Target

Buttterflies are Here!

Our packages of monarchs arrived at Nicholson last week.  The office staff were on alert to let me know when they arrived- I was persistent in checking every day since the first of the month.  Before I could pass out the butterflies that had come our way, they were registered on the JourneyNorth website.  When the teachers do that, the students from all over America and Canada can see where their butterfly "migrated" back to.  As a result of this real world learning activity- the students can see that the monarchs that left Georgia do not necessarily make their way back to the same area.  The closest ones that we received were from Athens, GA (go dawgs!) and Mufreesboro, TN.  Other butterflies were from classes from Elementary school through High School all over the United States. When the students go to the Journey North website- link on my blog (pages- technology sites)  they can click on the map and zoom in on Georgia and then find our "stack" of butterflies that have migrated to other classrooms around the country.  This is a great activity that I enjoy doing with the second grade teachers each year.

The REAL deal...

Two weeks ago I took three monarch instars (caterpillars) from our butterfly garden for the second grade students to observe following the release of the painted lady butterflies they had in their classrooms.  Over the first weekend I had to make serveral trips back to the garden at Nicholson to get milkweed to feed those hungry caterpillars- they can eat like a teenage boy!!!  Between Friday and Sunday, they pupated and we now have beautiful chrysalis to watch.  At the end of the first week we can see the beginnings of the wings, the colors very faint.  Hopefully by the end of the week, we may have monarch butterflies- what a great way to close out second grade! 

A Feast for the Eyes

The end of a unit heralds interesting activities for our students.  The Medieval unit closes with a banquet the like never being seen in this classroom!  The unit shows the students how some of our laws came to be and the social hierarchy that many are greatful does not exist today.  Life is pretty nice compared to those days!  Out of the darkness came light in the way of the Renaissance and the new scientific discoveries.  People in lower standings realized they could make changes as a result of the Plague and medical discoveries were made.  I recently read a book about a woman in an English village which chose to isolate themselves during one of the bouts of the Plague.  It talked about the shift in social standings as people succumbed to the disease and those in lower class standings came into esteem as a result of behavior and overcoming odds.  Things have not really changed over the years from the Medieval days to "Slum dog millionaires" of today.

We had quite a variety of folks at the table, from nobility to serfs and visitors from Geads (Germany), the Persian countries and Rome.  Entertainment was provided by storytellers, musicians, dancers and jugglers.  Mrs. Schulz provided additional costumes to round out some of the garb of the guests at the table.  A range of food typical of the times, cheeses, meats, pasties, potatos, soups, and some international foods provided by our "guests".  We had entertainment: story teller, juggler, musician, and jester.  A great time was had by all.  Thank you to all the parents for your help with this closing activity. 

The question last week was about the particular pie in which live birds were included and would fly out when the pie was cut into- I wonder if they really ate that- or was it just for affect???  The nursery rhyme " four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie" was based on that delicacy.

 ALERT!!!  The Cobb Chapter of the GAGC is in jeopardy of dismantling.   Although they have many members, they currently have no one willing to step up and take a leadership position.  If you know of any who might be interested and willing to take on this role, please contact Sandy.Swint@cobbk12.org.  This organization has provided great support over the last six plus years.   It would be detrimental to have this advocacy group disband.   The current president is more than willing to stay on as a consultant.  She will provide advise and guidance to the new leader.

We are planning on Target next week.  The students need to come ready for class- even if it an abbreviated day.  The binders will need to be at school as there are a few loose ends to tie up.

The Sun is Stirring

Check out the sun info at www.spaceweather.com .  The latest from the sun, our closest star is coronal mass ejection- sounds scary doesn't it?  In the old days of antennae on our t.v.'s our reception would be disrupted.  I wonder if this will affect the northern lights?  So my question to the students is:  How do the eruptions from the surface affect our planet?

Let the Feast Begin!

