Payday

Here is Ally's post from Friday:

Today is pay day we get to shop so I hope you pick nice things. Have fun on the weekend../’;

I thought I would elaborate: Due to MAP testing and Bruster's, we didn't go shopping until today. I wanted every student to have time.  Shopping in school? What are you talking about?

Each student has a job they have chosen and receive payment for. Over the course of a month they receive additional payment for homework, being on target for 100 BC, doing their job, and making great choices. They face deductions for not fulfilling their job responsibilities, not completing homework, and making choices that prevent them from listening and learning. They are also charged monthly rent for their place in Room 102. At the end of the month, they get to shop. 

The most coveted items are coupons: trade seats with a classmate for the day, invite a friend to lunch, bring a stuffed animal to school, sit in the teacher's chair, bring in items for show and tell, and extra computer time. 

This helps students understand choices, consequences for one's actions, wants and needs, and basic addition and subtraction. 

My favorite comment came from Kole: I never thought at seven years old I would have a job here at school. (Let me add that he has done a FINE job at being responsible for sharpening pencils for our entire class!)

Students choose their job and the class determined the salaries for each position. We also discuss whether a specific student should receive a bonus for their performance. This is wonderful to see students share positive comments with each other. This has made a huge difference in the self esteem of several students. 

They have also discovered what an inconvenience it can be when someone does not do their job. What a valuable life skill they are learning! I am thrilled to stand beside them and watch them grow. 

Tomorrow we choose new jobs for the month of October and I can't wait to see what happens.  

Green Eggs and Oil

Today we discovered first hand what eggs floating in a water/oil mixture looked like and felt like over 5 minutes, 15 minutes, and then thirty minutes.

Materials:
4 hard boiled eggs
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup oil
10 drops of food coloring
clear bowl
timer


Students watched as I cracked the first egg and then I passed it around. They wrote what they saw and described how the egg felt. Then the remaining eggs were submerged into the mixture. (Today Ally was our official photographer. She did such a great job capturing this activity with the iPad Mini.)

Mixture:

Cracking first egg:

Passing around egg number two

And my personal favorite.......the photo of Kellan and egg number three

The third egg was slightly discolored and was tough to the touch. One student said it felt rubbery. It was amazing to feel the difference just after 30 minutes. We discussed what it must have felt like for the animals in the ocean over the 140 day period of the oil spill. 

Caitlin raised her hand and said, "That's almost as long as a year in school." 

Chills I tell ya! This was one happy teacher today as I watched and listened to my students making such powerful connections. What a thrill to witness their learning!

Tomorrow we discuss whether or not something like this could happen in our own back yard. 

Captain Ally

My class had fun last week because we looked like a pirate. And got treasure. We also made a map.

My class had made ants too.

Oil Spill

After learning how DDT affected the Peregrine Falcon, we read an article from Time for Kids magazine about birds that were injured from flying into buildings, some were hit by cars when they were picking up food, and others were simply too fat to fly from hanging out under the hot dog carts in big cities. This brought about some major giggles! I explained that the birds had also gotten grease on their wings from the carts, and couldn't stretch their wings to fly.

The next day I asked students to reflect on the animals we had talked about and consider other ways animals and their habitats were impacted.

Wow, what an amazing list students came up with:

tornadoes, extreme temperatures (they were thinking back to our story of the Monarch Butterflies), logging, poison: DDT (thinking about the Falcons), people building homes and clearing land, fires, strong winds, drought, heat, storms and falling trees (we read about this when we learned about the Beavers), hot dog carts, cars, and predators.

I sat students down and explained that we would begin talking about the BP Oil Spill that happened in Louisiana. I wanted to prepare students that we would learn some startling facts, but we would also focus on the determination by many individuals to save the animals and make a difference.

Students learned on April 20, 2010 the Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico killing 11 workers. This was the beginning of many months of oil leaking into the ocean. They learned in Mid-July BP tried to stop the oil, but it was only temporary. Then I heard, "How many days was that?" Great question I said!

So we counted the total number of days using a calendar and found that oil leaked for 87 days. Then they learned the well was successfully closed on September the 19th. I heard again, "Wow-now how many days?" Again, Great Question! So we kept counting and learned that after 140 days, the pumps were officially stopped. Then I heard: "How much oil leaked? Wow, think of what that did to the animals?"

This has to be one of my favorite moments as a Teacher. Everything you have been teaching them, all the books and articles we have been reading, all the things we have talked about up to that moment, all of that came together and connected. The questions and comments I heard were simply amazing! I really got chills!

