Corel Reef Reseach Project

Our next ecosystem will be the ocean coral reefs. 

So far in our Sharing the Planet unit of inquiry, the kids have researched and studied the habitats of the world rainforests, and deserts .  We have also studied food chains and looked at food chains from the habitats we have studied.

The sub-headings they will research for this writing topic will be:

To demonstrate their learning, I would like them to take their notes and make either a Keynote presentation, write a non-fiction report on Pages or make an Imovie.

1.  What are coral reefs?  Describe types of coral.   Describe what coral is and where you could find it.  What do coral need to live?

2.  Study three animals that live on or near coral reefs
What do they eat?  What eats them?  What special body parts or behaviors do they have for either protecting themselves or getting food?  How do they use the coral reef to survive?

3.   What dangers do coral reefs of the world face? Research and report on just one.



On-Line Resources To Use

Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coral_reef


Enchanted Learning- Coral Reefs- Great site for all three subheadings http://www.enchantedlearning.com/biomes/coralreef/coralreef.shtml

3 minute Coral Reef Video--National Geographic
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/environment/habitats-environment/habitats-oceans-env/coral-reefs/

The Great Barrier Reef--Video
http://adventure.howstuffworks.com/coral-reef-videos-playlist.htm

National Geographic--Animals of the coral reef
http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/coral/

Coral Reef Info Site- Great info on the animals of coral reefs
http://www.coral-reef-info.com/coral-reef-animals.html

Mini Desert Research Project

This week we will begin researching desert ecosystems. 

The kids will be researching..

What is it like in a desert ecosystem? (Thinking about the climate at night vs during the day, cold deserts?)

Animals of the desert

The third sub-heading I want them to research is totally up to them. What interests them about the desert?

Resources

Eyewitness Video--Deserts Seen in class, students took notes

Desert animals

http://www.desertanimals.net/

Deserts

http://www.mbgnet.net/sets/desert/whatis.htm

Biome life deserts

http://staff.concord.org/~btinker/GL/web/exploring_life/ecosystems/desert.htm

Desert USA--Desert Life
http://www.desertusa.com/life.html

Desert Wikipedias Site
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert

Enchanted Learning Deserts
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/biomes/desert/desert.shtml

Desert Slideshow
http://www.slideshare.net/Michellesoto/3rd-grade-ecosystem

National Geographic Site on Deserts
http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/habitats/desert-profile/

The Sonoran Desert, Arizona Upland
http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/exploring_ecosystems/desert.html

Desert Food Chain
http://www.world-builders.org/lessons/less/biomes/desert/hot-desert-chain.html

Animals of the Desert--great pictures not much info
http://mlbean.byu.edu/Portals/26/docs/Desert%20Adaptations.pdf

People living in the Desert

https://sites.google.com/site/geographysaharadesert/how-people-ive-in-the-sahara-desert
and
http://library.thinkquest.org/26634/desert/people.htm

Death Valley
1) http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/national-parks/death-valley-national-park/

2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Valley

Plants of the Desert
1) http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/desert_plant_page.htm

2)

Helmer Nature Center Field Trip

Tuesday our class traveled all the way to the western part of Irondequoit to visit the Helmer Nature Center.  Deep in the forest of the Helmer, our kids learned about macro invertebrates.  Our creeks and streams are full of these macro invertebrates. The kids learned that some of them can only live in pure clean water. Some can stand a bit of pollution and very few can live in polluted water. 

After a session learning about them in the classroom, our class traveled down to a creek to take water samples. 

Here the group is listening to instructions. 

 

In this group of pictures I was pollution and the kids were different macro invertebrates. Depending on which one they were assigned, they had different ways of moving. One group, who were pretending to be an invertebrate that cannot stand pollution, had to move by hopping in a potatoe sack. They were easy for me to catch. 

In this group of pictures the kids are taking water samples and using a chart to see what we found. One of the kids found dragonfly nymphs. When we got back from Helmer we researched the dragonfly. So cool to see their babies in the creek!

Another picture shows the chart of possible macro invertebrates in the creek. The kids spent a little time looking up some of them on our IPads

Last, on our way home we almost hit a wild turkey with the bus! This guy was crossing Titus Ave near Culver rd.  

Research Project Homes Around the World

In class we will begin learning about the homes people live in from countries around the world.  The purpose of this research project is for our kids to learn how to go out and find information on a topic.  They will then take what they have learned, create a presentation and teach the rest of the class.  In this case, I assigned them a country to research and gave them the focus for their research, just research the homes.  

They will take notes in class using a book and then take what they have learned in the book to find more information on websites.  Here is what I wrote on their notesheet.

Directions: Read information about the homes people create in different parts of the world.  Use books and websites to learn as much as you can about how the people of your country create their homes.  Think about...

