We continue to learn about cycles in nature. At the start of the year a parent donated a fish tank to the class that uses aquaponics. The tank fits in nicely with our current life science unit. In this mini aquaponics system the fish feeds the plants and the plants clean the water. We will use the plants that are growing on top of the tank to in our study of the plant life cycle. The tank contains our new class pet, a male betta fish. The students were excited to name our fish. They all had an opportunity to suggest a name. We voted and the winning name was “Dynamite.” So we now have a pet fish named Dynamite in our class. Ask your child what name he or she liked best for the fish.
In our plant unit we learned how plants make food using photosynthesis. Your child learned that plants produce oxygen for people and animals and that people and animals breathe out carbon dioxide for plants to use to make food. Ask your child what else plants need to make food for themselves.
On Friday, we discussed that up until that day the same person had been President of the United States since most of the students in our class were born. We learned that the inauguration of a new President would take place that day. We learned the inauguration is the event where the person who is elected President promises to lead the country. We read the oath of office that the President takes and discussed what it means. As a class, we watched the inauguration live at 9:00 a.m. our time. Then, we took a closer look at what the President does and talked about previous Presidents of the United States.