Apologies for not sending out correspondence yesterday, as I was out taking Sadie to the doctor. The new cast she had put on last Thursday was pinching a radial nerve and causing her pain and burning sensations. They removed the cast and put her in a new one. She's feeling much better now! I am extremely excited about our plans for the week! We will be fully integrating Math and Science as we complete a week long unit on Dolphins – specifically the story behind Winter. Below is the introduction of Winter's Story: On the calm waters of Mosquito Lagoon one December morning, a crab trap buoy floated gently on the surface of the water. Beneath the buoy was a long rope and tied to the long rope was a crab trap. To a young dolphin calf, it looked like the perfect toy! The dolphin calf grabbed the rope in her mouth and began to play. She swam back and forth, up and down, twisting and turning around the rope. Suddenly, she realized that the rope was tangled all around her body. It was twisted around her fin on top, called a dorsal fin. It was twisted around her fins on the side, called pectoral fins. Most tightly, it was twisted around her tail, called her flukes. The young dolphin needed help and quick! Luckily, a fisherman nearby saw the crab trap buoy bouncing around on the top of the water. He directed his boat closer and saw the little dolphin all wrapped up in the line of the crab trap. He called for help and waited until a rescue team arrived. The rescue team saw that the little dolphin would need the care of an animal doctor, called a veterinarian, and took her all the way across the state of Florida to Clearwater Marine Aquarium. Once she was at Clearwater Marine Aquarium, the young dolphin was named Winter after the season in which she was found. The veterinarian and the animal care team at the aquarium realized that Winter’s tail was very damaged from her experience with the crab trap – so damaged that she would never be able to use it again. Sure enough, her tail slowly began to fall off until it was completely gone. Winter didn’t let her missing tail slow her down. She learned how to swim side-to-side, like a fish swims. But the animal care team at CMA knew that swimming like that could hurt Winter’s back – a dolphin’s tail is supposed to move up and down! They worked with a group of people from Hanger Prosthetics, a company that makes artificial legs and arms for people. The doctors at Hanger designed a new tail for Winter. When Winter wears it, she can swim like a normal dolphin does – up and down! Yesterday, students learned facts about bottle nose dolphins and watched a Brain Pop video. (https://www.brainpop.com/science/diversityoflife/dolphins/preview.weml) Today we have learned about the different parts of a dolphin, matched them with their function, and labeled a picture of Winter. Students LOVED watching Hope and Winter live as they worked on their diagrams. Here are the links to access the different web cams at Clearwater Marine Aquarium: http://www.ozolio.com/explore/QYKO000001CD http://www.ozolio.com/explore/JCEL000001B4 http://www.ozolio.com/explore/MVYN000001B9 We will be reading several non-fiction articles about dolphins, learning about their sonar (echo-location), and their different parts that have helped them adapt to their environment. http://www.highlightskids.com/audio-story/noisy-world-dolphins http://www.animalplanet.com/tv-shows/animal-planet-presents/videos/the-ultimate-guide-to-dolphins-secrets-of-dolphin-sonar.htm http://kids.nceas.ucsb.edu/mmp/bottlenose.html http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/explore/nature/secret-language-of-dolphins/ As we integrate all of this into math, we will do several “labs” where we have to measure a dolphin replica, assemble the pieces of her prosthetic tale and take measurements, and also track progress of when she attempted to use her tail on a bar graph. We even have a simulated experienced planned where students will explore writing with their non-dominate hand and tracking their attempts/mistakes. On Friday, we will watch clips from the movie Dolphin Tale and discuss the differences between the movie and the facts that we have learned about in class through our experiences and research. We will also watch Dolphin Tale 2 to learn more about Hope's story. This week will be packed full of learning and fun learning experiences! I have attached the newsletter for the week. There is no homework. Please let me know if you have any further questions or concerns!
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My dream is to create a 21st Century classroom that encourages collaboration, integrates technology, and promotes thinking deeply.
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