I Can't Believe a Month has Past!

A month has come and gone! The time is moving so quickly, but our class continues to learn and grow! Here are some of the latest happenings in our classroom:
  We have learned many things about reptiles. Here are some great questions for your child.
What makes a reptile a reptile?
What is the life cycle of a lizard?
What are the main kinds of reptiles?
Where do reptiles live?
Why don't reptiles have to eat every day?
What are some of the defenses reptiles have?
Who likes to hunt reptiles?
What reptiles like to eat?


We had some great expert speakers come and speak with us about reptiles. We had reptile hobbyist who spoke with us about the reptiles she owns and also gave our kiddos an up close look at a variety of different reptiles. We also had people come from Weber that gave us some background knowledge about amphibians and how they are different than reptiles. 


On Tuesday, we were able to have a visitor from the Department of Natural Resources and spoke about his profession as a herpetologist as well as really neat information about frog calls. (He also gave us the posters for all of our students to take home about the native fish of Utah). 

Something is Fishy about this Expedition!

We are learning about fish! 


We are learning about the different body parts of a fish and why they are important. 


The parts your child should begin to know are 
eyes, gills, pectoral fins, pelvic fins, dorsal fin, caudal fin, anal fin, and adipose fin. 


We also talked about why scales and the slime found on the fish are important to the fishes health. 


We are currently discussing the life cycle of a Steelhead Trout which is the same species as the Rainbow Trout, except Steelhead Trout find their way to the ocean and back. They can adjust and adapt to two different environments just like a frog lives in two environments. 


We will be finishing up the week learning about what fish eat and who preys on fish.


Here is a video that explains the life cycle of a Salmon, which is closely related to the Steelhead Trout.







Here is a song about the Life Cycle of a Salmon, which is done to the tune of "I Will Survive." I thought it was kind of catchy and the photographs and real life images were done really well. 

Trout!

For the next week we will be learning about Trout. We will be looking at what they eat, the life cycle, parts of the body, where they live and what makes trout special. 

This website will give some information regarding trout... http://www.streamexplorers.org/fish-facts/trout-life-cycle

Animal Classification Galore!

I thought I would take this time to share a great website that has some animal classification games.

http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/content/animals/kidscorner/kidscorner_games.htm

Enjoy!

Animal Classification

For the last week and half we have been working on animal classification. Your kids knowledge and insight about classification and sorting has amazed me. They are such curious and deep thinkers.

As we were sharing what we knew about reptiles, amphibians, mammals, fish and birds they noticed many similarities and differences.

Here are some of the things your kiddos had to say...

"Fish are the only animals that breathe with gills, all the other animals breathe with lungs."

"Mammals are the only animals that give milk to their young."

"Mammals and birds are warm-blooded and reptiles, amphibians and fish are cold-blooded."

"Amphibians, fish and birds lay eggs."

"Amphibians, reptiles, fish, birds and mammals all have different body coverings."

I am already so impressed about how much your child has learned so far this year!

Some of the words we are learning are:
Taxonomy- which is the classification process that scientists use to help sort animals.
Kingdom- every living thing is sorted into one of five kingdoms. (We have talked about the plant kingdom and we are focusing on the animal kingdom.)

Within the animal kingdom, we are talking about animals that have a backbone or spine, which fall into the Phylum: Chordata.

Within the Chordata animals they are 5 Classes of animals. The Classes are reptiles, amphibians, fish, mammals and birds.

Are expedition will be mainly focused on frogs, however, we will be exploring fish and reptiles more in depth. To understand how frogs (amphibians) are different then fish and reptiles.

Launch Week!

I am so excited to announce that our next focus of study will be on frogs! We will be diving deep as we learn about how frogs, fish and reptiles are similar and different, by using scientific classification. 


We will also be learning about specific species of frogs and looking at where they live (habitat), what they eat, predators, physical attributes and characteristics, life cycle and many more interesting facts. 


This week during expedition, your child will be learning about classification and how scientists sort animals by using different attributes or characterisitics. 


We have had two wonderful two days back and I look forward to many more! 


I will be posting links to some websites that might be fun and interesting for your child to explore. Just look under the heading "Sites We Visit" on left hand side of the screen. 


1. Brain Pop Jr. is a fun website. Some of the games and videos are free and do not require you to sign up. The link below is to a free video and games that are relevant to animal classification, which we are hoping to be able to get to by the end of this week. 


http://www.brainpopjr.com/science/animals/classifyinganimals/


2. This link is from National Geographic. It has a lot of information on various animals and includes some amazing videos of animals in their natural habitats. 


http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/


3. The website below is offered by the National Zoo run by the Smithsonian and has information and fun activities to learn about reptiles, amphibians and more. We won't be learning about reptiles until later this month and amphibians until February, but it is always fun to build background knowledge. 


http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/ReptilesAmphibians/ForKids/default.cfm