Saturday, December 20, 2014

Fourth Graders Build "Pond" Ecosystems...

Guppies acclimating to temperature and chemistry of  a mini pond.

Students take notes on how many of each organism they put in the "pond.", so that they can assess the health of the ecosystem when they return form winter break.




Daphnia image from Wikipedia.



Many students named their critters, including the tiny daphnia. One poor critter was mistakenly put in guppy cup and was eaten immediately.    Food chain in action.





Soil Delivery to School Yard Brings Visions of Spring

One of two piles of soil.




Planter along side of the fence over the highway that needs soil.

Permeable pavers

This bed is on upper level.  Plan is to fill with grasses.

Check out progress by looking at earlier entry.

Saturday, December 13, 2014

Changing T.P. to Writing Paper

Too many giggles to the term toilet paper forced us into using the abbreviation T.P.  But sheer joy took over as students in first grade repurposed T.P.  What has this to do with their plant study?  Kids knew that paper is  made from plant fiber.







Be on the look out for paper products from first graders.



K Students Use Found Objects to Build Fantasy Bird Houses and Their Occupants












Birds made by K students in Art Studio with Paola.

Close-up of a blue bar.

Hanger, tape and crepe paper bird.

Sunday, December 7, 2014

Tree Pit Work Continues...

Thanks to the New York City Daffodil Project, 4th graders were able to plant daffodils in the tree pits around our school.  They are working in small groups with Johanna.



 Can't wait until spring...


Thursday, December 4, 2014

Potato Exploration with First Graders


Using a balance to find out how heavy...


Finding how far around...


First he tried to use pencils, but selected a string instead.


One student counted notches in string; another used  a train of cubes to measure.



This student traced the potato and put a number in each box around the potato outline.


This student carefully moved a small cube around the potato to get 37.
This student measured 9.  Time to share strategies ....

Steamed potatoes and toppings were part of the exploration.


Students sketched with sharpies and added a water color wash.








Cutting pieces of potatoes with eyes to plant and checking out the growth of their garlic and onion bulbs.
Bulbs are going home with students.  Check out this link if you are interesting in indoor garlic gardening.