Thanksgiving

Dear Students,

Ben's surgery went very well and I have so much to be thankful for in my own life right now. Thanksgiving means different things to different people, but the American tradition of Thanksgiving is a family celebration where we gather and reflect on what we are most thankful for in our own lives. Your assignment this week is to reflect upon your own life and share at least two things you are most thankful for. As always, answer in complete sentences and I look forward to reading your responses.

Have a fantastic Thanksgiving break!

Mrs. Garrett

Ecology

For the next eight weeks, The Discovery Center will be returning to teach lessons on many different areas of science. This Tuesday, The Discovery Center visited our classroom and we learned about ecology. We learned that ecology is the study of nature, plants and animals.

Click here to go to The Discovery Center's website related to this week's topic. There are five different links and different types of activities you can try related to ecology and their links and descriptions are below.

Global Warming and Earth Processes - This site provides movies that explain global warming, the water cycle, and the carbon cycle. After you watch each movie, you can take a quiz to test your knowledge of global warming and earth processes. This site is ideal for grades 3-8.

Animal Adaptations - All animals live in habitats. Habitats provide food, water, and shelter which animals need to survive, but there is more to survival than just the habitat. Animals also depend on their physical features to help them obtain food, keep safe, build homes, withstand weather, and attract mates. On this site, learn about how an animal's physical features, called physical adaptations, develop over many generations to help the animal survive in its habitat.

Animal Defense - Many animals have developed remarkable defenses to keep from being eaten.For example, some animals use chemicals which they spray from various parts of their bodies to deter predators. A few animals rely on trickery and copy the defenses of other animals to protect themselves. In this activity, you can sample various Internet sites and complete the activities for each one to learn more about the adaptations that animals have made to protect themselves.

Chain Reaction - This interactive site teaches you about the food chain and allows you to try your hand and creating your own food chain.

Biomes of the World – Visit each biome and learn about the plants and animals that inhabit each biome. Students can also learn about Freshwater Ecosystems and Marine Ecosystems.

Your assignment is to visit at least two of these websites and explore. Leave a comment below with information that you learned or what you thought was the most interesting link from these choices. Please answer in complete sentences and be sure to include your name in your comment. This needs to be completed by Friday, November 20th.

Happy exploring!

Mrs. Garrett

Caring

November's character education word of the month is caring. Caring can mean a lot of different things to different people. The most common definition is: To be interested and concerned about others, and to treat them with understanding and compassion.

Read the story below and write a comment about what caring means to you.

The Acorn Planter

In the 1930s, while a young traveler was exploring the
French Alps, he came upon a vast stretch of barren land. It
was desolate. It was forbidding. It was ugly. It was the
kind of place you hurry away from.

Suddenly, the young traveler stopped in his tracks. In the
middle of this wasteland was a bent-over old man. On his
back was a sack of acorns. In his hand was a four-foot
length of iron pipe. The man was using the iron pipe to
punch holes in the ground. Then, from the sack he would
take an acorn and put it in the hole.

The traveler stopped the old man to ask him what he was
doing. "I've planted over 100,000 acorns here, but perhaps
only a tenth of them will grow," he said. The old man's
wife and son had died, and this was how he chose to
spend his final years. "I want to do something useful with
my life," he told the traveler.

Twenty-five years later, the now-not-as-young traveler
returned to the same desolate area. What he saw amazed
him. He could not believe his own eyes. The land was
covered with a beautiful forest two miles wide and five
miles long. Birds were singing, animals were playing, and
wild flowers perfumed the air. The traveler stood there
recalling the desolation that once was; a beautiful oak
forest stood there now - all because someone cared.

Adapted from The Sower’s Seeds

Caring is…Giving thanks when it is deserved. Helping to solve a problem, rather than
just ignoring it. Being aware of others’ achievements and celebrating their success. Please leave a comment by November 6th.

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Garrett