Did you child come home from school amped up about what he/she has learned about whales? Did that include a little poop talk? Jeff Hogan, the executive director of Killer Whale Tales , shared his passion and expertise with our 2nd graders today. We learned an awful lot while getting in some good laughs, he was quite the entertaining teacher! Did you know that poop can tell us what an animal has been eating, where it's been, how healthy it is, whether or not it's stressed out, pregnant, or is about to be pregnant? We learned about the Southern Resident Killer Whales in the Puget Sound and how to identify them; distinguished between gender, age, and pods; compared how our bone structures are very similar; learned how to identify their sounds and other forms of communicating; what they need for survival; what threatens them; and how we can we can help them. 

We played a quiz show game and students won orca trading cards- what a hit! Mr. Hogan would like each child to fill out a sheet that went home today and needs to come back to school by Friday. This presentation can be free of charge to us if we send him these questionnaires. If 100% of our students complete the forms then he will send us more whale trading cards- enough to give each child an additional 10 cards!  

Our PBL is going strong. I must say, our kids are really sinking their teeth and baleen into everything whales! We began our exploration with a blubber and baleen simulation. We also did a "fun fact" scavenger hunt by predicting the whale that fits the fact and then using QR codes that brought us to the answer. Each child has chosen a whale that they will become an expert on. In the weeks ahead we will be researching and writing a report on this whale. All-the-while keeping our driving question at heart, 
              HOW CAN WE AS CONCERNED AND COMPASSIONATE GLOBAL CITIZENS, HELP WHALES? 


CONVERSATION STARTERS

• What are the two types of whales?
• What whale sleeps standing up?
• What whales makes the longest migration?
• What bone is bigger in humans than orcas? 
• How old is the granny in the J-pod? (she was born in 1911-she is 103, the oldest whale known in the world!)
• How are orca pods determined? (orca whales live with their moms)
• What do orcas love to eat? (king and chinook salmon)
• Teach me some orca calls (we learned that each pod has their own calls. (J-Pod) S1: cowboy, S2: dental drill, S4: duck with gas, (K-Pod) S16: kitty cat, S17: two kitty cats, (L-Pod) S19: hiccup, S37: teacher call
• What are we doing right now that helps orca whales? What else can we do? 

IN OTHER NEWS

• Poetry Slam this Friday from 3:00-3:40 in our classroom. 
• IMAX permission slips due! (field trip is May 21st) 
• Spelling test on Friday
• Killer Whale Tales questionnaire due Friday
• Dwankhozi week at QAE next week! We welcome Moses Masala (all the way from Zambia) to QAE! 

A BIG THANK YOU TO OUR PARENT VOLUNTEERS!
Our regular volunteers include Ms. Tanea, Ms. Robin, Ms. Anna, Ms. Connor, Ms. Chris, Ms. Holley, Ms. Sara, Ms. Karen, Ms. Jennifer, Ms. Alison, Ms. Annlee, Ms. Donna & Ms. Beth. I am thankful for you! 

Reading children's writing is my favorite thing to read and children's poetry probably tops the list. I believe kids are the most creative people. Students walk through the door asking when it's time to write poetry and there are groans when writing time is over. Kids are writing during recess and pinning their poems on our "Poet Tree." Through the "Doors of Poetry" we have learned how to see through Poet's eyes. We open the Heart Door, Observation Door, Memory Door, Question Door and the Concerns About the World Door to guide the vantage point of our poems. I hope your child is inspired to write poems over the break. We will continue our poetry unit when we return to school and plan to celebrate our published pieces with you. 

*We will continue to study fractions after break and then geometry
* We launched our PBL unit on WHALES. Ask your child about paper mache whales, blubber and what they've learned so far. I have our "Wonders" posted on the PBL tab of my website
* Winter Progress reports went home on Friday. Please keep everything inside the envelope. Sign the envelope and return it to school. 


Enjoy the break and I'll see you on the 20th! 

Hello all,
Ms. Heike here. I just wanted to take a second and say thank you for all the kind words and the warm farewell this week. I have so enjoyed working with this class and getting to know you all over the past year. I will miss spending every day at QAE!
Wishing you all a fabulous break and rest of the year,
Ms. Heike 

Every morning this week our classroom has transformed into a talk show studio. I have really enjoyed how our kids have embraced this exercise by getting into their fairy tale character. The talk show forum is a way to recount stories from diverse cultures and determine their central message, lesson, or moral, demonstrate understanding of key details in a text, acknowledge different points of views of characters and how characters respond to events (Common Core Standards, ELA). A big thank you to our families for rehearsing at home, helping your child with their wardrobe, and for attending the shows. We hope to see you Friday morning for our Fairy Tale publishing party. It'll be an open-house from 9:15-9:45. 
The talk show "re-runs" will air on our Weebly sites soon. See your local listings for details!