The Herons had a great day getting to know each other. All summer, it's hard to imagine the class without the graduating fifth graders. Then, suddenly, the new Herons walk through the door and it quickly becomes hard to imagine the class any other way. I'm so excited to be a part of this new community.
Today we created survey questions to ask the rest of the class. We'll take the data we collect to make pictographs, bar graphs and circle graphs to include in a book of infographics about the Herons. We talked about "forced choice" surveys in which you make your respondents choose from the options you give them instead of leaving it open ended. We also talked about asking questions with more than two answers which gives one much more interesting graphs.
Sometimes people wonder how you can teach math to fourth and fifth graders at the same time. This activity illustrates our approach well. Children who are comfortable with fractions and percentages ask more than twenty people their question. Those who are newer to percentages will ask twenty students (which makes each student worth 5%). Similarly, after all students create a pictograph of their data, some students will make bar graphs to display the same data while others will make circle graphs. Even within the circle graphs, some will use a template of a circle cut into twentieths, others will use a circle cut into hundredths while still others will draw a circle from scratch using a compass and percentage circle to create their circle graph.
But wait, there's more! We also began preparation for our phenology radio project. Phenology is the study of seasonal changes in nature. We're going to be tracking individual trees through the season as well as observing the changes in birds, mammals, insects and plants. We'll begin our official observations tomorrow although in our ten minute nature walk today we found so many interesting things to share: 10 admiral butterflies, 2 leopard frogs, tiny bugs on goldenrod, lots of mushrooms, a tree with half green and half red leaves, ripe berries, and a dead mouse half buried in an ant hill. One never knows what one will find at Prairie Creek. I'm excited to have the opportunity to observe our campus so carefully and rigorously. As we hone our observations skills, we may even get to contribute our data to universities for use by scientists.
Oh my! And we haven't even talked about guided recess. More soon! For now, here are the Herons on their first day.
The Rookery 
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