Today the Stonington Historical Society visited Deans Mill School to talk with the whole third grade about the Native Americans of Connecticut. We saw a lot of interesting artifacts!

Here are some arrows, a stone knife, and a leather pouch

A lacrosse stick (the Native Americans invented the sport!) and a stone axe

This heavy axe would have been used for chopping down giant trees. First the Native Americans would burn the base of the tree to make it easier to chop. Then they would hack away the burnt wood with the axe. They would burn it some more and chop some more – over and over until it was cut down. Sometimes the trees would take a few days to cut down.

Stone pestles for grinding corn into cornmeal

Warm rabbit fur with soft buckskin leather (from deer) next to it

We are very lucky to have the Stonington Historical Society share these important artifacts with us. They also told us a lot of fascinating information. Did you know that the local Native Americans used to catch whales from their dugout canoes? They also played a lot of sports to improve their aim and coordination – and to have fun of course!

Why was it important for children to learn to be very quiet?

How did the local Native Americans make their canoes?

We have been learning a lot about tropical rainforests. We are getting ready to give tours of our rainforest classroom to share what we have learned and raise money to protect rainforests. So, we want to explain why we think it is important to try to save the world’s rainforests.

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The World's Tropical Rainforests

What would happen if rainforests disappeared?

“If the rainforests disappeared we wouldn’t have a lot of oxygen because lots of air comes from the rainforest. Some medicine comes from the rainforest.”

“If rainforests disappeared valuable medicines, food, and other things will be lost in the world forever. Many wonderful plants and animals would also disappear forever.”

“If the rainforests disappeared then all of the interesting plants and animals will lose their habitats and die. Also, we would not have lots of fruits and oxygen.”

How do rainforests help the earth?

“The rainforest helps the earth because it gives out lots of oxygen. For example, leaves take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen.”

“The rainforest is important to the earth beacause the leaves on the trees help us get the oxygen in us to live. Also, it helps get rid of carbon dioxide.”

“Rainforests help the earth because when so much carbon dioxide is in the air some plants in the rainforest suck in the carbon dioxide so the earth won’t get so hot. If the earth gets too hot a lot of plants and animals will die.”

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We hope you agree that rainforests are important!

What other things can you think of that make rainforests important?

So, can you answer Juan Pablo’s questions?

What are connections,

and how are they helpful?

While learning about rainforests, every student focused on a special plant or animal. Lucy and Tia worked together to learn about the magnificent ocelot. Check out their voicethread:

Here is a picture of an ocelot at night. It was taken by a motion detector camera in Gallon Jug, Belize where our video-chat buddies live.

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Ocelot at night

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What did you think of the voicethread?

Do you have any questions about ocelots?

This Wednesday we had out first video chat of the year. We called Gallon Jug Community School in Belize. Here is a picture of their school, with the rainforest in the background.

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Gallon Jug Community School

And here is where Belize and Connecticut are located on the globe:

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Connecticut, USA and Belize

We spoke with the school’s principal, Mr. Casey, and some of his students. It was exciting to talk into the computer’s camera and see ourselves on the big screen! We could also see and hear the 7th and 8th graders all the way from Belize.

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Using the computer's web-camera

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Learning from our Belize friends

We learned a lot about the rainforest from our video chat. We asked the students questions and they gave us excellent information.

Here are some of the things we learned:

• It doesn’t rain all the time. Sometimes it doesn’t rain for weeks. There is a rainy season and a dry season.
• The rainforest is loud in the morning and evening because of howler monkeys and birds, but is kind of quiet during the day.
• Bats are very important to the rainforest because they spread fruit seeds and also pollinate flowers that open at night.
• They get to see a lot of animals! Like monkeys, jaguars, iguanas, and LOTS of birds.
• One boy said he has seen 3 jaguars, 22 ocelots, and a few pumas and jaguarundis!
• Algae and slime grow on sloths because they are so slow and wet. The green algae helps the sloth stay camouflaged. Also, sometimes they lick their fur to eat some of the algae for protein!

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Thank you Gallon Jug Community School!

Our first video chat was a great experience. Thank you to Mr. Casey and his students in Gallon Jug! We didn’t have time for all our questions, so maybe we will be able to have another video chat soon…

Ideas for comments:

Would you like to live near a rainforest?

What was the most interesting part of the video chat?

or,

Any comments you would like to share!

On October 30th the third grade celebrated “Book Character Day” – when students can dress up as a character from one of their favorite books. We write clues about who we are and then read our clues to see if people can guess our character. We shared our characters with the whole third grade, then with our book buddies in first grade, and finally with fourth graders in Mrs. Christian’s class. It was an awesome day!

Check out the slide show for more pictures from Book Character Day. Can you guess some of the characters even without the written clues?

What was your favorite part of Book Character Day?

What was the most common character in the third grade?

Last week we went on a field trip to the Stonington Town Hall and then to the Stonington Free Library.

Town Hall

At the Town Hall we met first selectman Ed Haberak. Is he the one in the chair, or the one wearing the tie? Hmm…

We learned about taxes, building permits, garbage collection, and recycling. We also learned about the things the town does to keep waste and pollution from getting into the rivers and ocean. Just check out the cool picture below.

