Humpback Whale Scientists: October 18, 2007

Humpback Whale Presentation
Whale and dolphin researchers from The Dolphin Institute (http://www.dolphin-institute.org/) treated our class to an informative presentation and interactive activities relating to humpback whales.  After the visit, the students reflected on what they learned and what they enjoyed doing with the whale scientists.  Here are some excerpts from the thank-you notes the students wrote:

• We learned about humpback whale behavior and how the primary male humpback escorts the female whale. -SY
• I liked when we had to guess what the female, the male, and the challengers were doing. -TC
• I learned that baby whales are as big as its mother's pectoral fin. -LW
• I liked watching the crittercam videos and learning about the baleen and the primary escort and the challengers.  I hope you get lots more crittercam videos!  -SA 
• I learned that they eat at Alaska and liked guessing who was acting like the female whale, primary escort whale and challenger whale. -KJ
• I learned that humpbacks go to Alaska to eat krill and they go to Hawaii to give birth. -KL
• Measuring the whale was fantastic!  I couldn't believe how big the mom whale was. -MH
• I liked measuring the size of a humpback whale and learning about how each humpback whale fluke is different, like a fingerprint. -MM
• I liked learning about whales. -ER
• I learned about whale flukes, their different fluke patterns and that whales eat in Alaska and migrate to Hawaii. -TC
• I learned that whales eat in Alaska and have their babies in Hawaii. -AK
• I enjoyed the migration game we played and measuring the size of the humpback whale. -JC
• I loved seeing the humpback whale finding the other humpback whale. -SY
• I liked the obstacle course and I also liked measuring how big a whale is. -CH
• I liked it when we watched the video and when we measured how big a humpback whale is. -KM
• I had fun studying whales.  It was funny when the primary escort made bubbles. -EM
• I learned that humpback whales only eat in Alaska. -ZC
• I liked playing the whale game and learning about the first place male whale challenging the second place male for the female. -JH

Awesome Storyteller
On Tuesday, the elementary school gathered to hear some great stories told by Lyn Ford, an acclaimed storyteller.  The students were mesmerized by her stories and rhythmic speaking!

Quilt Patterns
Our first grade mathematicians are busy working on designing quilt patterns.  The students are using a repeated unit to create a pattern and noticing how shapes come together to make new shapes when the quilt squares are placed together.  It's amazing how right triangles and squares become larger triangles, irregular trapezoids, parallelograms or rectangles when the quilt patterns are repeated.  After creating their quilt patterns, the students are transferring their designs to clear sheets using permanent markers to create "stained glass" quilt patterns to display in our classroom.

Thank You
Thank you to KL and TC for bringing in crickets for Jackson.  He is one happy Jackson chameleon!  Thank you to all the parents who helped our class make Spooktivity decorations for the dining room: Cliff Cheng, Tracy McConnell, Ann Loo, Sandra You, Laura Adams, and Wendy Handa.  The students loved stuffing Mr. Spider with newspaper and making trick-or-treating bags for Spooktivity.  If you have a chance to peek in the dining room and see Mr. Spider hanging from the ceiling, it is well worth the trip!  Thank you to all the parents who volunteered to send in pumpkins and help with carving.  The children are anxiously anticipating our pumpkin-carving party on October 29th.

Posted on October 18, 2007 10:14 AM | Permalink