Artic Animals

                                                  Arctic Animals

Will ringed seals and polar bears go extinct? Ring seals are polar bear's main food source. Polar bears and ringed seals are becoming endangered because of climate change.

Climate change is caused by warmer temperatures in Earth's atmosphere. Parts of the Arctic are melting! Seals, polar bears, and many more Arctic animals need the ice to survive. The atmosphere is trapping heat which is called greenhouse gasses. People make these types of gases by burning fossil fuels which are coal, oil, and natural gas. Ice and snow are important to arctic animals in many ways. For example, "lairs" are an adaptation that ringed seals use to build a shelter for their pups. The ringed seals need at least eight inches of snow to build their lairs, but with the warming world they can't build their lairs. Ringed seals may need to travel farther north to snowier and colder areas to build their lairs. Ringed seals may have to learn how to raise and shelter their pups on land. Seals eat arctic cod and these types of fish are dying out because the ocean plants that cod feed on to survive are killed as the ice melts. 

To help these animals you and your family can cut down on how much fossil fuels you use.You can help by using clean energy which is a way to have power without harming the environment. You can also use wind turbines to provide power. There can be a few problems with the wind turbines. The problems are that they are huge and take up a lot of land that means that they're forcing animals out of their habitats.Scientists have built wind turbines in oceans to avoid hurting the habitats of plants and animals on land.
      Another thing you can do to help  earths plants and animals,is solar panels on your house. The energy from the sun light will turn into electronic power which is clean energy.

 Resources used: "Science Spin: Life Without Ice?" December 2014

Written and typed by: Kasey Boettger and Charlotte Bohnenberger

Edited by: Emerson Fraser and Miss.Martin 

Amazing Animals!

   Horses
  Horses are mammals meaning they are warm blooded and give live birth. Horses travel in groups that are guarded by a stallion or a male horse. Wild horses flee or escape when predators  are near.

Dolphins
 Dolphins are marine mammals which means they spend their lives in the ocean BUT they still have to come up for air. They are special because they  give birth to live young tale first instead of head first.  They are warm blooded or endothermic. Dolphins travel hunt and play in a group called a pod. Dolphins hunt with an ability called echolocation or sonar. 

Parrots 
 Parrots are brightly colored birds that have sharp beaks to crack open nuts and clean their feet. They are also highly intelligent especially in captivity where you can train them to do many things. Right now many parrots have no homes because people keep  on putting them back into the shelters and sanctuary  because people don't have enough time to spend with their parrots. Parrots think of their owners as a mate. Parrots mate for life.      
 Polar Bears
 Polar bears are smart mammals that know how to swim, fish, and  hunt for food. All these actions  are natural instincts. These instincts help the polar bear survive the harsh winter of Antarctica.  Polar bears have long necks so they can snatch their prey. They also have thick white fur along with fat so they can stay warm.

Owls
 Owls can't turn their heads all the way around, but they can turn it a remarkable amount. Owls are birds of prey,or raptors with hooked beaks to eat their victims. Owls also have strong wings to swoop down and grab their prey. Lastly they have talons. If owls didn't have talons and just had normal bird like feet, they would starve to death.

Giraffes
   A giraffe's neck has thirteen vertebrates and is very long. Giraffes also have a long purple tongue so it wont get sun burned. The neck is for reaching leaves while the tongue is for avoiding the thorns at the top. They also have very long legs to also reach for the trees.
 


Dogs
  Dogs come in many different shapes colors and sizes. The Great Dane is the biggest breed of dog.Some dogs are called mutts which means there a cross breed. Some dogs a breed for a purpose for example blood hounds are good for tracking deer and other animals. Other dogs are bred for their looks.

Walruses 
 

   Walruses are marine mammals, meaning a female gives live birth. Walruses eat fish from the ocean. The male walruses have gigantic teeth for fighting while its mating season. 

Fish
   Fish are cold blooded animals that live in the ocean. Fish lay eggs instead of giving live birth. Fish come in many different shapes, colors and sizes. For example the whale shark is the biggest fish in the world and its average length is fifty feet. Don't worry though, the whale shark only feeds on plankton. Another example is the Bull Shark which is the most dangerous shark because it can go in both salt and fresh water like rivers. 

Hippos
   Hippos are not that cute little animal you thought they were. Hippos can bite a crocodile in two. Hippos are very protective of their young and they kill over 100 people a year. You might think hippos are very slow and fat, but they can run up to twenty miles per hour.

Blob Fish
  A blob fish is in fact a predator, but doesn't actually move. It just holds its mouth open and hopes for prey to wonder in and then snaps it mouth closed. The blob fish doesn't have bones, so that's why it's called the blob fish. The blob fish lives in deep sea, or the twilight zone. 

