March 31

Wow! There are Eggs!

I was checking on our invertebrates and saw something in the bottom of our snail habitat.  To my amazement, our snails have laid eggs! Snails lay their eggs under the soil, so seeing a snail’s eggs is rare.

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March 27

Space Camp

I helped chaperone the first fourth grade overnight.  It was a trip filled with learning and fun! It is such a blessing to create memories with these children!

 

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March 21

Kindergarten High-Touch High-Tech

Kindergarten and Pre-First geologists had an in-house field trip last week. Their favorite activity was digging though a cup of the earth’s crust to find rocks and minerals. It was like a treasure hunt! Later, they sorted and identified the rocks and minerals they found.



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March 21

Duck Update

Many of you know that the ducks on our retention pond were hatched in the science lab last May. Zip and Percy are both male ducks and Uno, the white pekin, is a female. Well, it is spring and Zip and Percy were no longer being friendly. We decided to move Zip to Mrs. Gammage’s pond with her ducks. Everyone is happy now! This is Zip with his new friends.

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March 11

Invention Convention and Minnow Tank

Fourth graders were invited to participate in our first annual Invention Convention. They went through the invention process and designed a prototype that they shared with their classmates and teachers. The following week, fifteen entrepreneurs participated in our version of the TV show Shark Tank which we called Minnow Tank. Many thanks to our panel, Dr. De La Rosa, Mrs. Kurtz, and Mr. Lamkin, for sharing their time and expertise with these students. The panel shared specific ideas with each group about how their products could be improved, as well as marketing strategies, and suggestions for pricing and packaging. I know our students left inspired!





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March 3

Happy Leap Year!


Every four years an extra day is added to the calendar, making

the length of the year 366 days, instead of the normal 365.

Why on earth does that need to happen?

From Kids Know It Network- The calendar is supposed to match the solar year, in other words, the length of time it takes for Earth to orbit the Sun once. But things aren’t quite that simple. It actually takes Earth 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds to complete its orbit (about 365 1/4 days). Those extra hours gradually add up so that after four years the calendar is out of step by about one day. Adding a day every four years allows the calendar to match up to the solar year again.

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