4th / 5th grade

Our class has been hard at work researching Klamath County history for a historical fiction children’s book that we will be writing. Our book will feature Keno the dog, who after learning about Klamath County history in school, dreams that he is alive during the great time periods that led up to the area that we call home today.

Students are working in pairs and each pair is assigned a different time period, beginning with native tribal life before white settlement and leading all the way up to WWII. Students are using history books, newspaper articles, and journals to conduct their research. We also were fortunate enough to have some great guest speakers visit our class to share their knowledge. A very special thank you to Steve Mark, Perry Chocktoot, Barbara Dittman, and Todd Kepple.

We will begin writing our book in February and hope to see it published!

We have been learning about bones and muscles of the body and will continue our study after Winter Break. We will be looking at how scientists use what they know about how time spent in space affects the bones and muscles of astronauts and how they use that knowledge to help people with bone disorders on Earth.

This year for GIS Day, Chris Wayne taught our class about topography and specifically the topography of the United States. We learned that topography is the elevation of a landscape. Chris showed us how to read topography using a relief map, then he briefly went over the topography in the United States, pointing out majormountain systems and areas of low, flat land.

As you have read in our newsletter, students are each researching and creating a brochure for a state of their choice. Chris had students look at maps of their individual states to get an idea of the topography of their state. Chris also taught us how to read the scale bar on a map and students used the scale bar on their maps to measure the length and width of their states.

Our class had the pleasure of working with Cam, a Writer in Residence. Cam spent two days with our class teaching us about poetry. We learned how rhyme is used in poetry and how to listen for rhythm. Students enjoyed the enthusiasm that Cam brought to poetry writing. The students wrote their own poems and eagerly shared them with the class. Poems were fantastical, realistic, and some were just plain wacky!

Oct 2012 Newsletter

On our agriculture field trip we learned about Klamath Basin agriculture. We visited Gold Dust Potato farm in Malin. We toured the potato cleaning plant and learned that small potatoes are sent to Lays to be made into potato chips and large potatoes are sent to In and Out Burger for french fries! We also got to harvest potatoes. We found large potatoes, small potatoes, and oddly shaped potatoes.

After visiting Gold Dust, we visited the Tule Lake Wildlife Refuge. We learned how farmers and the Refuge partner up to protect wildlife and promote best farming practices.

Students investigated rotting logs looking for signs of life. We found centipedes, fungus, spiders, beetles, ants, and a huge bee!