Earth Month: The Coral Reef!

Hi Families,

Throughout Earth Month, students in all classes had the opportunity to learn about the importance of the coral reefs and to create sea corals and other sea creatures for a collective coral reef exhibition (now on display on the 2nd floor landing above the auditorium).

Brody (starfish) and Norah (sea sponge)

The project was conceived and introduced by Hata, who explained how small animals called polyps create the reefs over thousands of years, through the formation of limestone cups made to protect their bodies. When the polyps die, their limestone cups remain and over time the coral reefs are formed. Hata explained that the reefs are home to extremely large numbers of ocean species and she discussed the importance of reef biodiversity to the health of our planet. Students learned that over-fishing, boats, tourists and rising sea temperatures are damaging the coral reefs and destroying the sea life that depends on the coral for their survival.

Coral types: hard and soft

Dangers to the coral reefs

Students were extremely engaged in this project and mentioned that it was one of their favorite projects of the year. Please stop by to see their coral reef display in person: It is a wonderful testament to the beauty and life that lives within the world's coral reefs!

Vaughan and his coral polyp with limestone cup

Dexter with sea anemones

Leila

Emerson

Emerson's sea coral, close up

Daysha

Porter

Hayden

Hugo and Mom, Susan

Emily at work

Norah

Leila

Hugo with starfish

Porter and sea coral

Elizabeth with sea coral

Hugo (starfish) and Joseph (sea coral)

Hayden adding texture to his brain coral

Liam and starfish

Brody and starfish

Brain corals

sea anemone

Jocelyne's crochet corkscrew to mimic a sea anemone

Lily with another crochet corkscrew

Lily learning how to crochet sea anemone-like forms

Nina's lettuce coral, center

Jessica with sea coral

Brain corals and polyps

Dexter with painted angler fish and barracudas

Jessica's coral and sea snake, close-up view

Leila's brain corals

Jocelyne's brain coral

Earth Month: Rocks, Minerals and Fossils

Below is a sneak peek of Hata's lesson about rocks and minerals. To begin, Hata read to the students a fabulous and poetic book about rocks called "If you find a rock" by Peggy Christian. In her book, Christian describes rocks for skipping, perfectly shaped "worry" rocks and huge rocks to climb on, in a manner that makes you yearn to hold or climb a rock to capture the magic within. After reading this book, any childhood interest in rocks will undoubtedly resurface!

Hata also approached the topic from a scientific perspective and discussed how rocks form. She described the 3 major categories of rock: sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic. For the project and to mimic the process of how sedimentary rock is formed, Hata provided students with organic materials such as rice and beans as well as sand and pea gravel to layer inside glass jars. It was wonderful to observe how excited the students were to create their own "sedimentary rock" exemplars.  Do scroll down to take a look!

Magnetic rocks

1 of 2 geodes (we found these at Pumpkin Moon)

Mr. Horn accepts the task of splitting open our geodes

a look inside the 1st of the 2 geodes...

...and the 2nd geode. While neither contained spectacular crystals, it was still a thrill to crack them open!

Porter creating layers of "sedimentary rock"

Hugo with his "sedimentary rock" exemplar

Ben's exemplar

Leila's exemplar

Joseph's exemplar

Hata explains the steps to create crystals

Daysha stirring to dissolve the epsom salt

Dexter pouring the dyed salt water solution over a sponge, where the crystals will grow

Leila (left),  Daysha (center), and Emerson

The following day, Nina introduced a lesson about fossils. She presented images of various fossils and explained that fossils are formed when plants and animals are quickly buried in sand or mud, with additional sediment covering and compressing the remains over time. After a very long time, rock-like minerals replace the original minerals of the animal or plant, forming a fossil. Nina revealed that the word "fossil" derives from the Latin word "fossilis" which means "dug up". Most fossils are found in layers of sedimentary rock.

For the students' project, Nina sought to emphasize the process of fossil creation. She asked the students to use several layers of tissue paper over a plant or animal skeleton (made by twisting lengths of masking tape and attaching them to paper) and to compress the layers together with washes of diluted glue. The results are beautiful!

Nina with her nautilus fossil exemplar

Nina demonstrating how to roll the masking tape to create the plant or animal skeleton

Max and Daysha sketching the shapes of their fossils

Hugo taping the t-rex shape onto paper

Jessica cutting her first layer of tissue paper to cover the masking tape skeleton

Daysha's final layer!

Hugo's dad and Nina take a look at Hugo's fossil

Hugo's completed T-Rex fossil!

Dexter's completed fossil!