Inquiry Into Tophographical Maps

This week, we inquired into topographical maps - maps used to show the natural features (i.e. landforms) of a location.  We learned about a variety of different landforms - mountains, hills, plateaus, coasts, plains, deserts, valleys, forests, oceans, rivers, and lakes.  Each student used salt dough to create a topographical map depicting the landforms of their imaginary island countries.

We investigated topographical maps of the US and the world.

 We created topographical maps out of salt dough.

We painted our topographical maps according to our map keys.

 

More photos coming soon!

Happy Birthday Miss Rollins!

On Thursday, March 13th, I celebrated my birthday with the class.  Every year, my mom brings in fudgy chocolate cupcakes with pink sprinkles as a birthday treat for me to share with my students.  She also takes a class picture.  This was too cute not to post!

Surprise Field Trip To The Rainforest

Last week, we began our fourth IB Unit Of Inquiry, “Sharing The Planet”. 

The central idea of this unit is, "Living things survive only in environments that meet their needs.” 

On Monday, we kicked off our new unit with a surprise field trip toThe Rainforest at The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo.  As we explored this “habitat”, we were able to learn about the various plants and animals that are able to survive there. The rainforest is one of the five habitats (in addition to desert, ocean, grasslands, and polar) that we will inquire into throughout this unit.

Thank you to Amy Stark, Erika LoPresti, Rocio Moran, and Erin Zelin for chaperoning this field trip!