This Wednesday through Friday the Kindergarten students started learning about whooping cranes. We will be studying whooping cranes and following the current migration from now through December.
This online video from National Geographic gives an excellent overview of the endanangered whooping cranes
This week all 4th grade students participated in watershed demonstrations facilitated by Ms. Hodges from Arlingtonians for a Clean Environment. The students learned about point and nonpoint pollution as they "made a mess" of the watershed model. Coming up in the Discovery Lab the students will make their own watershed models. Also, Mr. Bryer will talk about his work with the Nature Conservancy related to the Chesapeake Bay Watershed and the Oyster Restoration project.
Check out some of the great work 3rd graders have been doing in Project Discovery! Students learned aboutadaptationsof living things and then experienced how different animals might go about eating with the structures they have. Our 3rd graders "ate" paper and water...using very unique mouths--clothespins, sponges, and straws!
{eating} {paper}
{data}
{measuring}
{testing}
Ask your child how a living thing adapts or changes to survive!
Posted by Allyson Greene at 3:25 PM
10/17/2009
Back by Popular Demand-Barrett's JohnPaul Octopus
Students loved these Barrett created short videoclips related to the Chesapeake Bay and the Under the Bay Exhibit from the Virginia Living Museum.
Have fun learning from the puppet John Paul Octopus:
Loggerhead sea turtles can be found in the Chesapeake Bay and in many parts of the world. However, since the 1970s the number of sea turtles has declined. Currently, all species of sea turtles are listed as threatened or endangered. To learn about sea turtles, we watched a National Geographic video clip, read the book Turtle, Turtle Watch Out, and played a game. In the game, each student pretended to be a baby sea turtle. Using a Fortune Teller (see photos, green papers students are holding), the student turtles encountered either positive or negative experiences. If the experience was negative, the student sat down to show that this turtle was no longer part of the population. In each round of the game, the student turtle population declined. We represented this information using a line graph. As you can see in the photos, we appreciated having the SMART Board to assist our learning.
Note: Mrs. Bruce and Mrs. Owsley's classes will be learning about the sea turtles next week in the Discovery Lab. I will upload photos from these classes next weekend, so please check back.
Today we went to the Discovery Lab and learned about sea turtles. Did you know that all six types of sea turtles found in the U.S. are either threatened or endangered? Did you know that some sea turtles migrate? Did you know that approximately 1 out of every 100 will make it to adulthood?
We went to three centers while we were in the lab:
The first center was making a turtle headband. The students glued photos of the types of food the Loggerhead sea turtle eats on to the headband.
The second center was a role playing activity. The students pretended they were turtles and experienced many of the dangers that sea turtles encounter; such as predators, nets, trash that looks like food, etc.
In the third center, the students were learning about conservation of number. There were a total of 5 sea turtles. The teacher would hide some of the turtles and ask the children how many were missing. Then we discussed how they came up with the answer.
Today Mrs. Torres and Ms. Rente's classes learned about sea turtles in the Discovery Lab. Ask you child what he/she learned while rotating through 3 centers. Check out this online Sea Turtle Game. Also, you may want to watch this National Geographic video about Loggerhead Turtles (scroll down to video).
In the Discovery lab, students from Mrs. Liguidi's first grade class learned about the blue crab--the signature species of the Chesapeake Bay.
We looked at a short movie clip of a blue crab eating and noticed how it uses its claws to pinch, hold, then bring its prey up to its mouth. We also learned that the blue crab has several kinds of legs: paddle, walking, and claws. We made our own models of the crab by using our hands and blue paint!
Soon, we will create a habitat for our blue crabs. Enjoy the pictures below!
