Last week, our Owl Class celebrated Earth Day with fun-filled days talking about ways to protect our beautiful, wonderful Earth.
Early in the week we read an Earth Day favorite: The Lorax! While many were familiar with the 2012 movie, I was shocked to learn that many had never heard the original Dr. Seuss tale! The story's last line...
gave us a lot to think about for the week!
After hearing the story, students had a great time thinking about how they would help the Earth if they were the Lorax (although they quickly realized they needn't BE the Lorax in order to help our Earth :) )
On Friday, the official Earth Day, we got our first interaction with the upcoming SMS School Garden!! Volunteers from the PTO visited our classroom and helped each student pick and plant a seed that will then be transplanted into our new garden! Students also received a ballot to voice their choice for the garden's name.
I think I can speak for everyone when I say how much fun we had celebrating Earth Day. Our students are motivated and energized to do their part to help keep our Earth the beautiful planet that it is! I can also say how much the Owl Class (and all SMS students!) are looking forward to having a community garden! The PTO invites you to the Garden's Public Celebration on Saturday, May 14th from 3-5pm. View more information, or find out how to help more with this great project, at the SMS Student Garden Web Page.
Last Friday, all of SMS headed outside to participate in the annual Jump Rope for Heart! With music blasting, students broke into relay teams (as practiced in PE) and jumped their hearts out! Take a look at our awesome relay teams!!
Our star jumpers sure have skills!!
When it wasn't their turn to jump, they had a lot of fun cheering on their teammates, hula hooping, and showing off some dance moves :)
After about a half an hour of relay jumping, it was time to break out the long ropes and show off some teamwork!
What a fun afternoon! After all that jumping, it was time to relax and enjoy a tasty snack courtesy of our wonderful PTO!
Such a fun afternoon! Thanks to Mrs. Forest for volunteering to help us with the fun!!
Everyone had a BLAST while also supporting the American Heart Association. We haven't gotten the final figures yet, but Ms. Batchelder said SMS raised a TON of money! Way to go SMS! Thanks to all the families that donated. Your donations support important research for heart disease as well as educational incentives to teach others about keeping a healthy heart!
Last Wednesday, SMS students in grades 2-5 were given a very special experience. Alex, a representative from Google, was here to promote their latest pioneering program: Google Expeditions. Expeditions is a virtual reality program built for the classroom. Using Google Cardboard and an app designed specifically for an educational, interactive tour, students got to experience an amazing "field trip" right from their seats in our Maker Space!
Google Cardboard viewing device.
Teachers guide their class and point out highlights!
The best thing about Google Expeditions is that we were able to tour places we couldn't get to by bus! Ms. Riley took some great pictures through the viewing device to give you a peek into some of the great sites we visited!
First up: The Lincoln Memorial in our front view, and when turning 180 degrees, seeing the Reflecting Pool and the Washington Monument. The beauty of panorama imaging!
Our National Monuments Tour continued as we visited Mount Rushmore and Half Dome next!
To get the FULL experience of all Google Expeditions has to offer, we headed to the depths of the ocean and to the top of Mount Everest. Alex (and I!) was thoroughly enjoying the excited buzz filling the room!
A HUGE thank you to Mr. Gagnon and Mrs. Wenthworth for contacting Google and giving SMS this wonderful experience! We hope to use Google Expeditions again soon!
Needless to say, Ms Riley and I had JUST as much fun as the kids!! :)
Last Tuesday, the entire second grade was treated to an encore presentation from Krista Butts of Wildlife Encounters. Again, Krista brought several animals with her, this time with a focus on how animals contribute to the plants of our ecosystem.
The first animals we were introduced to were actually insects. These MADAGASCAR HISSING COCKROACHES are responsible for breaking down decaying plants, which gives us the richest compost. These cockroaches love warm, moist, dark places. When we were very quiet, we could hear their "hissssss".
Krista shows us a male and a female cockroach. You can tell the difference based on the thickness of their antennae! (males = thick, females = thin)
A few brave second graders handled these insects. The sticky hairs on the bottom of the cockroaches feet allowed them to be worn on the shirts of these volunteers!