What are the homes called?

What are the homes made from?

Where do groups of people live?

How are the homes set up inside?

                 Are there different kinds of houses you can put as examples?

Find terrific images of their homes and create a Keynote presentation to share with the class.  You should have a minimum of three slides.  Be creative and learn how to make your slides interesting looking.  Think about the information you are sharing.  If it interests you, someone will find it interesting if you show them the right way!

We will be reasearching twenty-three different countries

Kenya, South Korea, China, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Scotland, Ireland, Argentian, Chile, Venezuela, Australia, Italy, Spain, Finland, Germany, Iran, Pakistan, Isreal, Afghanistan, Vietname, South Africa, Ethiopia, Indonesia

Here are a few websites helpers to get you started:

Type into Safari...homes or houses in _____the name of your country.  

If you do an image search, be sure the visit the webpage to read information on that type of house.

Once you learn the name for the style of the house, enter that into the Safari search to learn more about that type of home.

Shelter On LIne (not every country here but a few that we are reseaching)

http://www.shelterpub.com/_wonderful_houses/wh-toc.html  

Culture Grams

Use this site, enter your country and look on the sidebar--you will see a part for housing. Not every country is on this site but there are a lot.  To use this site you must enter the Username 64-3453 password bigchalk

http://online.culturegrams.com/

Mini Study on the Inuit

During our new unit of inquiry we will be studying the cultures of groups of people from around the world.  We have discussed in class that the culture of a group of people includes information like:

Food

Homes

Clothes

Language

Religion

Celebrations

Appearances

Recreation

Traditions

Customs

If we can learn a little about each of these areas, we will know a little more about whichever group of people we choose to study. 

The mini research we will do today will help us discover how to do research and then report that research to the class.

Directions: Use the websites below to gather information on one of the items we have listed as culture for the Inuit people.  Your small group will be assigned one of the items above for you to research.  Gather information by taking notes on a piece of paper and then creating a short Keynote presentation. Be sure to show images and give lots of information!

Click the links to go to that page

Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuit

Ducksters

http://www.ducksters.com/history/native_americans/inuit_peoples.php

Windows to the Universe

(This one has a great photo gallery for you to see pictures with captions)

http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/polar/inuit_culture.html

Another thing you can try is type in Inuit (and the category you are searching for food, celebrations, etc..)  Read the short description for the website and if you think it would be helpful, read the entire website. 

Check out how our projects turned out!!  

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4bg_pxxtFbUR3hTV1kwVklOSms/edit?usp=docslist_api

Stone Soup!

This week our kids read a wonderful story called Stone Soup.  Read the summary below written by NM and JD (district computer policy won't allow me to use their real names).

One day three monks walked into a village.They don't see anyone. They set a pot on some sticks they had gathered.A girl came by and said " my mom has a bigger pot." She came back .with a pot bigger than her.Then they got the first ingredient in the pot. Someone said they had some . They came back with tons.Then they got a rock and put it in water.They kept asking for more and more ingredients.Soon they had a pot of boiling and delicious stone soup.They set up some tables and besides the soup they had tons of different foods.They had veggies,fruit,soup and more!!!!!!!!!!They danced and watched puppet movies till 5 o'clock in the morning.Then the monks left and all the villagers thanked them and were finally happy!

We then read several versions of the story from around the world.  All have the same theme but in some versions the characters are trying to trick people into feeding them.  In one version, Cactus Stew, soldiers are trying to get a town to feed them by making stew out of one cactus thorn. The town enjoys the feeling they get from sharing and the soldiers help the people realize just how wonderful     their town could be.

                       

Today we made our very own stone soup. Just like the story our students added the different ingredients throughout the school day.  We shared our soup at the end of the day! Check out our video

Classroom Thanksgiving

Today we had our classroom Thanksgiving!  We started our day learning about the 1st Thanksgiving. The kids read a short reading on the 1st Thanksgiving.  Then they made their Thanksgiving name tags for their place at the table.  As the meal got closer, they got crazier! By noon there was turkey-mania in the classroom.

Here are some things to take away from today.  When I asked the kids what they were most thankful for their answers were almost unanimously family, food and home.  It was very clear this group of kids appreciates their families and the lives you have given them.  Not one child was thankful for video games, stuff they own, or some t.v. show.  

        This was also a student's first Thanksgiving in America! It was so awesome to see him enjoy this American tradition.

I got to enjoy watching the kids laugh watching A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. They helped each other make thank you cards, color desk name tags, and later work on a science experiment.  To end our day I watched them say Happy Thanksgiving to each other.  

Thanks for a great day! Check out the pictures I got of you guys.  Happy Thanksgiving!