Global Biome Project Guidelines

Student teams in Project Class have spent the last week researching and organizing information about specific biomes (examples, rainforest, desert, grassland, ocean). Please check this link for project guidelines... GLOBAL BIOME PROJECT GUIDELINES
We will be working on this project most of next week during our project class. Please encourage your child to discuss their project with you. Use the Guiding Questions from the column to the left to help guide your child.

Week of November 26th

I would like to thank all the students and adults who participated in the first "Celebration of Learning". It was amazing to watch the students engage their parents in their learning and project work.

This week we are starting to look at the relationship between plants, animals and their environment, ECOLOGY. Please take a look at the Vocabulary, Driving Questions, Research Links, and Interactive Games to the left. Students will be using these questions and resources as they start their next project, GLOBAL HABITATS.

Students will start their projects by working in small groups, with each group researching one of the world's biomes: Grasslands, Forests, Rain Forests, Deserts, Tundra, Freshwater, and Coastal Shaparral. Groups will be able to describe the physical characteristics and geographic locations of these habitats, and examples of the types of animals and plants that live there ... including a food chain specific to this habitat.

When groups present their work we will be on the way to answering our driving questions.


Academic Standards

3.3 Adaptations in physical structure or behavior may improve an organism’s chance for survival. As a basis for understanding this concept:
b. Students know examples of diverse life forms in different environments, such as oceans, deserts, tundra, forests, grasslands, and wetlands.
3.3
c. Students know living things cause changes in the environment in which they live: some of these changes are detrimental to the organism or other organisms, and some are beneficial.

4. 2. All organisms need energy and matter to live and grow. As a basis for understanding this concept:
a.Students know plants are the primary source of matter and energy entering most food chains.
b.Students know producers and consumers (herbivores, carnivores, omnivores, and decomposers) are related in food chains and food webs and may compete with each other for resources in an ecosystem.
c.Students know decomposers, including many fungi, insects, and microorganisms, recycle matter from dead plants and animals
4.3 Living organisms depend on one another and on their environment for survival. As a basis for understanding this concept:
a.Students know ecosystems can be characterized by their living and nonliving components.
b.Students know that in any particular environment, some kinds of plants and animals survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.
c.Students know many plants depend on animals for pollination and seed dispersal, and animals depend on plants for food and shelter.
d.Students know that most microorganisms do not cause disease and that many are beneficial.

Student-Led Conferences + Celebration of Learning

Next week (Nov. 15th and 16th) we will be hosting student-led conferences and a celebration showcasing some of the learning that has happened over the last 10 weeks. In a student-led conference students will spend 20 minutes in each class (projects, math + literacy) reviewing their "Personal Learning Plans" (PLP) with parents, as well as presenting a few of their projects or learning centers. Times and dates outlining each student's appointment time and date went out yesterday, and today students made personal invitation cards to take home.