We are planning our Medieval feast that will culminate the Medieval unit and celebrate all that we have learned since the first of the year.  I am using the we, as this was a new unit for me to teach and had to reacquaint myself with the medieval society.  The students have been asked to dress in a manner that would be found at a feast table.  Since there were many cultures that formed the Medieval way of thinking,  language and society, our varied cultural backgrounds of the students will also be represented with feast clothing and food.  I will provide the eating utensils- easy enough as the main utensil was a spoon.  Mostly fingers were used, or bread to soak or scoop up the food.  Sharing of the food on trenchers was the method of the medieval day- but each child will get their own "trencher".  Did you know that a trencher was a piece of round bread the food was sometimes served on?  The peasants ate theirs and the nobility threw it to the dogs- who had their places under the tables waiting for scraps ( my little Yorkie would be ecstatic!).  Each child has  a form with the item of food they have volunteered to bring to the feast.  They discussed how the entire feast will be affected if someone forgets their contribution. 

Question of the week:  In honor of the king a particular pie was made that was "animated".  There is a nursery rhyme that we do with little ones that talks about this special dish.  What kind of pie and what happens when the crust was cut?

Check out the trebuchets made in class!  Using found materials we created an offensive devise used in the Medieval seiges. The students were asked to tinker with them at home to see if they can improve the aim and distance of the "ammunition".  Watch out mom and dad!!

clip art from: http://historymedren.about.com/library/weekly/aa061898.htm  http://www.wildbritart.com/gallery/birds

Space Day

The first Friday in May has been designated by NASA as Space Day.  Great timing for our Cosmic unit!  A great website for your child to visit is www.nasa.gov and click on the student tab.  This site has some interactive edutainment and tons of information.

National Astronomy Day will be celebrated at the Fernbank Science Center in Decatur. Families have the opportunity to visit the planetarium for a small fee and to see what is happening in the night skies.  Visit the Fernbank Science Museum website for the scheduled events.

http://www.fernbank.edu/planetarium.htm

The new Tellus Museum in Cartersville is also sponsoring events for National Astronomy Day.  Their website is: http://www.weinmanmuseum.org. This museum is new, based on the former Weinman Mineral museum.  They have a planetarium with interesting shows listed in the schedule.

Earth Day!!!

  I remember my first Earth Day - living in Massachusetts at the mouth of a very polluted river that emptied into Buzzard's Bay.  Fish kills were commonplace and my mother used to tell us not to put our feet or hands in the water.  It was so tempting- living across the street from this river and being curious!  Low tide was pretty stinky!  The town across the river was a big textile area and would regularly dump into the river- or have smoke stacks with lots of air pollution.  We could look out the front of our house and see clear evidence of the impact humans made on our environment on the river and the air.  Two years ago National Geographic magazine had an issue about water quality and featured the same river I grew up on.  I am happy to say that today kids can swim in those same waters that we could not put our hands or feet in.  I can testimony to the difference we have been able to make since that first Earth Day in the 70's.

This week at Nicholson we had several activities going on.  All the way from Kindergarten through 5th grade were involved in some fun learning activities.  In Mrs. Honeycutt's class, the students were asked to wear something "green" and recycled old kleenex boxes into containers to hold plastic grocery/shopping bags for reuse. Some of the books read in class were: Mrs. Hall-The Earth and I, Mrs. Stephen- Uno's Garden, Mrs. Jampol- Our Class is Going Green.  Other classes planted chia pets to observe the growth of seeds and went on a trash hunt to help clean our school grounds.  Third graders were treated to a puppet show from Cobb Water Education Department that was all about stream health.  Fifth graders made water barrels from recycled syrup barrels donated by Coca Cola to Cobb Water.  Again, the gals from Cobb Water were here to teach about water and using the rainwater to water our plants and gardens when we are in dry conditions. 

Mariposas

Many thanks to the folks who worked on the Nicholson Butterfly garden during the Great Nicholson Cleanup.  The freshly mulched path looks great!  More cleanup will be done this weekend on an additional work day.  Our winged friends will appreciate the garden area.  This summer a section of milkweed will be planted to attract more migrating monarchs.  Last fall, we could visit the garden and find monarch eggs and some caterpillars.  We did not discover any chrysilis- not sure what happened to the caterpillars-  and who is snacking on them.

The second graders are waiting for our "symbolic" migrating monarchs we sent to Mexico.  Our returning butterflies (mariposas) will come from all over the USA and other countries.  We do this activity in conjunction with the Journey North website.  The second graders have their butterfly houses and are learning about the life cycle of butterflies in the classrooms, both indoors and out. 

