May Day Snow and Plate Tectonics

May started out snowy...oh so snowy. I guess winter decided it wasn't through yet. May 1st, we woke up to this view.

 It's been snowing off and on now for 2 days. With the nasty winter weather, it has been perfect to stay in and work on our studies of Earth Science. 

This week we explored the super continent of Pangaea...

A traced the continents and tried to figure out her own ways they could have matched up.

She then glued them into her science notebook.

After studying the theory of continental drift, we moved on the the study of plate tectonics. A worked on a plate tectonics puzzle...

....then she trace the plates into her science notebook and wrote a little about her understanding of plate tectonics.

Next it was time for some hands on studies of the different types of plate boundaries. First she used playdough to model the three types of boundaries; divergent, convergent, and transform boundaries.

Then it was time to see what actually happens at those boundaries. We used playdough and index cards to demonstrate. Her at a convergent plate, A pushed the two plates (index cards) together and created mountains.

We did the same thing with each type of boundary.

A made a chart in her science note book to show what she learned.

....complete with her own illustration of people being overcome by the toxic gasses spewing out of a volcano.

A is really getting into this unit and it has been a lot of fun. I see us running with this unit of study for quite a while.