Goodbye Election... Hello Creatures of the Night!

I know that you were waiting with baited breath to hear the results of 2A's Presidential election....

  

 With 63% of the vote, our class enthusiastically backed the Republican ticket of Romney/Ryan!

We were saddened to learn that our candidates did not fare quite as well in the national election ;)

All politics aside, this election was so much fun to study.  We learned about past presidents, studied the 3 branches of government, had spirited debates (Should the school year be only 3 months long?) and made paper models of that famous house on Pennsylvania Avenue.

And feel as you might about the confusing electoral college, it is an EXCELLENT source for some geography and math challenges.

Grace bravely begins our journey to chart and tally all 50 states.

We love this process because it combines state recognition, increasingly difficult addition, and some pretty fierce auditory comprehension.  Montana, mighty in size, has a mere 3 electoral votes.  Why is that?  What are the trends across our country?  Why do people vote Democrat in New England and Republican in the South?

Andrew colors just a line through Florida because the decision wasn't quite official this morning!

Success!  America charted.

But not without a whole ton of paper work!

                                                       So, Goodbye Elections Unit...


                                                   ... Hello, Creatures of the Night!

Bonus points if you can identify what the top right photo is.. the kids don't know it yet, but they'll be doing it soon!

We begin our study with bats.  Did you know that the biggest bat is the Samoan Flying Fox?  Its wingspan is 79 inches!  The smallest bat is the Bumblebee bat.  Bats even have thumbs.  They hunt by using their awesome echolocation abilities.  When they're flying erratically through the air, they're really master pilots, diving and twirling to catch their prey:  tasty moths, mosquitoes and flies.

Great illustrations to accompany your graphic organizer, Sophia!

These notes will help us out when it comes time to write a mini encyclopedia on some of the more interesting creatures of the night.


Check back to find out how our meal worm investigation goes!  This is the very first time I've tried it - these scientists are up for taking on some worms, but I don't know if I am...