Where are the resources? — Update April 5th

Good evening!

Reminders:

  • Please bring back MACC Returning letters and Field Trip Notices no later than Friday, April 11th.
  • Track your water usage for 24 hours, either starting tonight or beginning tomorrow morning. Use the chart and key I provided today.
  • Prepare for Lit Circle Meeting tomorrow
  • Grade 4s: Give your FSA packets to parents
  • Caribou Test tomorrow after recess

Today we spent the morning working on our nature drawing art, inspired from the book 20 Ways to Draw a Tree, and students also had a chance to try the daily puzzle (word/number puzzles that I am putting up on the board in the mornings.) We had a class meeting run by Michael, during which we discussed end of year plans, a possible potluck lunch, an iMovie project about the MACC program, our Twitter account, and more.

After some time exchanging books at the library we had a class and small group discussion about the math needed to keep a proper budget and to make plans with money. Students were given a pretend $100 and a book list with prices, with the task of spending the money on books of their choice for the school library. There were two options for documenting their math, either making a budget on paper showing their decimal work, or using Excel skills to make a budget worksheet with proper formatting and simple formulas.

In the afternoon, we focused on resources in connection with our unit. How many resources are used to make the products in our homes? What kind of natural resource is used the most? Students met in small groups, were assigned a room, and then created a list of items while organizing them into three categories: very important, quite important, and not very important. Then, using a points system, we assigned a value to each of the resources used to make these products. This allowed us to see that of all the resources listed (trees, plants, animals/fish, oil, water, minerals), minerals were used the most, closely followed by oil. We made conclusions about this data including:

  • Mining is an important industry that must make a lot of money given how much it is used
  • Even though we reduce our use of fossil fuels through the use of transit, biking, or carpooling, we also use these fuels in the making of many plastics we use
  • Do people realize the impact of the many items they own in their houses?

Everyone has been given one of three articles to read on fishing, forestry, or mining. Rather than doing all three, students are choosing to become an expert in an area and then to share this expertise with all of us. We will continue reading tomorrow! Also, we talked about water as a resource, and everyone will be charting their water usage for 24 hours.

Have a great evening!