“Anyone who thinks they’re too small to make a difference, has never met the honeybee”
Service Project. We launched our Service Project of the Year on Monday: Give Bees a Chance. We chose a good spot to hang our poster boards, and four volunteers decorated a donation jar to leave in the foyer. We then presented our plan to the whole school. Each student learned a line or two explaining the reason for our project to the classes on the lower level, while Ms. Anna’s class did it for the second-level classes. (Thank you for practicing with your child last weekend.) We explained how we plan to raise money to donate to Environment America: https://environmentamerica.org/feature/ame/save-bees.
Together, we will set up a beekeeper shop next Tuesday, April 30th, where all the classes can shop for bee-themed items. Prices will range from $2 to $20. As a class, we’ve been busy bees setting up bracelet kits, bagging bee crayons, and writing labels and prices.We labeled and wrote prices for each item and decorated the shop room. Ms. Anna’s class handled the honey jars, chapsticks and gift baskets.
Each student has been fully invested in each activity, and we got many high fives from other teachers and students. Our families can help too: (ask your child how you can help as a family)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cBA8LWGrT42OEQEu9GyFb4IWlwzGNS5XOS5N_Ii0fWM/edit?usp=sharing
- Planting flowers in your garden
- Stay away from garden chemicals
- Donate money (due day April 30th)
Last year, we raised $975! Our goal for this year is $1000. We can’t wait to see how much money we can raise for this important project.
Bees. As part of our Service project, we keep learning about bees and all they do. We talked about their life cycle (ask your child what cycle means) and learned how worker bees care for their babies (larvae). The life cycle of honeybees consists of four stages: eggs, larva, pupa, and adult. This entire process varies lengthwise amongst the different honey bees. It takes about 16 days for the queen, 18 to 22 days for the worker bees, and 24 days for the drones. We watched a short video that showed us how the whole cycle looks in real life! https://youtu.be/xD5tdykIJBI We could see the entire transformation, and it was mesmerizing.
Pollination. This week, we discussed pollination, which is transferring pollen from flower to flower. Insects and animals who help with pollination are called pollinators. Ask your child what other animals are pollinators besides bees (butterflies, bats, hummingbirds, small mice, etc.) While we heard about the pollination process, we learned why Bees are a crucial part of pollination (ask your child why bees are essential during the pollination process and what could happen if bees go extinct.)
Science. As part of this scientific experiment, we used coffee filters and markers to create unique flowers and learn about chromatography. We watched the amazing process of chromatography in action by coloring the filters with markers and dipping the tip in water. Students could see the water “walking up” the filter as soon as the filter’s tip made contact with the water, separating the colors and creating beautiful patterns.
The science behind it: Chromatography, derived from the Greek words chroma meaning “color” and graph meaning “to write,” is the scientific method of separating mixtures. In our experiment, the water’s capillary action pulled the ink molecules up the filter, separating the different color compounds. The lighter molecules moved faster than the heavier ones, resulting in the distinct spread of colors along the filter.
Marker inks are made from many different colored dyes. We could see it more in dark colors; students who initially colored with dark colors like black and purple were surprised to see new colors, such as green and red, appearing on the edge of their filters. “I didn’t use green on mine!” “I see red!” When our flowers were ready, we could count many different colors on our final products. We will use our flowers for a pollination game next week.
Insects. We have mystery insects in our classroom! We got our detective eyes alert and started investigating these mysterious creatures. At first, we didn’t know if it was an insect, but we counted six legs, so we can assume it is. There are more than two, but they are so small and move so fast that it is still hard to count them. We learned that they are in the second stage of the cycle, in the larva stage. They have six legs; they are black with a few orange dots on their abdomen. It is hard to see the eyes.
We will provide more information as soon as we learn more about them, but that is all we have so far. We’ll keep monitoring their growth and hope to catch the next phase of their metamorphosis while we are in school. How exciting. Stay tuned!
Efi and Soraya