National Geographic BioBlitz

Our class was honored to be a part of National Geographic's annual BioBlitz.

"A BioBlitz is a 24-hour event in which teams of volunteer scientists, families, students, teachers, and other community members work together to find and identify as many species of plants, animals, microbes, fungi, and other organisms as possible." - National Geographic website

This year's BioBlitz was held at Jean Lafitte National Historical Park. The park had two separate inventories happening. Inventory is the collecting, analyzing, and recording of specimens seen. One on land and one in the swamp. The younger grades conducted inventories on land at specified plots and the older grades conducted their inventories in the swamp from boats.

In preparation for our inventory, we discussed and looked at creatures we might encounter. We also identified creatures and plants to avoid - water moccasins, cotton mouths, wasps, bees, alligators, poison ivy. Then, I modeled for the students how the inventory was to be completed. We would collect specimens by sorting through leaf litter, swooping nets through bushes, trees, and air, and log busting.

This was a fun, learning experience that they will never forget!!

Watch the video of our day.

If you live in the San Francisco area, be on the lookout...BioBlitz is coming your way in 2014. Golden Gate National Recreation Area will host next year's event. You can email bioblitz@ngs.org to receive updates and notification when registration is open. I highly recommend this event for your students!

BioBlitz 2013 - slideshow

If you would like to read short blog posts about others' experiences, check here.

If you would like to read about the discoveries made at Jean Lafitte, check here.

Plane and Solid Shapes

After reading The Greedy Triangle and discussing characteristics of 2D (plane) shapes, the students graphed ordered pairs to draw various shapes.

 

After graphing the shapes, each one was colored a certain color according to its name.

 

Then, we sorted quadrilaterals and labeled. Students created their own categories to sort when finished.

 


After learning about 3D (solid) shapes, students identified them with food. Each student was given a bag with various items and sorted them as cylinders, cones, rectangular prisms, spheres, and cubes. The activity was created by Johanna Tackitt and can be found here.

 

 

Once sorted and counted, a graph was made. Also, 2 questions were created that could be answered using their graph.

These are the anchor charts for the week.

After all their hard work, students were treated to a Mardi Gras parade put on by Kindergarten. 

In addition, we had a Mardi Gras/Valentine's celebration. Students brought in treats for their classmates. 

 

Ms. Gros brought cupcakes that she made. There is not much that she can't do :)  

They look and taste AWESOME!! 

Finally, at the end of the day our school held our end of the quarter PBIS award. Students that did not receive more than a phone call home attended a magic show. They were amazed and thrilled at the performance!

 

 

HAPPY MARDI GRAS!

Fractions and Compare/Contrast

We focused on identifying fractions of a set and of a whole for the first week. One activity was to sort jelly beans according to its color and find the fraction of each color. Once fractions were written, the students created individual and group graphs of their jelly bean colors.

 

During week 2, we focused on comparing, ordering, and equivalent fractions. I found an amazing resource that includes a 4-day lesson on these skills. 

We started the week with an activity from Illuminations. The students used egg cartons to review finding fractions of a set and then discovered equivalent fractions.

Fraction strips were another manipulative used to find equivalent and compare fractions.

 


In Reading, we addressed comparing and contrasting. Ms. Gros had each student blindly choose a name of an animal that was written on a piece of paper. Then, they paired up, drew a Venn diagram, and compared and contrasted their chosen animals.

We finished reading Ramona Quimby, Age 8 and began Ramona the Brave.  A Venn diagram has been started to compare and contrast the two books.

New Spelling Centers and Counting Change

The students did well for the past nine weeks with the current centers, but a change was needed. Ms. Gros set up the following centers:

Play-Doh: Students spell words with Play-Doh

Puff Glue: First, the words are written in marker. Then, they are traced with puff glue.

Spin-a-word: Spelling words are written on a spinner. The students spin a paper clip and write the word that is landed on. This is done 20 times. Finally, the students create a bar graph of words spun.

We began learning about money last week. 

One activity the students enjoyed was coin rubbing. I found this activity on Brain Pop Jr. The students showed amounts using coins and made an imprint by shading with colors. 

We also received letters from our pen pals yesterday!

We can't wait to catch up with them!