Animal Explorers: October 11, 2007
We learned all about Hawaii reefs and shores and the animals that inhabit these places on our field trip to the Waikiki Aquarium. In particular, the aquarium docents talked about various habitats and the adaptations of plants and animals that help them to survive and thrive in a certain habitat. The four different habitats discussed were sandy shoreline, shallow reef and tide pool, wave impact, and quiet-water. Thanks to the parent chaperones for accompanying our class on this adventure! There are a few photos from our field trip in our classroom gallery - take a peek and see!We are transitioning from studying ocean plants and fish to ocean mammals. Next week Tuesday, we have a dolphin and whale expert from The Dolphin Institute coming to talk to our class about ocean mammals. We are excited that the timing of this classroom visit is in-sync with the natural migration of humpback whales from Alaska to Hawaii. According to the Honolulu Advertiser, "The first humpback whale sightings of the season were reported this week by a Lahaina tour boat" (Honolulu Advertiser, Section B1, October 11, 2007). We look forward to learning more about these amazing creatures! ZC also brought in a book about whales and dolphins to share with the class. Yesterday, we listened to numerous tracks of whale and dolphin sounds and played "Name the Animal." The students were very good at determining what was a whale song and what was a dolphin song. Here are a couple of the "songs" that we listened to.
Inquiry Resources - Searching Online
Yesterday at our faculty meeting, the librarian for the middle school and high school spoke to us about the various resources that are useful for inquiry research. Instead of just "googling" a subject, Ms. Kemble provided the faculty with a list of the MPI Library's online subscription databases for the Elementary School. EBSCOhost is a subscription to magazine, newspaper, and reference articles. The "Kids Search" feature is designed to be user-friendly for elementary students. Another great resource is World Book Kids. A handout will be sent home explaining how to log onto EBSCOhost and World Book Kids. In class today, we explored these two search sites and looked up information on animals that relate to Halloween (see paragraph below). These are two great resources for finding information for our inquiry studies!
Halloween Decorations
Next week Monday, our class will be working on Halloween decorations to make the dining room festive and spooktacular. Since we're studying animals and dressing up as animals (or something related to animals) for Spooktivity, it is only appropriate that our decorations tie into the animal theme. So, here we go with the bats (flying mammals) and spiders (arachnids)! Thanks to Mrs. McConnell for being our go-to-gal and organizing this decorating event. We will be having our Spooktivity craft day from 12:30 to 2:15 on Monday, October 15. Please contact Mrs. McConnell if you would like to come create Halloween creatures with our class,
Food-Sharing Project
Our MPI community is supporting individuals and families reaching out for help by initiating a year-round "Sharing Food" project. In Character Education, the students have been discussing ways to be compassionate and help others who are hungry and have limited resources for getting food. Non-perishable food is collected on the third Thursday of each month. All food that is collected goes to St. Patrick's food pantry in Palolo Valley. This month, the "third Thursday" is October 18. Please send in any canned food donations by October 18.
Box Tops
It's amazing how quickly 5 cents here and 5 cents there can add up to over 30 dollars. With the routine clipping and saving of the box tops, our class is banking some big bucks towards Box Tops for Education. Your children's keen eyes have even spotted various sources of box tops in our classroom (the Band-Aid boxes and Ziploc boxes). Thank you for continuing to save and send in box tops!
Thank You
Thank you to Tracy McConnell for providing our class and Ms. Revard's class with delicious pretzels on our field trip to the aquarium. Thank you to all the parent chaperones who joined our class on the field trip!
Save the Date
Pumpkin Carving - Our class will be carving pumpkins on Monday, October 29, from 12:30 to 2:00 pm. Tomorrow, your child will bring home a "Pumpkin Helpers Form." If you would like to donate a pumpkin to the class or carve pumpkins and count pumpkin seeds with us, please fill out and return the form that will be sent home with your child on Friday.
Spooktivity - Wednesday, October 31, from 12:30 to 2:00 pm. Come and join the elementary school for the Spooktivity parade (and see all the different "animal" costumes in our class).
Posted on October 11, 2007 9:43 AM | Permalink