They learned that approximately 250 gallons of oil leaked into the Gulf. Then a student asked, "How much is that?" As students got out their snacks, I went to the sink and filled a gallon container with water and passed that around. I told them to imagine 250 of those filled with oil that were then dumped into the water. Jeremiah reminded us that milk comes in a gallon container. (I love it when they make connections)

After converting gallons to ounces, and showing them a 16 ounce bottle of Diet Coke, we calculated that it equaled 32,000 ounces of oil. I then introduced students to the Dawn website. I reminded students to think about the scientist and what they did to help the Falcons. I told students they would learn about some amazing things that were done to help other animals.

Students worked with a partner to share what they had learned and discuss what had happened. You can see in the picture below what Kellan wrote in her notebook. She and Kole worked together to compare what they remembered and respond in writing.

Go to: http://www.dawnsaveswildlife.com/ to learn more about the animals that have been helped.
This week we will see firsthand the impact of oil when we have an Oil Pollution Experiment. Check back for pictures-

DDT and Peregrine Falcons

What a busy week we had in Room 102! I am blessed with inquisitive students that are embracing learning with tons of energy! This week we continued our animal research as we focused on endangered animals. Students read about the Peregrine Falcon and learned what scientist had to do to save the eggs so the animal would not become extinct.

Because of DDT, Falcon eggs became too thin. When the mother sat on them, they would crack and crush under her weight. We read about a clever scientist that came up with a plan to climb out to the edge of the cliff and switch the Falcon eggs with fake eggs. (I asked students to think about what that took to convince someone to do that job!) We saw some fantastic photos of the procedure and were inspired by their efforts. The scientists took the eggs to a lab, placed them in incubators, and monitored them until they hatched. After several weeks they were able to take the healthy babies back to the nest for another switch. Again, we talked about determination, bravery, and commitment to helping the animals in need.

The Peregrine Falcon is listed as an endangered species for South Carolina. After I shared this with students, I went to the website for Chimney Rock State Park. Over forty years ago you could not see a Falcon flying across the State Park. Today you can go bird watching at Chimney Rock and you have a great chance of seeing one of these birds soar across the sky. I really wanted to pack everyone up and go on a Field Trip to the mountains after reading this!

You can read more about them here:
Chimney Rock State Park

Jake: Frog Expert

Did you see this? I didn't want it to get buried in the comment section so I wanted to share it here. 

Written on September 10, 2013

Dear Ranchers,

I am amazed at the wonderful things you all are learning! I love the excitement that you have for reading. Being able to read well is so important. It's important now for school and it's important for your future! I also like that you can identify facts and information from the text you read. So, what is the difference between a frog and a toad? I'm sure someone from Holden's Ranch knows the difference. I'll be asking someone this question soon!
Dr. P

I replied on September 16th 

Today several students walked in the door so excited! Dr. Patterson asked one of our students how a frog was different from a toad. I asked Jake what he told Dr. Patterson and was pleased to hear his response. I asked Jake to type his response so he could share the information with others. From Jake:


My name is jake. A frog has smoth skin and a
Tode has bopy skin. A frog can jump fast !!! but a
Tode jumps Slow.

In a recent post, Dr. Patterson wrote the following:

Ally -

Thanks for the update! Isn't it amazing how every animal has its own unique habitat! What if humans lived in an ant habitat? That would seem kind of silly, wouldn't it? 

Ally and Rancher friends, did you know that for its size, an ant can carry a lot of weight? Any chance you could find out how much weight they can actually carry? If you have a minute, research this answer and let me know what you found.

I shared his post and asked students if they thought we would be able to find his answer this week. I heard, "This week, what about now?" So what could I say? I asked students where they thought we could find the answer. Jake said the computer, Elliott said an Encyclopedia, Jacob said a book, Ally said we needed to gather some ants and observe them, and other students said our Science Textbooks. So-off they went! Three students went to the back of the room and logged onto National Geographic for Kids, Wonderopolis, and Time for Kids. 

Kole looked on the website Wonderpolis to see what he could learn about Ants. Jake went to National Geographic for Kids to watch the animal videos on Ants to see what he could learn.  

Ally decided to look in our Science Textbook.  Kellan and Hannah found a leveled reader about Ants. 

Elliott and Luke looked but.......

I love the fact that it didn't deter them. Didn't find it, maybe I could look somewhere else. 

Natalie was the first to find the information. 

After Natalie shared her information with the rest of the class, we considered what it would be like to live in an Ant Habitat. They are currently writing their ideas about this, so check back with us.