Posterous theme by Cory Watilo

Filed under: 3rd Grade

Earth Day at HCES

Ask your child about today's Earth Day assembly.  

Here are photos of our two presenters, Dr. Merry Cai and Michael Foster.

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Here were some interesting highlights...

* Newspaper hat parade,

* Special rocks found in Earth's mantle, that absorb carbon dioxide,

* Environmental heros,

* Making pledges to help the environment in our own lives.

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Bald Eagles in Real Time

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Take a look at the Bald Eagles in their nest... http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/04/07/135148362/eagle-cam-soars-with...

After viewing the live stream of a Bald Eagle family in Decorah, Iowa, 5th grade students were inspired to find out more about our nation's symbol.  Here are some samplings of what they uncovered:

* Bald eagles can be found in Canada and the United States usually near sea coasts, rivers, or large lakes.

* The breading season is November through April.

* The nest, usually made of sticks can weigh up to 4,000 pounds and be 8 feet in diameter. 

* Some nests last as long as 30 years, with the Eagles returning from year to year.  The nests can be found 10-150 feet above ground in a tree.

* The females are larger than the males.  They can weigh from 4.5 to 13.5 pounds with a wingspan of nearly 8 feet.

* Both the male and female take care of the eggs and then the eaglets.  

* The preferred foods are fish, duck, geese, rabbit, muskrat, carrion, and other small mammals and water birds.

* The female usually lays 1 to 3 bluish-white eggs that incubate for 35 days.  The eaglets will leave the nest after 10 weeks.  

* The voice of bald eagle is characterized as a harsh cackle.

* Bald Eagles migrate alone or in pairs and are known to mate for life.

 

 

 

Elusive Egyptian Cobra

Thank you to Daniel for bringing in a selection of reptile books and sparking an interesting discussion about the Egyptian Cobra that has escaped in the Bronx Zoo.  Using Daniel's books and other books from the classroom library, we researched some quick facts about cobras and then the students began to imagine what adventures the cobra might be partaking in while escaped.  Students wrote and drew their ideas which ranged from cobra tweets to a New Yorker article advocating for the un-caging of zoo animals, authored by the cobra.

These are two articles that we read during class:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/30/us-usa-cobra-twitter-idUSTRE72T6752...

 

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Cloud Mobiles

Students in third grade learned about the different types of clouds that can be observed in the sky.  Each student constructed a cloud mobile of the three main cloud types.  Ask your student to tell you about the roots of the names.  

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3K Evaporation Results

Third grade students check the results of their small group evaporation experiments. Below is a list of the different evaporation experiments that were generated by the students.  

Experiments:

1. At which temperature does water evaporate fastest? 

2. Where in the room will water evaporate the fastest?

3. How will a change in water temperature effect the results of our previous experiment?

4. Can we get the water in three different sized containers to evaporate down to the same level in the same period of time?

Ask your student about his or her hypothesis and results.