Insects
  Insects only have six legs and have an exoskeleton. Most insects die after laying eggs. Insects can also have more than two eyes. For example the scorpion has eight eyes. Insects have the widest variety of species in the world.

Spiders

 
   Spiders have eight legs and eight eyes which you might think is good for the spiders vision, but actually makes it harder for them to see. Some spiders are very poisonous and can kill a human while other spiders are harmless. Some species like the Huntsman Spider travel in unique ways including cartwheeling and what looks like a handspring!

By: Rachel and Grace
Edited by: Ms. Martin and Emerson 

 
               

Checking in...

                           “RADICAL REMINDERS”

Dear Families,                                                            5-5-15

     Tomorrow we are having “No Waste Wednesday” in the classroom. We have been learning about how we can help the environment, where our energy and materials come from, and where our trash goes when we are finished. We will try our best to bring in snacks that are in a reusable container or are able to be composted. Our goal is to have no waste at snack at the end of the year. We will hold “No Waste Wednesday” on Wednesdays, but we will try to have no waste everyday. Remember we can have sweet snacks that are pre-packaged like granola bars and “fruit snacks”, but whole fruit snacks like strawberries, apples, and bananas are better for the environment and for our bodies.

      Also, we would like to remind everyone that this Friday we will be having an important visitor so please dress professionally and respectfully( you could pack extra clothes for recess). Our important guest, Mrs. Marden will be telling the class about her job as a coastal geologist and how she is trying to prevent erosion, especially at the Popponesset Spit in Mashpee which has been hit hard during the winter blizzards. We will also be sharing our erosion projects with her!

     Love, Emerson and Sadie   Edited by: Ms. Martin’s homeroom

High School Visitors

     

The class poses with the 3 visitors for a photo.

   On the last day of March, something incredible happened!! Three Mashpee High School girls taught Miss. Manning and Ms. Martin's classes about the types of engineering they do at their school. What they do at their school in STEM is much different from what we do here in 4th grade. It isn't different in a bad way, we just don't have the large machines that they have to create technologies. Instead, we do it the old fashioned way so we can get ready for the machines at the high school. They use these machines to create amazing objects that can be big or small. Our favorite object they made was an adorable wooden penguin.



   Oh, by the way the girls' names are... Kelly, Brittany, and Emma. They work as a team of engineers because they all have their difficulties and strengths. They can share ideas for improving or creating new objects. The girls also shared with us pictures of the equipment that is in the STEM area at the high school. From a 3D printer in the STEM lab, the girls created a miniature penguin. They had a slab with each of the individual pieces of the penguin on it.  

                                                     

   We were very inspired by their work. All of us are really excited to enter high school and engineer different things with new equipment. We are also excited to be able to choose our own subjects and schedules. Choosing their own subjects helps them learn more about a career for their future. Not all of the girls want to be an engineer. One wants to be a businesswoman and just wants to do engineering for a hobby. The other girls still want to do engineering, but they aren't doing the same subject of engineering. One wants to be a "mechanical engineer". A mechanical engineer is an engineer that works with moving technologies such as engines in a car. The last girl wants to be a "civil engineer". A civil engineer designs non-moving technologies like bridges, canals, dams, and roads. 

They explained how they made the penguins by using our classroom Eno board.

Here are 2 examples of a toy penguin. One was made on the wood shop "Shop Bot" and finished by hand.  The other penguin was made in the plastic 3-D printer.

Written by: Jillian, Sadie, and Ms. Martin.
Edited by: Victoria

Squirrel Monkeys

   Squirrel monkeys can live in groups up to 10-70, but they can also be in groups 100-300. They are shy and don't fight. They rarely squeak, but when they are scared they make small squeaks. They will rarely come to the ground, but they will come down sometimes to get food. They eat bugs, bird eggs, small birds, fruit and nuts. They mostly eat soft small tropical fruits. 
 They leap from tree to tree with their small hind legs. Their legs help them have more force when they jump. The baby squirrel monkeys will cling on their mothers back and let the mom do the climbing job. 
   These monkeys are in terrible danger do to habitat loss. This is because some of these monkeys live in Costa Rica and this area has less than 2,000 animals there. Luckily they are raising money to save animals there. 
  Body: They are skinny and built to have a short gray warm coat. Most of the body is yellow and grayish and green. They have 36 teeth. Males have k-9 teeth at the top. These monkeys have nails in stead of claws. They have been called small nervous monkeys. The length of its body is 9 to 19 inches long. Their tail is about 14 to 19 inches long. Just so you know squirrel monkeys don't look like squirrels at all.