Fourth Grade's Expedition this Year deals with EVERYTHING to do with the Rainforest. We will explore WHAT the Rainforest IS, WHY we should care, and HOW we can save our future! It is all pretty exciting stuff and we cannot WAIT to tell you all about what we learn. Stay tuned to our blog as we will be updating it weekly! BE CAREFUL! you might just find out that you want to come on this adventure with us... you may even get your feet wet!!

The Great Kapok Tree

LAST WEEK, we learned all about dependency and interdepency. In simple words, how we are all linked in one way or another and when something goes wrong, it affects us ALL. The survival of different species depends on the health of ecological systems that may be near or far away. We explored these complex relationships by reading the book The Great Kapok Tree.

Why Can't One Live Without the Other?

After reading the story we had J o el Stand in the middle of class and pretend to be the great Kapok tree. All of us where l i n k e d to him by a piece of string. We represented the different animals and e l e m e n t s that depend on the tree. There was even a little boy amongst us. Then, of a sudden, Joel (the tree) was CUT DOWN and by him falling... we all did. What a hard lesson that was!!

How Much Rain Falls Where The Trees Are Tall?!?!?

I don't know for you, but for us here in Jarabacoa, it has been a raiiiiiiny season. When we started talking about the rainforest we became curious as to how much it actually rains in the Rainforest. Ofcourse, there are many rainforests so we focused on the Brazilian rainforest and set to work looking at different resources that could maybe help us figure this out. It would be curious to see if our own Jarabacoa was slowly becoming a rainforest right before our eyes.... Or give us a clue how much it TRULY rains in the Brazilian jungla. For a couple of days we were busy at work in the computer lab looking for average rainfall data. Next, we subtracted the data for Jarabacoa and the Rainforest and we were able to see the difference in rainfall by month. Finally, we figured out the difference beteween the average rainfall in both regions. Here is what we found: It rains a whole lot more in the Brazilian Rainforest. And thought we started the year with a considerable less amount of rain, as we approached the middle months it seemed to even out and there where quite a few months were WE had more inches of rain... but on the average it rains about 40% more in the Jungla! Can you imagine living under such conditions?!? no wonder so many wonderful things grow....

Terror Strikes the Fourth Grade!

It all started out so well. We went out on the field (school yard) to get the necessary ingredients for our cool terrarium experiment. We were given instructions on How To Make a Terrarium:

"First, get a clear and empty bottle. Second, put rocks in the bottom of the bottle (in order to drain). Third put black sand that has soil. Fourth, you put the seeds mixed with the black sand (soil). Fifth, you put more sand on the top of the seeds. In each group you have an amount of water to put in the terrariums" -- The Rainforest Toucan Girls AKA Keren, Arlette, and Karina

"The materials to make a terrium is using a coca cola bottle. the first step is, get your bottle and you have to put little rocas on the bottom. You have to put soil on you bottle and for finish, hou have to put the seeds on top . YOU COULD NOT START SHAKING IT you have to be very careful. You put water and not a full cup of water and you have to be careful with how much full cups of water you put in the bottle." -- The Pumas AKA Jennifer, Luis Jose, and Marines
"Para Nosotros hacer nuestro Terroriums (pun not intended) nosotros primero buscamos un pote, y despues le hechamos piedras, luego buscamos la tierra. Despues le pusimos semillas de maiz de girasol y lentejas, luego nos reunimos con Ms. Iraissa y le hechamos un vaso de agua yd espues lo tapamos." -- Los Anacondas AKA Massiel, Lucy, y Joel



"We learned today about Terrariums. For example we got a big bottle of soda but nothing in it. First, we put rocks, dirt or soil, and seeds to grow. Next, we put a half a cup of water. The other groups used 1/4 a cup, a full cup, and 1/2 cup. " -- The Panthers AKA Mike, Erys, and Adriano

WHAT WE HOPE TO LEARN"

"I hope we learn how it grows and how will it get air to breath" --Mike


"We hope to learn that at the end of the Science project we can see how the terrariums work and how the plants grow in the palstic bottles and how it evaporates" -- The Rainforest Tucan Girls


TERROR STRIKES!!!!

So as you can see, fourth grade started out gathering their materials and then closing off their bottles, only to open them each morning to water them according to the watering instructions given. Some groups had specific amounts of water to pour every morning. One group did not water their terrarium at all. But Lo and Behold! we weren't very careful when making our terrariums and our rocks that were supposed to be at the bottom to help drain all the water got mixed up in the whole solution.... AND OUR TERRARIUMS DROWNED. We came in a week later upon such a stench in our classroom... we asked ourselves where it could possibly be coming from... only to find out that the culprit(s) were our terrariums. They died. and the stench reached the heavens. We had used too much water and not many things could live under such circumstances... though some signs of life still existed. We soon found out that there is a careful balance between rainfall and.... flooding...


So we determined to make more terrariums.... with less water.... we let condensation do the work...and despite and a scary attempt at the life of our terrariums by an unknown suspect(s) [future research depends so heavily upon this project after all], this time we saw the seeds of our labor blossom! check out our terrariums!