PIE 4/5 Classroom News

The PIE 4/5 classes, led by Mr. McLaughlin and Mr. Kirschke, have been working for quite some time on a Conservation theme in Science. The classes continue to collect plastic bottles, which they will recycle and then use the funds towards purchasing garden tools, plants and seeds for their Courtyard Cleanup project. The Organic seed sale is over! The order will be placed this week so that families will have their seeds in time for spring planting.

Kids bringing their bottles to the town recycling center

The students have recently read a story called Come Back, Salmon, written by Molly Cone. The story was about a fifth grade class who adopted a creek named, Pigeon Creek, and brought it back to life. The kids helped to clean up the creek and restock it with baby salmon. People told the kids that the salmon would never return to Pigeon Creek, but they were successful in their conservation efforts. Reading this story encouraged the 4/5 students to learn more about the ecology and animals that are native to Warwick. They wrote and illustrated wildlife cartoons and added their new science vocabulary to their writing.

A beautiful cartoon

Currently, the kids have been observing the many birds that fly into the classroom courtyard. Students study what the birds look like, take notes, make sketches and then work to identify the bird species.  This new theme will focus on birds and bird adaptations. Students have begun classifying and illustrating the different types of native birds that they see.

The kids have been extremely excited about the chance to see maple syrup being collected from a tree on the Sanfordville school grounds. The 4/5 students spend a few afternoons a week outdoors hiking and studying nature. A few weeks ago Mr. McLaughlin tapped a tree so that the students could see how tree sap is collected. The first time he opened the tap not much tree sap came out, but this past week the kids were in for a treat!

Mr. McLaughlin measuring the tree sap

 Teachers use a 3.5 gallon bucket to collect the tree sap

It's heavy and it's a long walk back to school!!!

The students have an outdoor science and math lesson as the teachers collect the sap. They discuss the ratio of droplets of tree sap to droplets of syrup, which they turn into a fraction. They compare tree sap measurements from what was collected last week to this weeks collection. The next day at school the kids had the choice of tasting the tree sap. First, they tasted sap that came right from the tree. Next, they tried semi-boiled tree sap and last, they tasted fully boiled tree sap. The tree sap from the tree tasted like "sweetened water," the semi-boiled type tasted "badly," but the fully boiled tree sap tasted, "DELICIOUS!'

Who knows, maybe the sap collecting will inspire some young entrepreneurs to collect & sell their own maple syrup in the future!