1/30/19

Today in a Nutshell:

• Finished up the cow oil pastel projects
• Everyone made an 85% or better on the European countries quiz today!

• We finished up the book, Hatchet and reviewed the reading comprehension questions.
• Discussed the life cycle of moss, learned the different parts of a moss plant, and added the information to our science notebooks.
• European Foods Day was a HUGE success!  WOW!
• Added to our European countries paper bag project.
• Learned about the Roman aqueducts.
• We are beginning the book, "Shackleton's Stowaway".
• Baby goats will start showing up in the next few days!
  
  
  
  
  
   

1/23/19

Another cold day!  The class survived their animal jobs... and I may be curing some of them of their desire to have a farm one day!  Each week, I talk to them about Farm News.  Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad.  I always explain that life has ups and downs.  There are good times with happy, bouncy babies, eggs, growth, sunshine, and health... and then there are times that make you question you abilities.  Question your choices.  Question whether or not raising and loving these animals is worth it.  I told the class that I was not alone is these low times.  I began raising goats almost 20 years ago, and I have acquired many friends who farm.  We all go through moments like these.  To me, it is important to explain this to kids.  Often, we as a society try to sterilize

everything for children.  We try to present everything as if it is all guaranteed... as if it is always sunny... as if we, as humans, are entitled for life to be as such.  Farms offer the very real lessons that help to ground us, and I don't like to deprive my classes of these lessons.  So, today I explained that despite my best efforts, we lost a pig.  Yes, things like this happen... but it's never easy.  We cry, and we question ourselves, and we stay awake at night trying to make sure we look at things from every possible angle.  The kids have been reading the book, Hatchet by Gary Paulsen.  In the book, the main character makes a very clear point.  He says that you HAVE to learn from your mistakes.  Mistakes happen... and it doesn't help to spend too much time in despair.  You have to act, you have to learn, and you have to do better.  This is what we also will do.  This is what I hope my students will learn and remember.

Ever since we read My Side of the Mountain, the class has been trying to make fire with
"flint" (actually, ours is magnesium) and steel.  Each of the books we have read emphasize the importance of fire when you are surviving in the wild.  Sometimes, the kids ask if they can work with their magnesium and steel during their free time.  Well, it wasn't until today that anyone had success!  One of my students noticed that, while she and her father were chopping firewood, the bark peeled back to expose the same little fibers as Brian found in Hatchet. "He moved to the trees. Where the bark was peeling from the trunks it lifted in tiny tendrils, almost fluffs." She brought in these fibers today, and the class was set on starting a fire! They worked together and were patient... and like in our book, we had the "Day of First Fire"!

The students did an excellent job with their journal entries on famous European landmarks! We learned about the Eiffel tower, Big Ben, Stonehenge, the aqueducts, the Colosseum, and more!

The class continued our paper bag activity on European countries. They worked on creating new bags and inserted their information notecards into the bags. Next week we will finish these and begin our in-class research activity! 

Our science lesson for today was on plant classification.  As we begin our unit on the plant kingdom, it is important for the kids to understand the difference between spores and seeds and between vascular and nonvascular plants.  We discussed these in class, and they added a page to their science notebooks that we will work with next week.  In order to drive home the fungi and moss lessons, we went on a little nature walk!  The class saw many examples of fungi and moss, and I was able to ask them questions that make them think.  HOW do you know this is a fungi and not a moss?  Why is this fungi growing on a log that is dead?  What does it mean to be a decomposer?  One of my students even brought in an example of a mushroom that was growing on a log near her home.  She remembered my important lesson about using gloves, and hopefully she will make a spore print of it for us to see!

1/16/19

Instead of jumping right outdoors to take care of the animals, we decided to stay in a little bit for today's Farm News in hopes that things would warm up a tiny bit!  The class learned that we are keeping the new calf, Clara.  We talked about the due date of the pregnant goats that are now in our "maternity ward".  They've been given their CD&T shots and are now chilling out with some great hay and clean bedding.  Come on, kidding season!


The class has really been enjoying our book, Hatchet!  We talked about the trials and struggles that Brian has had recently.  This book is just perfect for this age group.  They are able to put themselves into Brian's shoes and can really appreciate his growth as a person.  The class then set to work on a vocabulary review crossword.  There are so many great words in this part section of the book!  We talked about the Quiz Time sheet for these chapters, and then the class shared their field guides.

I have been giving the class some time together to compare, share, and add to their field guides.  They have been using this time to scour through resource books and talk to each other about the things that Brian is encountering in the wilderness.  I love this!  Not only are they learning about the plants, animals, and earth science concepts as Brian does, they are learning to use indexes and glossaries, to skim to weed out unimportant information and find the facts they are looking for, and to summarize the information in written form.

The students brought in information and pictures from different European countries.  In class, they worked on creative a paper bag to represent each different country.  Then, they placed their information cards into the appropriate bags.  They are setting up for a large in-class research activity, but for now we will work on creative the paper bags for many of the European countries that we are studying.


On our wall, we placed a huge "pond" where the kids placed different protists.  Last week, they created protists that utilized different methods of mobility.  Some had flagella, some cilia, while others had pseudopods or simply floated through our pond.  Today was the last day to place them into our Pond Life pond!


In science, the class has been learning about the fungi kingdom.  We reviewed their lesson from home and then the class was able to see a spore print that I made from a mushroom the night before.  Although we won't be making spore-prints in class, I will post a video so parents and students can create them at home, if they'd like. Next, the kids worked on a mushroom dissection!  They learned about the different parts of the mushroom, as well as the function of each.  They used a scalpel to carefully remove the veil to expose the gills.  As they investigated the structure of the mushrooms, they took notes and documented their observations in their science notebook.  Then, the class learned how to create a wet mount slide, and we viewed slivers of the gills.  The kids will label the different mushroom parts in their science notebook before next class.

1/9/19