I have my own journey south to Ecuador this summer and will see many butterflies- including the blue Morph, another winged beauty!  The focus of this trip is the birds, especially the neotropical ones who migrate from Ecuador to Georgia to raise their young and return to Ecuador.  Our gardens and feeders provide a great learning opportunity for our students as some of the migrating birds and butterflies come through this area.

Come visit our garden and see what you can discover with your children!

Epic Adventures

Did you ever read Beowulf in high school?  I remember the storyline, but not sure if we actually read the epic story.  We have spent the last few classes talking about epics and the modern day versions- Star Wars,  The Lord of the Rings, Eragon for a few.  The story line is appealing to most even today- the hero, the monster, the valiant deeds.  The assignment the students have had is to add a new character to the story line and retell a portion of the story with this friend of the hero-Beowulf.  I am hearing some interesting stories- very creative!  The final, polished story is due next week for class.  Please spend some time with your child sharing their story and help them do a final edit.

 During the testing weeks, the students are expected to come to school ready for Target- we may not get a full day- but plan to meet.  When the final copy is typed at school the students will add their own illuminations and create a class collection of epics.

One of the culminating activities will be the feast.  More information will be coming home about this.  The tentative date for that is May 12th.  Be thinking of costumes.......

 

clip art from: http://www.godecookery.com/afeast/afeast.htm

Fleaing from the Dragons

      That really is not a mis-spelling- it is a combination of our discussions in class today.  Our question to start the day asked if you could go in a travel machine, where and when would you go?  A few said they would not go to the Medieval times, but might go to other interesting places.  One mentioned was to the Mayan times- and we started to talk about the events that are predicted for the year 2012- the end of the Mayan cycle.  When I was at Chitzen Itza in Nov. 07, I met a film maker who was making an IMAX movie about this prediction.  Ask your child about this.  One amazing thing is that our sun will be aligned with the center of the Milky Way on this date in 2012.  (picture from Wikipedia)

The students also shared their Help Wanted posters for a dragon slayer.  Dragons have had interesting parts of literature for many years and have made a big comeback in the last few.  This can be seen the Eragon series- of which I have read the first two and movies made about dragons.  My favorite SciFi series is The Dragons of Pern- dragons play a major role.  We all seem to be fascinated with the stories of dragons and whether they are good or bad- a matter of interpretation.  Our dragons had a variety of characters from being allergic to cheese to breathing both fire and ice.  The most famous dragon in Medieval was in the epic Faerie Queen by Edmund Spenser.   We read story version of this poem, which was much easier to understand!

But the tie in to the title of this entry is the beginning conversations about the Black Plague or the Bubonic plague.  Your child should be full of information about this decimating disease.  Ask where it was thought to have originated from with this particular pandemic, it had been around for centuries before, but not to this extent.  They should also be able to tell you how it spread.  It is one of those gruesome conversations most kids are interested- you know the grosser the better!

Homework: We started a power point presentation with a web quest today in the computer lab. The link is:http://ghills.metamora.k12.il.us/webquest/6th/middleages/midage.htm

The webquest outlines what is required on the power point presentation, there is not room for more items to be listed.  The final presentation will have 5 slides.

 

 

Macros

Today we continued to build background-even around the Boosterthon- Sweet Chicken-  and spent time collecting information on the 6 macros selected by each student.  The assignment given last week ( listed on the side of the blog) was to have facts gathered on at least 4 of the macros listed on the sheet that explains the project.  This information will be part of a macro invertebrate guide book they can use when we go the streams for biological monitoring.  All the completed pages are due next week.

 

http://www.bgsd.k12.wa.us/hml/jr_cam/macros/macro_id-htm/slide_01.htm

Parents- it is critical to for the students to have work assigned to be completed at home ready for the next class.  Also binders are needed each week as we do not have text books- the binder becomes the learning resource with the material stored in them.  When the kiddoes come to class without the assignments or binders they cannot have a successful day.

A field trip form went home today to take a walking trip to McCleskey.  That will need to be returned next week.

Did you know that each person in the U.S. uses an average of 176 gallons of water each day?  Only Canada with an average of 209 gallons uses more.  In Guatamala the daily usage is 9 gallons.  That is a huge difference!!

Please assist your child with the assignment-doing more than the minimum of 6 macros will get their grade into the exceeds expectations range- what they really should be doing for Target.