Next, the group came in to talk about some farm news. Our angora rabbit
did not have babies, so we will rebreed and try again. The class also was able to hear an actual story of why we should all remember to keep the tops on the feed containers. During the break, a top was left off of the layer pellets. The next morning, my daughters headed out to do their chores... and found a very fat, sleeping opossum curled up right in the bottom! Finally, we talked about the importance of cats here on the farm. The cats have been working hard lately! As the weather gets cooler, the mice have been out in full force. I may need to get another barn cat to handle them! This lead us right into our story by James Herriot about the little kitten named Moses. The class listened as I read the first few pages of the story today. I paused every so often to explain tough words and to give examples here on our farm of things that were mentioned. In the story, the vet comes to the farm to trim the hooves of a cow. He talked about how difficult this job is, and how the cows kick. I explained to the class that there is a cool invention that makes the job less stressful on the cattle and safer for the farmer! There is actually a contraption that holds the cattle in a safe position and then just tips them over! The kids found this totally fascinating... which means it would make for a great topic for our farm fusion writing assignment!
We integrated a little math into our day today! The class cut out different coins to paste around their "piggy bank". We talked about the pictures on the coins. (For example, they learned what the torch, olive branch, and oak branch on the dime stand for.) They learned/reviewed the names and values of each type of coin, labeling them on their page. Then, we did a few adding exercises. Keep practicing adding money at home!
The class then got to work painting the borders on their plate projects, as well as the details on their pasture scenes. Next week, they will be completing these (hopefully), as we add a final element that they aren't going to expect!
After lunch (and some time running around with Smalls, the pig), the class returned to discuss the book, The Mystery of the Northern Lights. We talked about different locations in Canada such as Vancouver, Toronto, the Niagara River, and Yellowknife. Many of the kids had added these places to the field guide, which is exactly what I wanted to see! We talked about what makes the Northern Lights glow. We also took out the globe and demonstrated why the north and south poles have months of light and dark. The students seemed to enjoy the book, and it definitely helped them to learn a lot about the country! We reviewed the vocabulary from the last section, talked about the ending, and learned a little about dogsledding! A few students opted to research and write about dogsledding, and everyone loved hearing about it!
Next, the kids took turns sharing their posters on different countries in North America. There were some seriously awesome facts on these posters that I didn't even know! The enthusiasm and encouragement among peers was exactly what I hoped for! After we talked about each country, we talked a little about Central America. Although not a continent of its own, we will spend a few weeks focusing just on the countries of Central America next. At home, they will have a couple videos to help prepare for next week. Also, they have some pretty cool (optional) coloring sheets to review what they learned about North America.
The class cracked open their science notebooks to add the classification mnemonic activity that they worked on at home. We went over different phrases to help remember the different levels, and then we cut and glued these into our books. We talked about cladograms and how these levels of classification look, visually. Then, the kids took out the imaginary animals that they created at home and hit the floor! We all gathered around, and the kids worked to sort and classify their animals. Because their creatures were all animals (no plants) and none involved scales, they decided to sort them mainly by feathers vs. fur. They then decided to separate those with horns from those without horns. Although this activity ended there, I explained that they could have further divided their creatures by other characteristics such as habitat, what they eat, how the have babies, etc. I think this was a really great way for this age to grasp the entire point of taxonomy! We'll be focusing on the three domains at home this week, and we will discuss them in detail on Monday!
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