Alpha

Happy Halloween Everybody! What’s Around Me? This week, Alphas learned that it took humans hundreds of thousands of years to get to North America. They traveled on foot following food. We laid out 10 rulers. Each inch represents 100 years. The first pencil marks where we are today…the second marks 1925…the screwdriver marks 1825…the final pencil marks when the first Europeans landed in the Southwest. The other 9 and a half rulers (or 11,400 years), North America was inhabited by the ancestors of the PaleoIndians who arrived during the Ice Age. Alphas knew that humans, as well as all living […]

Compasses are cool… What’s Around Me? This week, we reviewed what’s inside us and what we, and all humans, need to thrive. Alphas learned that we are going to explore many regions across our continent of North America to learn about their resources and how people use them. We learned that ancient humans hunted and gathered their food – the technology they had came from the sun – it always came up from the same direction. The word “East” comes from an old word for dawn. The word “North” comes from an old word for “the left!” Alphas discovered that

This Week in Alpha “What’s Inside Me” this week? OUR Digestive System! Alphas knew that we feed our bodies with food, but the nutrients in an apple can’t feed our bodies until we break it down. Digestion is all about breaking down and absorbing. Breaking down begins in the mouth. We took a gander at our mouths to get a view of what’s going on in there… We spotted tongues, teeth, uvula… Alphas made a diagram of the anatomy of a mouth! We did a little experiment with pretzels. We pretended our fingers were “fingers” and broke the pretzels into

“What’s Inside Me” this week? OUR MUSCLES! We learned that our muscles are always helping us out, whether we tell them to or not. One of our most important muscles is our HEART! This incredible muscle keeps our blood pumping all day and all night. Sometimes our heart works extra hard…like when we exercise! We used a stethoscope to listen to our hearts before and after running. Alpha students noticed a HUGE difference in the amount of beats. Before the exercise, some students could barely hear the beat, but after it, it sounded like their hearts might jump out of

“What’s Inside Me” this week?… MY CIRCULATORY SYSTEM! This week, Alphas knew that when they get a scrape or cut, blood comes out – and it’s red, and dries up, and new skin forms under the scab. We learned that blood is made up of a lot of things, like… …Water! Blood is mostly made out of water… …and plasma that’s full of nutrients… …and platelets that mend our skin when we get scrapes and cuts… …and white blood cells to hunt down germs and bacteria… …and red blood cells that carry oxygen!!! We documented our model-building activity, too! We