We had the opportunity on May 4th to partner with Mrs. Hartley's class and connect by Skype on the Smart Board with a ranger from Yellowstone Park!
Ranger Alicia was very informative, and she had lots of wildlife artifacts to share with us like elk antlers and bison horns, which she muscled up to the screen so that students could get a good look. Students wrote down a couple of questions to ask Alicia, if given the opportunity, and some did have a chance to ask a question. Students were particularly interested in the bear population at Yellowstone National Park because they had learned about Maine black bears in April. Ranger Alicia showed students pictures of black bears and grizzly bears, along with graphics showing differences in their body shapes, besides the obvious difference in size. Students learned that black bears live in Yellowstone National Park along with the grizzlies--but we don't have brown bears in Maine. Phew! We also don't have bison or elk in Maine. We do share some wildlife species, such as various birds, rodents, and members of the cat family like cougars, wildcats, and lynxes. We learned that Yellowstone Park is situated in a caldera that formed 640,000 years ago after the eruption of a super volcano, one that remains to this day. The reason for Old Faithful and other geysers located there is due to the molten rock from that super volcano that bubbles up through the Earth's crust. It heats some of the water that pools in fissures in the Earth's crust, so that the heated water and steam bursts up through holes and cracks in the rock.
We've been learning about the Atlantic puffin, a bird that breeds on Seal Island, Matinicus Rock, and Egg Rock in Maine. Additionally, students have studied the Maine state fish, the landlocked salmon. They have created paper, paint and foil collages of these animals and will include these pages in their Maine books. Students wrote original cinquains about salmon.
In separate pots, students planted radish and wax bean seeds, as well as, the herbs parsley, basil and dill. All the plant species seeds were distributed in two pots each. We decided to do an experiment by growing half of the plants in a sunny location, and the other half (same plants) far from natural light. Students have made many observations and written down those thoughts on lab sheets. They have also generated hypotheses about what they think the results of the experiments will be. They have noted similarities and differences in a Venn diagram, discussing their observations in small groups of 3-4 students.
Students are still practicing fluent reading, summarizing, and learning how to answer inferential questions (both orally and in print) connected to their reading. We LOVE books!!
Students will shortly participate in the final spelling assessment. It's expected that they will know all the words on the targeted list of high use words. Parents, please check in with your child to see if the list is mastered, and keep practicing if there is still work to do. Frequent short practice sessions (10 minutes or so, 4 times a week) is ideal for memorization of conventional spellings.
Unit 8 in Everyday Math focused on geometry--polygons and polyhedrons. We have a "Shapes Museum". The study of arrays as a way to represent multiplication, more regrouping practice with 2- and 3-digit numbers rounded out the unit. Onto Unit 9 and the study of equal parts--i.e., fractions!
We look forward to working hard on our Maine book in the final weeks of school and can't wait to share it with our parents on June 17!
