Over the past few weeks, our students have been exploring ecosystems! They've learned all about producers, consumers, and decomposers, learning new vocabulary like herbivore, omnivore, carnivore, and photosynthesis along the way.
Students put their knowledge to the test by creating a massive food web down in our forest. We talked about different plants and animals they might find at school and in other ecosystems,
We played out some scenarios to see what happens when certain species drop in number, disappear, or get too numerous. It was amazing to see them realize how important balance is for a healthy ecosystem and how everything is connected.
Upper Elementary wrapped up their ecosystem studies with a friendly game of Kahoot to solidify vocabulary words from the unit.
Since it was Halloween, we treated ourselves to a caramel apple station complete with all sorts of yummy toppings. But of course, we used this treat as an opportunity to connect back to our ecosystems.
The apples were our producers. The students munching on them were our consumers. And and we can't forget about the scraps and leftovers. They went straight to our decomposers—our worm farm!
It was a fun, hands-on way to reinforce what we’ve learned about how everything in an ecosystem is connected.
We had another successful farm day this week!
Some activities included:
Weeding the garden
Harvesting some pumpkins and butternut squash
Testing the water of our aquaponics system
Taking care of our chickens and bunnies
And in engineering, we took a break from our pumpkin towers and created... CANDY CORN CATAPULTS! These were a hit! I hope you all enjoyed them at home!
I hope you have all enjoyed the long weekend!
I can't wait for another fun filled week!
-Ms. Emily
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