Trout!

As part of our year-long study of water, we raise trout at our school. We start in January, when the trout are in the eyed-egg stage and we release them in May as fry. Carina from Portland Water District was back this week with another fabulous science lesson, this time all about the trout's anatomy and life cycle.

Now, this poster is colorful and students had their own papers to label as we went along. But how much more fun is it to label the parts when we had our own life-size "trout" right there in the room?

 

Connor was an eager volunteer and he performed his modeling duties "swimmingly"!

Carina shows the powerful caudal fin, which helps the trout swim upstream at spawning time.

 

 

After we talked about each part of the trout's anatomy and how it helped the trout survive, Carina got help from Dominique and Kyle to show the eyed egg and alevin stages.

That prominent black dot is actually the trout's eye! This is the stage our trout are at right now.

 

Once our eggs hatch, they will be alevin. In this stage, the trout get all their food from their yolk sac, which is good, because they do not yet have fins to swim or a mouth to eat with! The yolk sac is like their own attached lunchbox!

 

By the time the yolk sac is used up, the trout has developed fins and a mouth. They are then called fry and must begin to find their own food. That is the stage at which we will release them. Between now and then, we have to carefully monitor their water temperature and quality. Trout need very cold, clean water to survive. When it gets closer to the release date, we will go to the release site and test the water there to make sure it is suitable for our trout to survive. Stay tuned to see how it all turns out!

 

 

 

 

The Telling Room

This past week we had a most magical morning, (how's that for alliteration?) at The Telling Room in Portland. The Telling Room is a place where kids and young adults can go to write in a supportive and collaborative environment. All 4th grade classes in South Portland will have the opportunity to spend a morning immersed in the writing process. It is a bright and welcoming space, with comfy furniture, small tables, and oriental carpets warming the floors.

I was asked by John, who facilitated the session, to just sit back and be an observer, which for an elementary school teacher is an extremely rare luxury! It was such a treat to listen in on all the conversations about writing and jot down my thoughts as the morning progressed.

There were 5 adults in all, who each worked with 4 students, guiding them through lots of discussion, brainstorming, modeling, and pre-writing about a special person or animal that they loved.

By the time the students got to drafting, there was this incredibly focused hum of productivity in the room. They each wrote a "You Are" poem, modeled after a poem that they heard on an audio recording.

The expressive language used by students in their pieces was beautiful and they were so excited and proud to share their writing. Several have continued to add to their pieces in the days since our trip.

 

When I asked the students for feedback about our trip they were universally positive.

Below are some comments:

 "It was so easy to write there."

It's usually hard for me to write but today it was easier because it was quiet and there were lots of people helping."

I liked having so much time to write."

 "I wish we could write like that all the time."

and

"Can we go back there again?"

My sentiments exactly! Thanks John, Hakeem, Eliza, Rory, and Connor for an unforgettable experience!

Learning About the States

We are fortunate enough to have 6 iPads in our classroom this year. One of the students' favorite apps is Stack the States. It has all the fun of a game while helping kids, (and maybe even some adults), learn cool facts about the 50 states. The same developer  makes a version called Stack the Countries and another of my students' favorite apps: "Presidents vs. Aliens".

I recently came across an awesome video about the 50 states that we have enjoyed watching this week on the SmartBoard. We're wondering how long it really took the guy to do all the drawings!

And of course, we can't forget an oldy, but goody..."Fifty Nifty United States". Every year my class learns this song, and forever more, they know all 50 states in alphabetical order.


I promised my class that I would put these videos here so they can watch them from home.

Here you go guys...enjoy!

Winter Candy Scenes

Due to so many students with allergies, we have a new policy at our school that parents can no longer send in food treats. I was concerned about what this would mean for our annual Winter Candy Scene project. I have done this project for the past 5 years, ever since I moved up to 4th grade from 2nd grade, where we had a gingerbread house tradition, and it is always a special memory for my students. As I thought more about it, I realized that the project is about constructing the scenes, not about consuming them. After getting a solemn promise from all students, (raise your right hand and repeat after me...), that no one would actually eat any of the candy until they got home and checked with their family, we were able to proceed. Check out our slide show of all the fun!

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We Voted!

We have been learning about the 3 Branches of Government and what each branch does. We have also done some reading in our Scholastic News about some differences between the two candidates for president, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.

Last week, Ms. Stanbro set up a mock election in the library through the Studies Weekly Every Kid Votes program. Computer voting "booths" were set up with privacy folders.

                                          

Once students voted, they got to have their pictures taken with the "candidates".

Check out our slide show!

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