SLEUTh Academy

Happy New Year! After our little celebration on WNEST for the Winter Solstice just before break on Dec. 21, we are ready to link some of what we’ve learned into a brand new unit. Our new unit in Science Lab is what I’m calling “Our Planet Earth: Time and Place in Space”. Kindergarten and 1^st graders are learning about using the stars to navigate on Earth, much like the slaves did to find freedom by using the folk song “Follow the Drinking Gourd”. Second and third graders are learning about shadows and solar time by making and using sundials. Fourth and fifth graders are using a solar electrovoltaic cell as a model of Earth and flashlight as a model of the Sun. They are using this system with a voltmeter to measure the energy changes caused by the tilt of their model Earth – much in the way the sun’s energy here on Earth changes with the seasons due to Earth’s tilt. I’ll add some links soon for fun games, music, and videos related to this unit….so come back and visit soon! If you find any interesting websites or have any ideas or questions – SEND A COMMENT anytime!

Here are two versions of the They Might Be Giants song “Why Does the Sun Shine?”.  Use the first one to learn the words and the second to sing along!  A great vocabulary word to learn from this song is incandescent – that means “so hot that it glows” – that is how most of our light bulbs work!

1. Version 1: 
2. Version 2: