Europe

We picked a couple of countries from Europe to highlight. They were Greece, and France. We learned about the Eiffel Tower. When it was first built the people did not like it and wanted it torn down. It had to stay though because it had an important antenna on top. Now everyone loves it. We also learned about Athens, Greece, the oldest city in Europe. We got to make a try Greek salad and the kids loved it! Our recipe was:

Romaine lettuce

Feta cheese

Kalamata olives

Tomatoes

Cucumbers

Olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper for the dressing

The North and South Poles

We learned that Penguins live at the South Pole, or Antarctica, and polar bears live at the North Pole. No Penguins live above the equator. We were able to walk to recess and through the

halls in our penguin waddle! While reading a book about the Arctic region, or North Pole we learned why polar animals are in danger. One reason is because people used to kill the animals for blubber and food. It is now illegal to kill polar animals but we discussed if we thought it was ok for the people who live in this area to kill the animals to have blubber for their fires, food, and fur. If they thought it was not ok, they had to come up with a way for the people to stay warm and fed. Some answers were:
Yes it is ok because if they didn't kill a couple of animals to stay warm then a lot of humans would die and that is not good either.
No it is not ok. They should take a plane to a grocery store.
No it is not ok. They should fish for food and buy an ax to chop down a tree for fire.
Yes it is ok. But only sometimes. And only if they do it safely.

We also learned a bit about the oil pipeline in the Arctic region that is causing the animals to lose some of their homes. We discussed if we thought we should keep the pipeline or not. If no, they had to figure out how we will fuel our homes and cars. If yes, they had to figure out what to do with the animals. Some answers were:
Well, the pipeline should be on the right, and the animals should be on the left. Then it is fair.
We should keep the pipeline and tell people to help build sanctuaries for the animals.
We should get rid of the pipeline so the animals can have their homes back. We can walk and use a fan.
We should get rid of the pipeline and find a way to trap lightening in a box to use for energy.
The pipeline looks small. The animals can share the space. Maybe birds can build nests on it.

Our continent song

We had free choice Friday and it appears that we have some performers in our class!

Asia

We learned that Asia is the biggest continent. We saw lots of videos of Asian elephants, learned how smart they were, and learned that you can tell them about from African elephants because they have smaller heads and ears. They also only have 3 toenails on their front feet unlike the 4 toenails the African elephants have! We also learned about Japan and Boys Day where they fly kites. We even got to make our own Japanese kites! One of the children asked about the Great Wall of China so we researched it. We learned that it is in different sections but all together it is about 31,000 miles long. It is also over 6 horses wide! It was built to protect China from invaders.

If you could go to any continent, where would you go...

For the past 2 weeks we have met with our 3rd grade buddies to write about where we would like to go on a trip. This past week, the kids got to share their stories with the whole class. Here are some places we want to go!

Australia

The koala was awake when we saw him so we got to pet him!




To learn about Australia we went on a walkabout and saw kangaroos, wallabies, snakes (there are very venomous snakes in Australia so be careful!), koalas, wombats, crocodiles, Tasmanian devils, and the hard to find duck bill platypus. We learned about each animal and that they are all unique to Australia. We also got to watch an Aboriginal man play the didgeridoo and we covered our ears as Ms. Baker attempted to play it. Our discussion centered around whether the countries of Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, Fiji, and Australia should be called Australia as the continent name or Oceania. The countries that are part of the continent of Australia but not the country of Australia are pushing for the name change. Some of our answers were:




-It should stay Australia because I like our song.




- It should change to Oceania to be fair to all of the countries.




- It should stay Australia because it would take too much work to change the name on all of the maps.




- It should change to Oceania because it would help everyone else know more about New Zealand.




- It should stay Australia because I like that name better.




-It should change to Oceania because they are all islands in the ocean.

Africa

To learn about the animals of Africa we went on a safari. We walked through the jungles of Africa hitting away any mosquitoes so we wouldn't get malaria! We saw lions, zebra, hippos, rhinos, elephants, giraffes, kudus, crocodiles, cape buffaloes, and others! We learned a bit about poaching and how it is illegal to kill certain animals. We then had the discussion as to whether we thought it was ok to kill animals for food. The whole class agreed yes because humans need to eat too. We also discussed if it was ok to kill animals for sport. Some answers were:

"Yes it is ok to kill animals. But only one or two. We shouldn't be too greedy."

"No it is not ok because if we kill the animals then the other animals won't have anything to eat."

"Yes it is ok because there are sometimes too many of a certain animal and then it will die anyway."

"Yes it is ok because you can chop off the top half and hang it on your wall."

"No it is not ok because if we kill too many they will become endangered. It is better to just kill what you need to eat."

What an insightful class we have!

Tracy Porter

We love our class pet, Tracy Porter. We know that hamsters are nocturnal so we try not to wake him up too many times during the day, but he is just so cute and we always want to hold him! He was named after a NEW ORLEANS SAINTS cornerback and we also like to watch the real Tracy Porter play football! Tracy likes potatoes and carrots and we give him treats everyday!

Germs

Mike and Jill Ermentraut visited our class at the beginning of the year to teach us about germs. We learned that when we wash our hands we need to sing the ABC's TWO times and wash in between our fingers. We also learned that when we sneeze, our germs can go VERY far. We got sneezed on with silly string to see just how far the germs went!

Kindergarten Rocks

Hi All! I am excited about this school year with our wonderful class. I will use this blog to post pictures and videos about what we are doing in class. Feel free to share it with relatives so they can see how your kindergartner is doing!