Fish Eggs and Thank Yous
/On Monday we had a gorgeous, sunny fall day so we decided to sneak in one more day of photography. We noticed that some of our photos were turning out blurry last week so we discussed ways to take sharper photos. We talked about the importance of holding the camera still and about how we can use a focusing tool on the iPad to focus on a specific item. On Tuesday we brainstormed a list of everything we already knew about salmon. We also brainstormed a list of questions that we are hoping to learn about salmon throughout our salmon unit. Then on Wednesday, our salmon eggs arrived! We received 100 salmon eggs from Oregon's Egg to Fry program. We were elated. We were surprised at how small and orange the eggs were. We could see the fish eyes through the eggs, which is why this stage of development is known as the eyed egg stage. We talked about what salmon eggs need to develop properly in the wild, and what our salmon eggs need in our tank. We also started learning about temperature units (TUs) and how they affect the rate of salmon development. Throughout this unit wevwill be doing some math work around calculating temperature units and predicting hatching dates. During math this week Ms. Ren came in to be a guest mathematician. She brought her ball of finger knitting and asked students to develop mathematical questions about her finger knitting. Then we worked together to begin to answer some of our own questions. We used yard sticks and a landscaping tape measure to measure the finger knitting. It was 92 feet long! Next we worked in teams to determine whether all 20 Otter students laying head to foot would be longer than the length of the finger knitting. We used various math tools to solve this question. Some groups used multiplication strategies and others used repeated addition and place counters. We discovered that the yarn would be longer than all the Otter students laying in a line! In math we also learned to play beginner's Yahtzee. Some mathematicians also learned to play standard Yahtzee. During writing workshop we worked with partners to write thank you letters to several individuals who have helped our class recently.
