Farmington Bay Nature Center

We took our field trip today to the Farmington Bay Nature Center to see the birds and learn about their adaptations. It was such a neat field trip! The kids (and I!) loved it. Although it was definitely warm outside. But we got to see many birds and learn so many great things.... this is the first post of 2 or 3 to talk about the field trip. Some of the birds we saw include cormorants, yellow winged blackbirds, grebes, several types of ducks, Canada goose, pelican, great blue heron, California gull and possibly swans. Here are some photos of the nature walk part of the field trip:

The moon's craters

On Thursday we did an experiment to show why some craters are big and some are smaller and why some craters have lines stretching out from them (it is the dirt that was scattered when a meteorite hit). We had flour in a bucket and then I sprinkled cocoa on the top...the flour represents the rocks on the moon, the cocoa the layer of dust. Then students dropped a rock from different heights and at different speeds. If the rock was dropped close to the ground (a rock traveling slowly) then it just made a small dent in the flour. But if it was dropped from up higher and especially if it was thrown with force, then the dent/crater was much larger and often flour was scattered all around the crater. This is what has happened on the moon. It is covered with craters of various sizes. And because there is no air, no wind, no weather, and no water, the dirt/dust settles after the meteorite hits and stays there for thousands or even millions of years.

The students were very interested to hear that Buzz Aldrin's and Neil Armstrong's footprints on the moon will be there for more than a million years. They are very interested in the moon and have great questions.

Favorite School Subject

Today our wonderful social worker came in to do a social skills lesson with our class. As part of the lesson, she had each child introduce themselves and tell what their favorite school subject is. Our class loves math!! 13 kids said their favorite school subject is math. Seven said they love reading. 2 said they love art and 1 said they love writing. A couple said they like PE and computers. But math was by far the favorite. Tomorrow we will use the information to make a bar graph and do some comparison story problems during math class. :)

We are studying the Moon!!

Come back soon for updates. We are learning about the moon: what it is made of, what it looks like, all about the phases of the moon. Check out the websites listed over on the right side of the blog that are all about the moon. Also, take a few minutes each night to look up at the sky with your child and see what shape the moon is. Thanks!