Room 227’s Blog

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.