World Card Making Day

The first Saturday in October is World Card Making Day. The best way to acknowledge this fun day is to learn how to make cards. 

The grandmother of one of our students loves to make cards and teaches adults how to make them. She took on the challenge to teach card making to third graders. It went very well and students learned how to make an owl card for fall. 

The process of card making develops these skills:

~following directions

~listening

~fine motor skills like cutting and gluing

~tearing paper

~writing

The act of sending greeting cards can be dated back to the ancient Chinese, who exchanged cards to celebrate and send messages of good will for the New Year. 

American Revolution Simulation Day

American Revolution Simulation Day

Our class simulated what it would be like to live in 1775. We were Great Britain, and the students from the class next door were the colonists. 

Simulations are important for student learning because students experience the reality of the scenario and gather meaning from it. 

Students created a class fort with individual forts on the inside using paper and tape.

Students learned about the clothing during the time period and created their own fashion.

One of the activities was calculating the cost of the fort based on the supply costs during the time period. Students also calculated the cost of food for the class to live for 30 days. 

Throughout the day there would be Breaking News! This was where the teachers introduced important events about the Revolutionary War. During this particular breaking news, the Stamp Act was passed and the colonists were taxed 22 cents for every piece of paper, so the colonists had to calculate that cost.

At the end of the day, Great Britain and the colonists competed in a "battle" to see who won. We competed in a hopping ball race, relay race, and a bean bag toss.

The colonists won!

Seeing the excitement and understanding of the day from each student was so rewarding!

Washed Ashore at Point Defiance Zoo

The Washed Ashore Exhibit at Point Defiance Zoo does not disappoint! Students saw large scale sculptures of plastic beach trash designed to encourage people to see the pollution problem that we have in our oceans. 

Angela Haseltine Pozzi is the artist and educator behind these amazing sculptures about marine pollution. Washed Ashore art is being created to "save the sea".

Students were amazed to see all of the different items that are found on our beaches such as cell phones, buckets, shoes, plastic bottles, and many more. 

One of our goals this year is plastic reduction. The intent of this goal is to draw attention to the impact of industry, society, and commerce on the environment. We are trying to look at these impacts through an unbiased lens. We want to understand things like: what is really happening, where the impact occurs, how this impact affects the various aspects of our lives.

We are well on our way to reducing our plastic by bringing our lunches in reusable containers. At the zoo, 82% of our lunches were reusable!

Students also enjoyed visiting their favorite animals at the zoo! 

How do you tell if a shark is male or female?

How do they make that noise?

Look at the oil on their skin! The water is beading up.

Check out more about the Washed Ashore exhibit here:

Washed Ashore at Point Defiance Zoo: https://www.pdza.org/washed-ashore  

Washed Ashore website: http://washedashore.org/