Giant Goldfish Invade Lake Tahoe!

Can you believe the size of this goldfish?! Wow.

"Giant goldfish—one of which measured nearly 1.5 feet long and weighed more than four pounds—have been found in Lake Tahoe, a large freshwater lake in the mountains along the border of California and Nevada. These goldfish are an invasive species—an animal or a plant that moves into an area and harms the native, or local, animals or plants that live there."

Check out this article from Scholastic News and learn more about how releasing pets into the wild can be harmful to an ecosystem.

Extra Credit: Celebrate National Poetry Month!

This excerpt from a Robert Frost poem, introduced to us by Kid President, has become a favorite in our classroom. April is National Poetry Month ~ it's a great time to discover this wonderful form of writing!

For extra credit this month, create some poems of your own and publish them for your classmates to read, create an Animoto based on a favorite poem, perform a poem for the class... basically, find a way to share poetry with us!

Odyssey of the Mind Competition

Two of our classmates participated in the Odyssey of the Mind, Pet Project Competition recently. "Odyssey of the Mind is an international educational program that provides creative problem-solving opportunities  for students from kindergarten through college. Team members apply their creativity to solve problems that range from building mechanical devices to presenting their own interpretation of literary classics. They then bring their solutions to competition on the local, state, and World level. Thousands of teams from throughout the U.S. and from about 25 other countries participate in the program." (from the company's website)

 "It was a great experience," said GF. "I loved doing the Gangnam Style dance." Want to know more about the event? Here's a video created by the instructor, Sonny Cruz.

Iditarod Prezi by CD

Here's another terrific extra credit project about the Iditarod...

Iditarod by MS

This is the first EXTRA CREDIT project for our class! Well done MS ~ I am very proud of your hard work. :)Ms. G

Extra Credit: What is the Iditarod?

We've got a room full of curious students who really enjoy using technology and writing about things that interest them so I thought it might be fun to offer a challenge for some extra credit!

The Iditarod is a very famous sporting event that takes place every year at the beginning of March. Here's a video to give you an idea of what the Iditarod is all about...



Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to research this incredible race and then share what you've learned with the class. You can create a Prezi, PowerPoint presentation or video, write a book, give a speech... or whatever you'd like! Most of the work for the project will be done at home but I am happy to help you with any resources you need. You can do the work on your own or team up with a classmate or two. There is no due date for this assignment.

http://iditarod.com/

Change of Address

I made a big change over the summer and am now living and teaching in Raleigh, North Carolina. I didn't expect the transition to a new school system to be so difficult and it's taken me some time to adjust. I'm finally gaining my bearings so I thought it was time to bring the blog back and share a little bit of what we've been doing. I considered starting a whole new blog but I have some great resources highlighted here that I didn't want to lose.

If you a new visitor, you may find the search topics in the margin helpful. I'm always looking for feedback so if you'd like to see something that's not here or you have a suggestion, share away!

Wonderstars!

We have been SO busy trying to get our Wonder blog and websites up and running that I haven't posted here in ages! I am really proud of what the kids created - the blog idea didn't work out the way we had hoped so we went with mini-websites instead. It's crazy to think that second graders can create their own websites... they are amazing! Be sure to check out our site: Wonderstars. You'll see that there is a blog with information about the projects and another page of the Wonders.

Baby Elephant at Play

Couldn't resist this cute video from the Toledo Zoo...

Everyday Mysteries

We are starting to dig into our Wonder projects! At my Library of Congress website training this week, one of the other participants came across this cool resource in the Kids & Families section.

 

Here's a bit about what you'll find there:

"Did you ever wonder why a camel has a hump? If you can really tell the weather by listening to the chirp of a cricket? Or why our joints make popping sounds? These questions deal with everyday phenomena that we often take for granted, but each can be explained scientifically.

Everyday Mysteries will help you get the answers to these and many other of life's most interesting questions through scientific inquiry. In addition, we will introduce you to the Library of Congress' rich collections in science and technology.

All of the questions presented on this Web site were asked by researchers and answered by librarians from the Library's Science Reference Services."