Food Chains!

For the unit Sharing the Planet we were learning about food chains. To start, we had to make a list of any animals we could think of.  Then we switched marker colors and had to write down what each of those animals eats.  Then we had to switch colors again and write down what those animals eat.

Then, we each got a stuffed animal and had to find what we connect to. For example Amelia had a bear, Anthony had a small fish, Elana had a big fish and Claire had a fox. The food web would be the big fish eats the small fish and the fox eats the big fish that is eaten by the bear. 

Finally, we went back to our seats and tried to connect the things we had written on our boards to create a full food web!

By Elana

Plant Experiments

For our plant experiments we had to try to grow a plant any way we wanted.  It could be grown a different way than normal, like without soil or something.  Eleanor and Jillian grew their plant in popcorn and after a week it grew mold and by the next week it smelled so bad, we had to throw it out in the outside trash can. 

Gus and Josh grew their seed in the dark with water and soil and it grew taller than the one with all the things it needs to live. We found out that they were leaning towards the cabinet opining and storing it like a cactus for water.  

Estee tried to grow hers in Cheerios, but that didn’t work.  Barry tried growing his with just sunlight, no water or soil, but that didn’t work.  When he added water a week later, it did start to grow!  Katie tried to grow hers using hand sanitizer instead of water but that really didn’t work!

We learned that plants really do need water and sunlight to grow, but the growing material can be different.  Even the seeds that grew really tall in the dark cabinet ended up dying without sunlight.

 By Jillian and Eleanor

Healthy Habits for Humans

The game gave you alerts if you made a good or bad decision.

When you see your menus make good decisions.

When you click on your food feature the right things you need.

The game my plate blast off was basically a game to get us excited and ready for our summative assessment for our PYP Circle of Life.  The game helped us with seeing how if we were to ever go up into space pods we would be eating healthy in space. The game also featured a wonderful version of foods for each category including Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, and you had to include sixty minutes of exercise to stay fit.  To succeed in the game and make it to planet power you had to put in the right amount of grains, protein, fruit, vegetables, dairy, and they food category’s had to make the right amount of fuel without going over 1800 fuel points.

Overall, the game was an awesome game!

By Estee

Integers

Tessellations

Flip it! Turn it! Slide it! These are our Tessellations. We used them to help us in math. We also used it to make art work in spired by an artist named Mc Escher and made the artwork our own with only using one letter in our name, we created a piece of artwork. After we cut out the shapes, we traced them on to paper, flipping, turning, or sliding the letter. Then we colored the paper the colors that we wanted.

By Grace and Marlee

Mirror Math

How do we use it? What is it supposed to do? What’s the point of a mirror board? Those are all questions we had when we saw the purple plastic things. I’ll tell you, a mirror board is used to make a duplicate of a picture. We used it to review symmetry, and lines of reflection.

Mirror board games like billiards were a fun challenge!

So was playing darts!

Here is one example so there is a picture of let’s say a dog. So then you use your mirror board put is next to the picture and looking through the mirror board, you see a duplicate of the picture, in this case, the dog. It helps you copy the pictures much neater and nicer.

Also it can work for any picture, even you name in cursive (although it will turn out backwards and it is pretty tricky, it is even more challenging then a smiley face!) To me a square is pretty simple. What do you think is challenging and what do you think is simple?

Written by Marlee

Bird Banding Field Trip!

The birds we found were put in bags to be banded then released.

We used binoculars to see the birds.

Our guide talking about the first bird we caught!

Our guide carefully taking a bird out of the net.

We had to check all the nets to see if a bird got caught.

To kick off our PYP unit "sharing the planet" our class went to the nature center to learn about bird banding and the cycle of birds and were there from. On this field trip we were ornithologists and studied ornithology, the study of birds to learn about bird migration.

Also on this field trip we saw great big nets where the workers get the birds every half hour and take the birds to the banding tent where they're banded quickly and released in the wild.

The reason they are banded is they want to see where the bird goes and were it ends up. If the bird is banded here in Michigan and it was found dead in Brazil, and sent to a lab near the location and the numbers show gender, age, where they were banded, and type of bird. We also got to help the bander let the birds go and band them. Overall, the field trip was really fun!


Written by Elena and Estee
 

We were sitting on the benches by the river to look for birds.

You had to very carefully carry the bag if a bird was in it!

Symmetry!

Our last math unit explored symmetry.  Symmetry is when you fold a shape or drawing down a line of symmetry and it creates a reflection.  It's different than folding something in half, cause with symmetry when you fold it on the line of symmetry then it folds perfectly in half.  It creates a mirror image.

To begin our symmetry lesson we played the mirror game.  We got into partners and each person took a turn being the mirror for the other person. It was a little tricky at first!  Once we got the hang of it, it was fun!

We did symmetry with mirror boards. It was super fun and challenging. A mirror board works by looking through the image and it appears on the other side. After that you trace the image that you see. It is way easier with a mirror. This was a super challenging challenge. But it was fun. 

 By: Anthony and Nolan                              

Playing with Probability

What is probability, you might ask?  Well, here is your answer.  Probability is like if I had a dice and I wanted to roll a six.  What would my chance be?  It would be one out of six chances.  Another example of probability is with cards, like you see us doing in the pictures.  One person would go into the middle and grab two cards.  What was their probability of getting two red cards?  What about getting two sevens?  What would be the probability of getting the ace of hearts?  That's probability.

Written by Marlee

Plant Inquiry

This topic was looking at pictures of plants.  Our homework was to go home and take pictures of plants around our house and neighborhood.  We could either print the pictures, email them to Ms. Diem, or we were allowed to bring in our iPods or iPads to look at them.

When we went to computers, we had to try to figure out what kind of plant it was, were it was from, and what does it need to survive.  Looking at the pictures that we brought in on our iPods or iPads helped us answer the questions when we look online.

By: Claire And Amelia

Exhibition: Healthy Lunches

Exhibition: Texting while Driving

Exhibition: Cancer