For an acrostic poem, the writer puts the name of a person or concept to be defined vertically and fills in a short phrase that begins with the letter on the corresponding line.  Here are a few of the class favorites:

Sun is the center of our solar system.
Orrery is a model of the solar system.
Large is our galaxy, known as the Milky Way.
Asteroids floating around the sun.
Really hard to see is Mercury because it's so close to the sun.
Simply amazing are the size of the planets.
You can see the stars, huge glowing balls of gas.
Saturn.  The planet with rings.
The solar system started as a great cloud of gas.
Earth, the earth that we live on.
Mercury is the closet planet to the sun.
- Kayla C.

Strange
Uncontrolled
Nuclear bomb.
- Charlotte P.

Pluto is a dwarf planet.
Large planets are Jupiter and Saturn
Asteroids are usually in between Mars and Jupiter.
Neptune is an outer planet.
Earth is my living planet.
Temperatures of planets are different depending on how close to the sun they are.
Solar System is what holds our planets.
- Kendall P.

S​uper
Ultra
Nuclear reactor in our Solar System.
- Dominic L.

Stars are huge balls of gas.
P​lanets are an object bigger than an asteroid.
Asteriods are irregular shaped rocks.
Comets are a combination of ice and dust.
Earth is our home planet.
- Madison S.

Characterisitcs
Hair color
Rotundity
Oral sensitivity
Mutation
Optical efficency
Size
Optical neuritis
Microbiology
Evolution
- Chase P.

Cold to warm
Local weather alerts
Ice age
Molecules of water
A infared photon
The Biomes
E​quilibrium 
Carbon Dioxide
Happening seasons
Atmosphere effects
Nitrogen
Greenhouse Effect
Endangered Animals
- Jessa D.

Windy
Exceptionally cold
Always changing
Thunder
Hardly Warm
Earth
Rainy
- Emily B.

A haiku captures the essence of an idea, concept, or emotion.  It does not have to rhyme.  It does follow a strict pattern though with the syllables.  There should be 5 syllables in the first line, 7 in the second, and 5 in the last.  Here are a few of the class favorites:

The Solar System
it is bound by gravity
it's invisible.
- Hyrum N.

The Solar System
is round.  It has eight
planets.  Poor Pluto.
- Kayla M.

Fertilization
Diluting your DNA
Will my genes survive?
- Sage C.

Creepy DNA.
Hmm, how many do I have?
What happened to me?
- Jared W.

Chromosomes are fun.
They are in us every day,
Made of DNA.
- Peyton P.

Dark hair and green eyes,
characteristics of mine
from my mom and dad.
Chase P.

Ice caps are melting
and polar bears are crying
Mom keeps denying.
- Ben

The seven biomes
are everywhere in the world.
TDF live I.
- Kaity P  (TDF = Temperate Deciduous Forest)

We learn about time,
ice caps, the sun, and all that.
It is depressing.
- Ian N.

The limerick was the most complicated poem we tried this week.  It is constructed of five lines with an AABBA rhyme scheme.  It often tells a humorous story.  The syllables have to follow a strict pattern as well.  It has a sing-song flow to it.  

Line 1 (7-9 syllables): A
Line 2 (7-9 syllables): A
Line 3 (5-7 syllables): B
Line 4 (5-7 syllables): B
Line 5 (7-9 syllables): A

Here are a few of the class favorites:

It's impossible to compare
to a universe with no air.
A system with stars 
with planets like Mars,
it's like zero gravity's lair.
- Madelyn B.

Deep inside my DNA
is where my characteristics lay.
My hair, my nose,
my super long toes,
it's what makes you "you," I would say.
- Lydia W.

I went into science class today.
Mrs. N said do work or you'll pay.
She came through the door
and gave me a four.
I ended up having a good day.
- Nathan P.

There was a cell that lived in yeast.
There were millions of cells at the very least.
Then guess what the cell would do,
divide in half, and then there were two!
Each cell would get a copy of DNA,
then those would copy in the very same way.
4 cells, 6 cells, 8, then 10!
and so on and so on, without an end!
and the end of this poem, yes it is said,
that those Billions of cells became into bread!
- Linden F.

I really don't like Global Warming
We always talk about ice melting.
Global Warming is warmer,
ice caps melting is colder,
it all just gets o-so confusing.
- Cody H.

Cold weather creatures are dying
The polar ice caps aren't lying.
Three bears in a den,
two fox and no men
Warm weather creatures are frying. 
- Jessa D.

The rain forest is home to many
mosquitoes and bugs with antenny.
You may think they're nice,
but you will pay the price
when you catch a disease and get skinny.
- Kaitlyn B.


........

Ok... so some of them got a little silly.  Regardless, I really enjoyed this different way of summarizing our content.  So I'll end with

Mrs. N's Science Class:
engaging and challenging
but fun still happens.
- Mrs. N.

Every Wednesday from here until the Science Fair is going to be a check-in day.

This past Wednesday (2/20) students were supposed to have their rough draft of their Science Fair paper done.  As students are working on these through their ELA classes though, I am deferring any change of dates to the ELA teachers.  I'm working with the 6th graders, Mr. Oldham with the 7th graders, and Mrs. Cook with the 8th graders.  Final drafts of papers for all classes (to my knowledge) are due next week. 

If students didn't meet the requirements for the Logbook in prior weeks, they may still complete those assignments to improve their grade.   Late grades on assignments are better than receiving a 0.  To see past requirements about the Logbook, see my past blog posts by clicking "Science Fair" on the Tags to the right..

Important Due Dates:

Final Draft of Research Paper (6/7/8) - Due Feb. 27th - 29th (depending on teacher)
Rough Draft of Speech (6/7/8) - Due Mar. 6th
Final Draft of Speech (6/7/8) - Due Mar. 13th
Exhibit (8) - Due Mar. 13th
Exhibit (6/7) - Due Mar. 19th
Logbook (6/7/8) - Due Mar. 20th

Science Fair - March 20th from 9 - 11 am in Gym

*Note: There are rubrics for each of these assignments above that go into great detail of how to do them and how to do them well.  Students have copies of them, but extra copies can also be found on Engrade under these assignments.  

Countdown:  25 days!

Monday February 25th

Tuesday February 26th

• Subway Lunch orders due no later than 3:00 p.m. (later orders will not be accepted) – Please pay separate from your pizza order and only 1 week at a time.
• Homework Club 3:00 to 4:00 PM

Wednesday February 27th

• Pizza orders and money due no later than 1:30 p.m. (late orders will not be accepted) Please pay separate from your subway order.
• Early Release-1:00 PM

Thursday February 28th     

• Auction Meeting 3:30 PM

Friday March 1st

• Pizza Lunch     
• Dress Down Friday     
• Homework Club 3:00 to 4:00 PM
• Family Movie Night

Future Dates:

March 4th - 2:00 p.m. Auction Meeting for homeroom parents
March 4th - 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. MRA Open House for new families
March 4th—15th - Talent Show Tryouts in Ms. Blythe’s room at lunchtime 
March 13th - Booster Meeting 
March 15th - Deadline for updated Applications
March 21 - Teacher Report Writing - NO SCHOOL
March 22 - Teacher Report Writing - NO SCHOOL
March 25-29th - SPRING BREAK - NO SCHOOL  
April 5th - MRA Talent Show MRA
April 9th - Public Lottery
April 20th - 4th Annual Auction—A Wild West Bonanza
April 24th - Kindergarten Orientation 6:00 PM
April 25th - Drop-in Conferences in gym - NO SCHOOL
April 26th - Teacher Planning (Conferences by request) - NO SCHOOL