This week in Our Big Backyard…
We started this week off making models of a hilly watershed – similar to our Edwards Plateau!
We learned that the creeks running through Austin carry rainwater to the Colorado river along with any other chemicals or trash that the rain washes into the creek. The water carves a creek-bed and alongside that is the bank. The area of land running next to a creek or river is called a “riparian zone.” A riparian zone is very important to the health of our water because without grasses, forbs, shrubs, and trees, our rivers and creeks would fill with toxic chemicals, trash, and the water would heat up, making it difficult for water creatures to thrive.
The plants offer food and safety to creatures that need to get a drink too!
Alphas act out a healthy riparian zone…
Alphas build models of healthy riparian zones…
We learned that creeks and rivers have interesting attributes; they push soil, they change course, and they travel at different speeds depending on gravity! They go fast when they are going downhill – we call the fast part of river a “rapid.” The force of a rapid can dig a deep spot in the riverbed as the land levels out. That area is much calmer – and that part of the river is called a “pool.” The shallow areas that run over rocks are called “riffles.”
Check out the sounds:
Sounds of the Guadalupe River Riffles
Alphas played an improv-game called “What this Scene Needs” by creating a healthy riparian zone – on their own! Some became grasses and forbs to hold the soil down…some became shrubs to protect small creatures…some became trees to shade the water and keep it cool!
Alphas used teamwork to build the elements needed for an “actual size” model of a creek – complete with boulders for rapids and rocks for riffles!
Last quarter we learned that limestone is made out of ancient seashells that have been pressed and complicated for millions of years. We learned that rainwater has a tiny amount of acid in it that eats away at the minerals in it, carving out holes. Because our Edwards Plateau is made of SO much limestone, water can travel underground! It has taken millions of years to do that and the result is a HUGE underground LAKE – we call it an aquifer. Our aquifer is 180 miles long and between 5 and 40 miles wide – we call it the Edwards Aquifer because it sits right below the Edwards Plateau! We watched a demonstration how rainwater can travel through cracks in the limestone – those areas are called “recharge zones.” When the aquifer is full, in certain areas water pressure increases and pushes up to the surface of the earth – when it breaks out, we call this a “spring!”\\
The Water in San Antonio is “recharging” the aquifer – will it reach Barton Springs in Austin???
YES!!!
Alphas added their Spring Knowledge to their Nature Journals!
Our AMAZING Texas Animals…
Alphas wowed one another with their 3D life-size native animals
sharing fascinating facts and stories…
peregrine falcon
porcupine
squirrel
Rough green snake
Rough green snake
Barn owl
Alligator (with sharp teeth!)
peregrine falcon
roadrunner
possum
9-banded armadillo
owlet
Porcupine
Stay tuned for more animal presentations next week!
This week in Language Arts…
Ms. Eliza’s group…
Our letters of the week were Jj and Ww. We’ve been working on our nonfiction books and doing assessments.
Ms. Kim’s Group…
This week we started putting our nonfiction books together by taking notes and photos, and writing complete sentences!
Making notes…
Early-finishers started documenting strange events they noticed – thinking these could be associated with the return of LARRY the Leprechuan!
So many “final blend” volunteers! This class is always up for a spelling challenge!
This week in Math…
Ms. Kim’s Group…
We practiced “all the ways” we can add up to a certain number. We noticed that we can use every number from zero to the target-number! This one of the steps we go through in order to build math-fact fluency! We continued working on building our understanding of 2 digit numbers focusing on the “teens.”
Ms. Eliza’s group…
This has been an assessment week so not much new was introduced this week, but one of our group activities was…making it to 100! We’ve practiced writing, drawing and expanding double digit numbers for the past semester and it felt good to get to a three digit number!
We added the fast-paced Doubles to 100 to our game choices.
& In Other News…
An autumn picnic…
adding splatter to our school-wide art project (thank you Emily!)…