Once the cockroaches were placed back in their container, Krista introduces to a grade-wide favorite, the BENNET'S WALLABY! Kaya, a member of the kangaroo family, is an herbivore. Her job is to eat plants (the flower part, not the roots) and then let the seed come out her other end. Wallabies take this digestive process one step farther by then stepping in their poop, which in turn plants the seed allowing for a new plant to grow!
Krista helped maneuver Kaya onto the floor by using her tail, the strongest joint of the wallaby body.
I think Kaya could smell the snacks in our lunch boxes!
Once Kaya hopped safely back into her cage, Krista brought out her most vocal friend: Noah, the GREEN-WINGED MACAW. Noah is a seed disperser. He eats seeds, flies away, and then poops the seed out in a new location. While he is a great disperser, macaws are also seed predators. His strong beak functions as a built in nutcracker! He can grind up thick shells such as walnuts and fully digest the seed (which cannot then be replanted when it comes out the other end).
While he was a little stage shy for us, Krista told us Noah has a huge vocabulary and frequently mimics the different voices of all the Wildlife Encounter employees!
Noah looks like a Scarlet Macaw, but the green stripe on his back is what makes him different (scarlet macaws have a yellow stripe on their back).
We also learned that the red feathers next to his eye function as his fingerprint! The special pattern is unique to Noah alone.
Next Krista was ready to introduce us to animals who have helped SAVE plants! If these next animals didn't exist, some plants would be extinct. We often don't think about plants being extint, but the lady slipper is a perfect example! Krista reminded us that if we're ever in the woods, to never pick the beautiful lady slipper.
One animal that helped save plants, way back when the settlers were harvesting, was the CORN SNAKE. When the settlers would harvest their corn, they would store it in wooden crates before bringing it to the market to be sold. After this long process, the settlers would arrive and find that mice had eaten all of their corn! The settlers placed snakes in their wagons to combat this problem and it worked! The snakes would eat the mice and thus save the corn! To this day, the corn snake is known as the "Farmer's best friend". Corn snakes can be red, gray, or yellow able to camouflage into American corn or Indian corn. They are common on the Eastern Seaboard in the Mid-Atlantic states.
This corn snake is an albino. Unable to camouflage, it would be unlikely he could survive in the wild.
Like our first visit, Krista again reminded us that snakes act on instinct only. While it's okay to hold most snakes, you should NEVER put one around your neck.
Another animal that has helped save plants is the CANE TOAD. The Cane Toad eats the beetles that destroy sugar cane. Unfortunately, the Cane Toad is also poisonous, so while they've helped save the sugar cane, they have also hurt the population of some animals. Native to South America, the Cane Toad was brought to Australia to help control the beetles. Once there, these toads quickly killed several species of animals there. The local animals didn't know that the toad was poisonous (like South American animals knew), would eat the toads, and then die. The Cane Toad is now known as an invasive species.
These toads are large! When full grown, they're about the size of a steering wheel!
The Cane Toad secretes posion from glands behind its eyes. The poison can get on the plants, which doesn't hurt the plants, but then hurts the animals that eat those plants.
Finally, we were introduced to the animal that "does it all". Fauna, the BROWN SKUNK, helps deposit rich nutrients into the soil, disperses seeds, and eats animals that eat plants! Skunks, in Krista's eyes, are one of the least respected animals, especially considering how much they help our ecosystem!! A lot of second graders had questions about the skunk's stinky spray. They were happy to learn that it actually requires a lot of energy (and is even a bit painful) for the skunk to spray, so skunks will only spray as a last resort. If you encounter a skunk in the wild, it will give you three warning signs before it actually sprays:
1. Stomps its feet in a loud and powerful way (their way of saying, "Go away!)
2. Waves its tail, aka its "stop sign" (their way of saying, "I'm scared!)
3. Turn its behind to face you; shows all of its colors in its high tail (their way of saying, "You are WAY to close, I'm about to spray!")
While only about 50% of skunks are mature enough to actually spray, 100% of skunks will act like they can!
State law required Krista to wear gloves when handling Fauna--even though Fauna's scent glands are removed and she receives frequent rabies shots!
Krista demonstrating Fauna's "stop sign".
Thank you again to Wildlife Encounters for sharing your wonderful creatures and enhancing our science unit!!
