Room 227’s Blog

Hello Gr.5s!

A 3rd grade class in America is doing a survey on how people around the world use and drink water. I thought it ties in nicely to our environmental sustainability unit. Let’s give this Gr.3 class some information for their survey by filling it out. You can even ask your parents to do it, too!

You can also look at the results of what other people have said by scrolling down below the survey.  Click here to get started!  It only takes about 2 minutes.

Have a great day,

Miss B.

Have you ever heard of Brine Shrimp? Ok, well what about a Sea Monkey?  No? You must have heard of Artemia then.

Well, they are all the same thing, and they are not shrimps at all!  They are crustaceans and they start out the size of the period at the end of this sentence.  Adults grow to about 1cm long.  They don’t live in oceans but have adapted to life in salt lakes and ponds. The most important environmental factor influencing their survival is salt.

Why are we learning about them?  We are trying to determine the range of tolerance to salt by creating an experiment with 4 different plastic cups.  Each cup has a different amount of salt in it ranging from 0 spoons of salt up to 3 spoons of salt.  Today we found out that Brine Shrimp did not hatch in the cup with no salt and most hatched in the cup with 2 spoons of salt.

Take a look at the cool video we were able to capture using our new digital microscope. It is magnified at 60x its normal size.  Double click on the image to start it.

Two students look into the plastic cups, looking for signs of life.  The hatched brine shrimp are VERY tiny!

Have you ever wondered what a Billabong is?  What a Billy is? How to throw a boomerang?  How to make Damper?

Well, on Jan. 26th,  our class celebrated Australia Day.  And no, I’m not Australian.  However, one of our students, Heather, is from Australia, as is another of our Gr.5 teachers, Ms.Hahn, AND our wonderful Principal, Ms. Hoogland.  It was a terrific way to mix in something new and different and FUN into our learning.

Ms. Hoogland read a book called Wombat Stew and she taught us about some real Aussie talk.  What a great storyteller she was!  We also made traditional Damper, watched a video on youtube first to get an idea of what we were about to get ourselves into and then off we went…measuring, looking at fractions on our measuring tools, stirring and mixing, getting our hands dirty and kneading the dough.  Ridge’s mom helped bake the bread–which we very much appreciated, and it came back hot and smelling yummy.  It is a very dense bread–not very light and fluffy like we are used to.  It didn’t taste like much, so we added Golden Syrup, which is also a common topping in Australia.  Mmmmm…sugar syrup! You can also add jam or butter if you like. The video we watched is attached below.  Maybe you’d like to try making Damper yourself!

Ms. Hahn invited our class over to join her class in sitting in a big circle to learn the traditional Aussie song, Waltzing Matilda.  Ms. Hahn was a great host teaching us the song and what it means, along with passing around her own didgeridoo.  We all had an opportunity to try to blow into it–it definitely makes a funny sound and takes a lot of air to get it going!  In the pictures below, Lucas and Luis try their hand at playing the didgeridoo.  I’ve also included a youtube video of an Aboriginal artist from Australia playing the instrument.  Have a listen!   We had a kangariffic time!

Take a look at some of the photos from our celebration.

Hi Everyone,

Today we read an article called Afloat in the Ocean, Expanding Islands of Rubbish by Lindsey Hoshaw.  It mentioned that famous people like Ted Danson and Edward Norton are getting on board with helping our planet by creating non-profit groups and making a PSA.  A PSA means Public Service Announcement–like a commercial that teaches us something.  Take a look at the Edward Norton PSA about plastic bags.

Do you think it is effective?  Will people listen to this message?

Do you remember to use reusable bags when heading to the mall or supermarket?

Welcome back everyone and Happy New Year to all.  I will write a post about my trip to New Zealand a little later.

