Adding our Red Worms

Friday we were able to add our red worms to the worm habitats made by student groups on Thursday. Each habitat added about 16-18 worms. Over the course of the next few months, even weeks, we will witness nature's ability to recycle. Habitats are stored in the classroom in black plastic bags so the worms can do their work.

Red Worm Habitats

Over the next few months we will observe and learn how worms can be decomposes, nature's recycler. Yesterday we set up habitats for our worms, which will arrive in on Friday. In each habitat is garden soil (for the finisher decomposers....bacteria), dead leaves collected off playground, some left over organic matter from students' lunches, a few twigs, and damp newspaper. Each jar will house around 16-18 worms.

Iroquois Dances

In furthering our understanding of how the Iroquois people had an advanced civilization, we dove today in understanding how their art, specific that of the Rabbit Dance, led to a more advanced society. After reading and watching the actual Rabbit Dance, small groups selected a Nevada animal to create a dance about that would be worthy of early people giving tribute to. Groups developed their own dance moves and performed it to the beat of the Rabbit Dance.

Food Webs

This week we are working on understanding the complexities of food webs within ecosystems. Monday we created food webs for a wooded ecosystem. Today we move into the marine ecosystem and understand predator/prey relationships within them.

Food Chain

In science this week we learned how earth is a system. Focusing on the biosphere, students learned about food chains a created a woods ecosystem food chain

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Engineering Challenge

We had our first mini engineering challenge. Constraints included: 2 index cards, 1 foot of tape, and 15 minutes. The challenge was to work in their team to build the tallest tower out of the cards and tape. We learned many important principles regarding engineering today. Although the tallest tower height went to 4 students at group 5, this height will certainly be broken in future challenges.

Archaeology Dig

Today was the big dig. After incorporating archaeology into social studies and reading this week, today our class got to be actual archaeologists. The sand box was divided into 6 quadrants. Each team of scientists excavated a particular quadrant. As an artifact was discovered, it was recorded down in their lab book, both a description as well as the location it was found. A photo was also taken of the artifact. Upon returning to the classroom, team and class discussions occurred about the artifacts, their usage, the culture(s) in each site and any interactions that might have occurred between any different cultures that lived in the area at the same time. Finally, students wrote up their "grant report" for the "funding" of their dig, individually explaining those things discussed in discussions.