Mid-March catchup

Being stuck at home recovering from the stomach flu equates to some much needed catch up time. Fortunately, for y'all, that means getting our blog up to date! The kids have been loving their role as Instagrammer of the Day, so I'm writing today to fill in a few highlights with shots that I've taken over the past few weeks (for the second time, since blogger didn't save my original post...)

The first two collages are of our first Page Turners meeting. Most of the shots are from our reading forts, and one in the second collage is of Kari sharing from The Long Winter. The kids were totally enthralled with the part of the story that she shared and with the photos of the real Laura.

A few weeks ago we attended Living Ag at the WF Fair Grounds where students were immersed in everything ND agriculture. The shots here are just a few of the ones that I posted on our Instagram feed as we toured each booth. Student favorites were definitely the live animals, honey, and dairy, and we also learned about corn, soybeans, beef cows, pork, and ag related jobs. 

Jeff Thomas of Cornerstone Bank is our Junior Achievement presenter this year. He is teaching the class about entrepreneurship and all things small business. The students have learned about qualities that are important to entrepreneurs, how to design a business plan based on available resources, and how profit and loss can be impacted by a number of factors.

We wrapped up our study of the 5 geographical regions of the US (yesterday). We worked through the NE and the SE together, and then broke into 3 groups to study the Mid-west, Southwest, and the West. Students researched together using our text and then presented to the other two groups. Now we dive into studying our home state of ND!

Pulled out the selfie stick to show off the books we're reading for Page Turners! As each student finishes they are working on creating a Word Cloud to share about one or more of their characters. Excited to see them all next Thursday!!!

Last, but not least, this week (before I got sick), we started Math Workshop. I have never seen such excitement for math. Students work in 4 teams and rotate through 4 math activities each day: Mrs. Clarey (their daily lesson), At Your Seat (an assignment), Technology (using the iPads or the Smartboard to work on a variety of skills), and Hands-on (math games). They love math workshop because they get more opportunities to be involved and play math games everyday (research supports academic games for both engagement and skill mastery), I love math workshop because all students are engaged the entire hour, downtime is minimized, all activities target the learning goal or standard we are focusing on (or "beefing up" weaker math areas), and I can tailor my instruction to the 5 or 6 students seated at the table with me. You'll have to pull up this picture and ask you kiddo which team they are on and how their rotation flows. :)

Living Ag

This afternoon we visited "Living Ag Classroom" to learn about everything agriculture! See the photos below, and be sure to check the captions for our favorite facts! 

Station 1 - Careers in Agriculture

5 major agriculture-related jobs in ND: farmer, veterinarian, agribusiness, food scientist, extension agent.

Station 2 - ND Honey

Worker bees live 45 days and make just 1/12 tsp honey during their lifetime.

Station 3 - Beans

North Dakota produces half of our nation's pinto beans. North Dakota and Minnesota together produce 40% of our nation's navy beans.

Station 4 - Soybeans

Cass County is the #1 soybean producing county in the nation.

90% of national newspapers used soy-based ink. 

Drivers of vehicles who use soy bio diesel say the exhaust smells like French fries. 

Station 5 - Soil Conservation

It takes 1,000 years to grow an inch of topsoil. Wow! That's a long time!!! It might be just a little important to protect our soil...

Station 6 - Corn

3 types of corn: popcorn, sweet corn, field corn

4 uses for corn: food, feed, fuel (ethanol), fiber

Station 7 - Dairy Cows

Cows eat 90 lbs of feed and drink 25-50 gallons of water per day. That's equivalent to us eating 500 hamburgers!

Takes 15 minutes to milk a cow by hand or 5 by machine. Each cow produces 6 gallons of milk per day, which is 90 cups, and produces 200,000 cups in her lifetime!

Station 8 - Composting

The 2 ingredients in compost are straw and manure (carbon and nitrogen). Compost can be used for crops, pots, gardens, etc. During this station we took turns acting as the "tractor" to shake the bucket of manure and straw to make compost!

Station 9 - Wheat

Wheat is the #1 crop in ND. 

1 bushel of durum wheat makes 42 pounds of pasta, and 1 bushel of hard red spring wheat makes 64 loaves of bread. 

If a loaf of bread costs $4, the farmer only gets $0.10!

Japan buys the most spring wheat from us, and Italy buys the most durum wheat (pasta). 

Station 10 - Beef

A serving size of meat is 3 oz (and is roughly the size of your palm), and we need 2-3 servings of meat each day to get our necessary nutrients.

One cow produces enough meat for 1800 quarter pounders. If we ate one quarter pounder a day it would take us until we are in 9th grade to eat them all!!!

Station 11 - Pork

Types of meat that come from pigs: ham, bacon, canadian bacon, ribs, roasts, pork chop, etc.

Many byproducts are made from other parts of the pigs, including gum...which is made from the stomach lining! Eewwwwwww!!!!! Other byproducts: Glue is made from hooves. Chalk, bar soap, and crayons are made from a pig's fatty acids.

Station 12 - Livestock

Sheep can live 8-12 years and have between 1-3 lambs at a time.

Pigs can have 8-12 piglets at a time. These pigs are 6 months old and 250 pounds each.

Cows live 10-15 years. Heifers weigh on average 900-1200 pounds, and a bull can get up to 2,000 pounds. Cows don't have feeling in their ears.








We learned a TON, and the class was SO attentive and well-mannered! Great field trip!!!!!