We are currently studying sustainability and are looking at news articles that inform us about positive and negative aspects of sustainability in the world.  We studied one article together on garbage in the Pacific Ocean.  We read the article together as a class and had a good discussion on what impact this has in our lives and the Ocean.  I found the article and news broadcast quite alarming, particularly because there doesn’t seem to be a solution we are quick to embrace.  Certainly, one of the easiest things we all can do is to recycle.  If the statistics are correct and approximately only 5% of the world is recycling, this seems to be an obvious first step.

Do you make the most of recycling?

What are your thoughts on polluted oceans?

I also found on youtube a news broadcast talking about the very same thing.  Take a look.

I wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!  Happy Holidays.  However you spend this time of year, spend it well.  Enjoy family, friends, travel and make time for yourself!

As for me, I’m off to New Zealand to explore, experience, meet new people. I’ll leave you with a great quote,

When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money. Then take half the clothes and twice the money.
Susan Heller

Today our class watched a portion of BBC’s Planet Earth series called Saving the Species.  We only watched the first 20 minutes, and in just that amount of time, we had lots of questions, reactions, thoughts, feelings, learnings about the video.

Our class came up with a variety of responses which you can see below:

•    Elephants are being poached for ivory, meat, clothing
•    Surprised how scientists in the past used toads for research
•    Don’t understand how people are proud to poach animals
•    Can humans become extinct?
•    Half of the world frogs are endangered—shocking
•    If they disappear…what are the implications?
•    Humans are both making problems and trying to solve them
•    Ibex are going to become extinct because of their habitat they live in
•    What will earth look like in 50 years?
•    We need to think ahead–think of our future
•    I wonder how long it will take until all tropical habitats are gone?
•    People in the Ethiopian war were eating animals (Ibex)
•    This is sad that these animals are being killed
•    If people know it’s bad, why are the animals still being killed?
•    Why do poachers kill animals? Are they that desperate for money?
•    Surprised that the soldiers would kill and eat the Ibex. Why not other animals?
•    How might animals that are dying, affect the earth?
•    Half of the world’s amphibians vanished—even though they are small, it will make a big impact on the world
•    Why must humans ignore the warnings?  (money? We’re more important? Don’t care? Maybe we don’t see it as that big of a problem? I’m not going to be around much longer, so why should this matter to me?)

Ridge brought up a great question, which is the last bullet:  Why must humans ignore the warnings? I’ve asked the students to reflect on this:

Do you think humans are ignoring the warnings?  Why or why not?  Do you think you personally may be ignorning the warnings?  If so, why?  If not, how are you making a difference?

Today you investigated the effects of 11 days worth of growth of various plants in different types of environments:

Dry Soil, Moist soil, Wet, Very Wet and Swamp.  I’d like you to answer the following questions using complete sentences and detailed responses.

1.  What is the least amount of water needed to grow these plants?

2.  Is the least amount the same for all?

3.  Can you give plants too much water? Explain.

4.  What is the range of water in which your plants can survive?

5.  What amount resulted in the best growth?

Hello Gr.5s!

I know you are busy uploading your 2nd narrative to your blog, but in addition to that, I’d like you to reflect on the following questions in the same blog post as your narrative.  Reflection is such a powerful tool to help us improve our learning.  I look forward to reading them!

1.  What did I learn about myself as a writer after this process?
2.  What am I most proud of in finishing the narrative unit?
3.  In this particular piece, copy and past one section that you are very proud of, and tell us why.
4.  What is something you think you still need to work on?

“I really like your hair!”

“You’re really fast at running. You must be so athletic!”

“What a nice job you did on your experiment.”

Mr. Williamson’s recent visit to our class reminded us how good

it feels to receive a compliment.  The students each received an envelope, on which they wrote their name.  Each student also received numerous small white cards with one compliment on each.

They were instructed to pass their empty envelopes around in their groups of 4. After the envelopes returned to the original owner, they looked inside to see what compliments had been selected for themselves!  I saw nothing but smiles as the students read the compliments.

When was the last time you gave someone a compliment?  It feels good to give one, it feels good to get one.  Get complimenting today!