Ms. David's Class Discovers Their Trees Are Changing!

This winter, students made some very interesting observations when they took a look at the classroom trees.

Tree One 

“Some branches are yellow at the end and the tree is getting bigger”. – Quintin 

"It looks like sticks”. – Carter

“It’s growing new skin and bark”. – Maddy

Tree Two 

“The bark is hard”. – Carter 
“ The bark is bumpy”.  – Ruby

 

When we asked the students why trees have bark, Grace F. replied: “To protect the tree”. We also asked our students what did they think would happen if trees didn’t have bark. Maddy said: “The trees would fall down”. Lia said “The tree would be squishy”.

Daniel extended on the idea of bark and told everyone that inside the tree there’s sap. He further explained that sap is sticky and we use it to make maple syrup.

Tree Three 

“Dandelions have something sticky inside them, maybe it’s sap”. – Jessica

“The bark on this tree is smooth”. – Daniel

When we asked the students why they thought the bark on this tree was smooth and not bumpy like the other tree, Quintin shared “Because it’s only a baby tree”.   

February Growth

                                       

“There’s lots more red branches this time on our tree. It’s growing more branches”.  – Grace F.

Learning About Beetles

 

Mrs. David and Ms. Blakely’s JK/SK students have been doing an inquiry about mealworms and how they change into beetles. The inquiry began when Ms. Blakely brought in a larva for our students. We put it into an empty container and before the students knew it, the larva hatched into a beetle!

     

The students were surprised that the beetle spent so much time on his back, even though he was alive!

There was much excitement within the classroom and many of our students became little scientists who recorded what they saw, what they thought and what they were still wondering.

We spoke about the life cycle of a beetle and left some books about insects at the Science Centre for the students.

What are those orange fences for? Earl Beatty's Science Experiment

What are those orange fences for? And how long will they be there? The answer lies in the hard-packed soil of Earl Beatty's slowly disappearing playing field. Despite proper installation, the small field at the back of the school couldn't take last winter's lack of snow cover and the frequent pounding of many happy feet. What to do - and should it be a replacement of the same?

The answer is, maybe not. So the test plots were born in the early morning of June 4th, 2010. The plots include different types of grass seed/sod with a protective layer underneath. The entire field is being watered in the evenings each day. The fence will help the plots get established, and will remain for four months.

Then, let the games begin! Let us see which area stands up the best to the heavy use our little field can give. We need every one’s help in recording and observing accurate results – fences need to stay until the end of September…and everyone can assist with observations throughout the Fall and then in the Spring of 2011 until June.

Thank you for your participation in this…I’m certain we all look forward to key results and answers to our disappearing field.

Ms. L. Ordubegian, Ms. Boudreau, Ms. Wallace, Ms. Laporte and Mr. Travers

To catch up on all things EcoSchool related, please check out the Earl Beatty Eco/Green Team Blog at: http://www.earlbeattyecogreenteam.blogspot.com/.