

Mutualism is a relationship that is beneficial to both partners. Mutualism can seem very strange because the most unlikely creatures do amazing things to help each other survive. Some act as body guards or booby traps, others as hairdressers or housekeepers.
Find another example of mutualism besides clown fish and anemone.
Locate a picture that shows one of the following:
Symbiosis mutualism
Symbiosis commensalism
Symbiosis Parasitism
You need to know the name of the the two organisms and bring in a picture.