Day 19

September 20, 2011 Day 19 Farm School

Day 19

Volunteered at The Theater Project—1 ½ hours

Farm School

Sophie and I began the our 1^st Semester, Grade 6 project Midden Earth Farm Almanac  Vol. 2, Issue 1. This is an extension of our project from last semester and is based on Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richards Almanac.

      The goal for this semester is to learn how to use the format and layout tools in Microsoft Publisher. She will be writing the stories and taking the photos herself for this volume.

Sophie created the template changes for the Almanac and she chose the fonts and worked on the title page.

      Sophie wrote the rough draft for the title page story ‘My Summer Summary’

      She found a watercolor painting that she had done of the pond and learned how to scan it into the computer for future illustration of  a pond observation assignment.

ASSIGNMENT:

      Do her webquest on the Louisiana purchase so that at the next farm school day we can do the storyboard and she can create the caricatures of Thomas Jefferson and Napoleon.

Ecosystem Observation Worksheet                         Farm Pond

Date:     9/20/11                                                                                Season: Fall

Time of observation:      12:00                                     Duration of observation: 30 mins

1.       List three details or parts of the ecosystem you are observing:

The big frog: resting on rock alone, fish around him, leaped on to lily pad, disturbed, croaking

Dragon (fish): interacting with other fish, eating algae, went to surface, away from waterfall, not still—keeps moving

Yellow lily pad: fish surrounding, frog on it, to algae, lots of water on top of it—more than green pads

2.       What did you notice or observe?

I observed the ecosystem through the three details. The lily pad gives the frog a resting place and a the fish a place to hide and feed from, the bog frog helps attract the algae to the lily pad which feeds the fish and attracts bugs that the frog eats

3.       What elements (weather, temperature, light, etc.) affected the ecosystem during your observation?

Cloudy, rainy, cold water temperature, cool temperature outside, no sun

4.       What things changed since the last time you observed the ecosystem?

Since summer: water was clearer, fish were skinnier, not as many frogs, warmer water temperature—more algae

5.       What changes do you expect to happen to the ecosystem before your next observation?

The frogs will be hidden, the fish will be deeper, less algae

6.       On back, draw part of the ecosystem (can be specific detail, food web, metamorphosis chart, picture):

Lily's Farm School:

Lily and Bo began the project Lily’s Farm Activity Book. This will be a blank workbook designed by Lily (with our help) to give to her friends for Christmas. She will also do one herself to document her semesters work.

            GOAL

      Learning basic Photoshop commands – learning Figure/ground. Placing figures within the background.

      Alphabetical sequencing - learning to recognize ABC’s in sequence using saved Photoshop images.

      Word/image recognition

ASSIGNMENTS

      Create with Bo an ‘I SPY on the farm’ page. Using photo images from Midden Earth Farm placed within the background of a found image.

      Creating the word key for the page