Double Field Trip

Hello,

We went to BJH to investigate the habitat of water striders. The first assignment was to write down observations of the environment. We had trouble with that. There were lots of claims instead of observations. (ie. I think they like to eat moss. Water striders like to eat mosquitos. Water striders like to go upstream.) Once I got them writing observations, they tended to be about the water striders and not the environment.

Quite often I asked groups to look around and tell me what color that they saw the most. "Green!" was the immediate answer each time.

"And yet," I would reply, "None of you have written one observation regarding anything that is green. Hmmm."

We will get much better with this. I think that most kids were so excited about catching the striders, that they felt the other "boring" stuff that they had to do before they were given nets was too much of a bother to worry about.

We went straight to Art class upon our return from the stream. Ms. Moll has them making fruits and vegetables out of clay. We are glad that Calvin is now joining us for art time.
The afternoon didn't go as I planned at all. We were going to do the second half of the water strider lab. In this part we were going to make close observations of our captured "guests."

Instead, I took Ms. El's class to the stream, while she stayed back at HBS with our class. Mrs. El is pregnant and due next month. I agreed that walking to the Jr. high and trudging around a muddy stream probably wasn't the best thing for someone in her condition.

The class did a bit more of the strider study with her, but I'll get more details about their afternoon tomorrow.

I got back around 3pm. We did Rocket Math, (I can't say we're going to do it every day and then take the very next day off!) and then quickly got ready for buses and homework club.

Fast day. Very tiring. I might need a nap before the Pats game.

Have a good night.

Mr. Shea