Trout Release Field Trip

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Our trout release at Hagg Lake yesterday was a great success! Mr. Mark planned and led this field trip. Before we left on our trip he shared a slideshow presentation that included videos, photos, and diagrams about rainbow trout; scientifically known as Oncorhynchus mykiss. We learned that rainbow trout and steelhead are different ecotypes of the same species. We discussed the differences between the Chinook salmon we raised in the fall and the rainbow trout we raised this winter. One of the most notable differences is that the Chinook salmon we released will migrate a great distance- all the way to the Pacific Ocean! The rainbow trout, on the other hand, will live their entire lives in freshwater streams and in Hagg Lake. We learned a little about the Kalapuya tribe that lived, and still live, in the region around Hagg Lake. On the field trip students had an opportunity to release rainbow trout in Scoggins Creek, examine macro-invertebrates from the creek (some of which the trout will eventually eat), and go on a snowy nature walk.

Snowy bus ride

Scoggins Creek

This week we also launched our States of Matter and Chemistry unit. We've had some fantastic scientific discussions about the different states of matter. Here are some interesting statements from students that came up during our investigations: 

  • The water bottle container isn't solid because it's squishy. 

  • Play dough is none of the states of matter because it's squishy.

  • The silk scarf is liquid AND a solid because it moves but also stays in the same shape. 

  • Nutella is a liquid because it spreads

These common student misconceptions will provide an excellent jumping off point for next week's investigations during which students will explore these ideas in greater depth. Along the way they will be refining their definitions and developing a deeper understanding of the characteristics of each state of matter. 

Here are some more photos from our explorations this week…

Snowy Fun

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We've had so much fun playing in the ice and snow during our outside times this week! Students wrote about their snow day adventures during writers' workshop. Inside we've been learning about words, sounds, and articulation. We recently added a sound wall to our classroom. The sound wall is a great learning tool for students to determine different ways to spell specific sounds. For example, if you look under the letter f, you will discover that f can be spelled three ways: f, ff, or ph. We've been working on learning different spelling patterns. Students have been doing an excellent job learning how to spell new, tricky words! Our Warrior Tiger reading group has been learning about different genres of books. They came up with categories for the books in our intermediate chapter book collection and organized the books into categorized bins for easy access. During project time a team of engineers took apart a Walkman, a radio, and a cell phone. We recently received Flat Stanley updates from Hawaii and Kenya We discovered that our trout alevin have used up most of their egg sacs and are nearly ready to be released. We got to examine a dead alevin under the microscope. Next week we’ll be taking a field trip to Hagg Lake to release our fish. Thursday afternoon we took a walking trip to the library and read with our Dolphin buddies. 

Tinkering Center

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On Monday students noticed that heavy rainfall had caused our pond to nearly overflow! They decided to work together to create a barricade to prevent flooding incase more rain came. The next day, however, they discover that instead of heavy rainfall we had ice. The ice was particularly beautiful on our metal rain rainchain. Later in the week we ended up with some sunshine and students worked together to clean up our outdoor classroom and restore our pebble border on the edge of the grass. This week we had a lovely friendship celebration on Tuesday and students were delighted to receive kind messages from their classmates. We spent time writing cards to our reading buddies too. Thursday afternoon we took our weekly trip to the library and got to admire our class trout life cycle project hanging on display. We also admired art created by Sea Lion and Whale students. This week during project time students have been working in small groups with a teacher to take apart different devices. Students have been learning how to use various tools correctly and are learning many new vocabulary words, such as circuit board, solder, tinker, frequency, cassette, and amplitude. Yesterday morning we dismantled and examined an old radio/cassette player. We used a microscope to get a better look at some of the pieces. Jace's dad brought in a fancy toolkit for us to use complete with screwdrivers, fasteners, a socket set, Allen wrenches, and handy reference sheets. We discovered that our take apart center works best when we have a ratio of three students to one adult. This ratio allows us to have deeper, more meaningful conversations with students while also helping them learn to use the tools correctly. We plan to continue working with small groups at the take apart center for as long as we have devices to take apart, so feel free to continue sending in old devices that can be taken apart and examined. This afternoon students shared their Inspiring Individual booklets with classmates. Students toasted and cheered as individuals added their newly published books to our classroom library.