Stonington Free Library

Next we went to the Stonington Free Library in the Borough. We went on a scavenger hunt to learn more about the library and listened to a great book called Bats at The Library. We also got own own dictionaries and some of us got library cards.

We had fun looking through the dictionaries, especially the last page which had the longest word printed on it. It has 1,193 letters in it! Here is another long word that is kind of funny: Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia. It means a fear of long words! Really!

What was your favorite part of the field trip

What are some things that taxes are used for?

What is something that recycled plastic can be made into?

or

Share any comment!

Learning About Rain Forests

We have learned a lot about habitats and adaptations in the past two months. For a final project we are focusing on rainforests. We are learning as much as we can about them so we can turn our classroom into a model rainforest and give tours to others to raise money to protect rainforests.

Mr. Andrewin from the Belize Zoo

We are reading a lot about rainforests and learning through websites, but we also want to learn from real life experts so we asked some questions to Mr. Jamal Andrewin who is the environmental educator at The Belize Zoo.

Belize is a country in Central America right below Mexico on the Caribbean Sea. It is very beautiful with lots of coral reefs and lots of rainforests. Our teacher used to live there!

The zoo

The Belize Zoo is home to many of the rainforest animals that live in Central America. The zoo doesn’t have cages and concrete, but is right in the forest with fences and netting to keep the animals from getting out. The animals at the zoo are there because they were injured or orphaned.

Our questions to Mr. Andrewin

Q: Is it loud in the rainforest?

A: The rainforest can be noisy or quiet, it all depends on the time of day. It is loudest at sunrise and sunset, when hundreds of birds are most active. You’ll hear flapping and squawking and high pitched shrieks. The middle of the day is the quietest time. The sun is right over head so it gets really hot and most animals “nap” to save energy. The afternoon can be very loud, with the ringing sounds of singing insects. Night time is mostly quiet because the small animals that come out try not to make a sound so the big predators don’t hear them, and the predators are sneaking around silently also. The only loud noises you might hear at night are howler monkeys, who sometimes “sing” at night and can be heard for over a mile.

Q: How many different kinds of monkeys live in the rainforests?

A: In Belize there are only TWO species of monkey in the rainforest, both of which are at the Zoo. These are the Spider Monkey (Ateles geoffroyi), and the Black Howler Monkey (Alouatta pigra)

Q: Why does the rainforest have so many different plants and animals?

A: Because rainforests have constant sun and rain and no cold temperatures, plants can grow all the time. These thousands of plants provide food for large numbers of insects and herbivores, which can then support a large number of carnivores and omnivores (predators). Basically, the weather allows for faster plant growth and larger numbers of animals in the food chain. Also, the heavy rainfall and high humidity makes dead leaves and rotting wood decompose faster. So nutrients are recycled into soil much quicker. In Belize we only have a wet and dry season. There is no drastic change in climate, like from hot summer to frosty winter, so the weather remains steady, just with a little more or less rain.

Q: Why are so many animals nocturnal (active at night)?

A: Because it is cooler at night small herbivores and cold-blooded animals rest during the hot day and come out at night. They lose less water from their body at night when it’s cooler, so they save energy. The larger animals that hunt these creatures become active at night as well. They use the darkness to sneak up on their prey. Night time becomes a life and death game of hide and seek between predator and prey.

Q: What are bromeliads and how do they grow without soil for their roots?

A: Bromeliads are a type of epiphyte plant, which means they grow on other plants. They don’t harm the trees they grow on, they just use the tree to hang onto so they can get more sunlight. Bromeliads get their water and nutrients from moisture in the air, from rain, and from small pools of water and decaying matter that collects inside their leaves. So they do not need roots and soil to survive. Bromeliads also use photosynthesis like regular plants.

Q: What do Jaguars eat, and what do you feed them at the zoo?

A: Jaguars are the top predators in the rainforests of the Americas so they hunt just about everything. Deer, gibnut and agouti (types of large rodents), peccaries (similar to the wild boar), crocodiles, and sometimes tapirs (they are the tapir’s only natural enemy). Here at the zoo they are fed chicken, pig heads, fish, and sometimes beef.

Thank you Mr. Andrewin!

What did you find most interesting about his answers?

Would you like to visit the Belize Zoo?

Do you have any other questions for him?

We have been working on writing down ideas about our reading. We started by writing letters about the books we are reading in class. Then we worked on responses about the books we are reading at home. This week we have been learning how to write answers to reading comprehension questions. Watch the video we made to learn our tips for answering these questions.

Here are some ideas to think about for comments:

Do you think this video will help you answer questions?

What did you think of the pictures?

Why is it important to have 2 details?

or

Share any comment!

This week we went on a field trip to visit some of the habitats that Nature Scapes has been teaching us about. We explored forests, fields, and saw a little fresh water and salt water. It was a chilly fall morning but we still saw a lot of amazing creatures.

We found red-backed salamanders, sassafras leaves, beetles, pill bugs, and a baby garter snake. Another creature we found was a katydid. It was hard to spot because of its great camouflage. Check it out.

It’s easy to see now, but…

How about now?

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Here are a few more pictures from our trip.

To the students:

What was your favorite part of the trip?

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To our friends:

Have you ever found any of these creatures,

or others like them?