National poetry month

It is national poetry month,  have fun and write some POEMS!

Otters

Otters are semi-aquatic fish eating animals. They eat fish, shellfish, and other small animals. They have slim bodies with webbed paws and short limbs. They have sharp claws on their feet too. They have soft and smooth fur that is special, it keeps them warm and dry when they go into water. They usually swim in freezing cold water. Otters are also playful animals who love to swim fast and play with others.

Gemstone of the Week

   Hey this is Matthew with gemstone of the week! Previously, the gemstone of the week was watermelon tourmaline. Now, the gemstone of the week is...... garnet! Garnet is the birthstone of January. To start it off, garnet is the name of a family of different types of minerals, and got its name from the pomegranate fruit. The minerals that make up garnet are almandine, pyrope, spessartine, grossular, and andradite. Because of their chemical difference, garnets can be made in most different colors other than blue, but they're mostly found shades of red. They are mostly found in Czechoslovakia, South Africa, USA, Australia, Brazil, and Sri Lanka. First, pyrope garnet was most popular in the 19th century, with a deep-red garnet. Spessartine garnet contains marvelous orange colors, and is often in jewelry. Different stones contain different shapes, and they have names for them. Almandine garnet crystallizes as icositetrahedrons. But the unique thing about these garnets is that they have a really deep color, but are transparent! Geology can be very different, especially with garnets! Andradite garnet can never be crystallized as gem-quality, or in jewelry. And finally, there is grossular garnets. It is said to look like gooseberries, and its name, grossular, came from the Latin word for gooseberry- grossularia. This is the wonderful world of garnets! Thank you for reading! Here's a picture of a garnet.

CD Making

In science, we all made either CD covers and backs, or we created songs for a CD. Every person in every team had to pitch in to finish the assignment on time. And to up the challenge, we were assigned a bird to make the theme of the cases with. My team was assigned the pigeon guillemot, a graceful and beautiful bird. After our finished project, I'm happy to say that I am pleased with my teams work.
                                                    -Blake

This week in science

Today we were assigned certain birds. We got the Pigeon Guillemot and it look like a duck not a pigeon.


This one is running on water. Its kind of like a stone skipping across a flat lake. They are beautiful birds. We all did work and Blake came in after we decided who was doing what. He demanded to do the front cover of our CD for teaching the other teams. So Savannah and him are creating it. So far Savannah's is the better one because Blake isn't cooperating and making his look like a real CD cover so Savannah wins. Hers is the whole page but she is going to make it look like a normal CD cover. I'm doing the back with the song list. I'm also doing the songs. I am doing more than everyone else but thats because I am a computer geek.

-Tyler

Yosemite National Park

Yosemite National Park is in california and gets many vistitors.  Beautiful water fall, and home to many plants and animals like bobcats and wolves.

As you can see,on the map above, yosemite has water falls, rivers, trails, and is a blast of fun. I have been to Yosemite, the weather is nice, the air is fresh, and every where you look, you see beauty. Yosemtite has a neat museum, pioner history center, i could explode giving all the things to do.

Gemstone of the Week

   Hey it's Matthew again with gemstone of the week! Previously, I was talking about diamonds. But now, the gemstone of the week is... watermelon tourmaline! You might think this is a weird name for a gemstone, but it is actually a specific form of tourmaline. Tourmaline is a mineral with a complex chemistry. It has unusual shapes most often, and it crystallizes as prisms with flat or wedge-shaped bases. It usually looks like an odd cylinder, but rarely it can be different. The unique thing about tourmaline is that it has the greatest color range of any gemstone, and some crystals are more than one color. This is when we get into watermelon tourmaline. Watermelon tourmaline has pink cores and green outer zones. If you've ever seen a cut gemstone with two different colors, imagine that with pink and green. Surprisingly, I don't have watermelon tourmaline yet, but that is because it is a bit expensive for it to be a fascinating exception. Thank you so much for reading!
                                        

The Test

In session 3, the earth science classes had to take an eleven question, mostly essay test that we had the whole class time to take. Most of the students finished their test way before the deadline.
I asked what Tyler Moroney thought of the test. He replied, "The test was somewhat hard, but I made it through okay. I'd be fine taking it again, as it had only eleven questions. If only they weren't essay questions!"
I believe that the test was one that you don't fret about once you are told that there are only eleven questions. I breezed by it, waiting for lunch. And, that was the last earth science test of the year! So rejoice, sixth graders, and be patient, the end of the year is almost here.

                                          -Blake


 

Invasive Species Argentinian Ants

The Argentinian Ants are the most invasive insects in California right now. They take the native ants territory, eat the old ants food, and continue on.

This ant is what looks like a sponge getting the water.

They seem common but they were transferred from someone with soil or plants which had the ant eggs in them as they came back from Argentina. Over time the ants have genetically evolved into "super" colonies that have really impacted the native ants. Native Species like the horned lizard that eat Harvester ants are having a hard time because the Argentinian ants have taken over the Harvester ant colonies and the horned lizard has to adapt to a different food.

 

-Tyler

San Francisco Bay invaders

In session two, we learned about how invasive species are taking over the San Francisco Bay area. The San Francisco Bay has many ships siphoning through it daily, an estimated 30,000 a year. With all of those ships came tons and tons of ballast water, which was dumped into the bay, bringing in all sorts of possibly damaging creatures. We watched a video on this, and it was very interesting.

                            -Blake

Gemstone of the Week

  Hey, it's Matthew with gemstone of the week! Previously, the gemstone of the week was sapphire, and I was also talking about the history of birthstones. So now, the gemstone of the week is......diamond! Anyone who's birthday is in April, your birthstone is diamond. Diamond is one of the best known gemstones, and actually from the ancient Greek word adamas, meaning unbreakable. Diamond is actually the hardest stone known. Because of its hardness and dispersion of light, it's useful for industrial applications and for jewelry. Diamonds have been used for many purposes since ancient times because of its uniqueness. They used to be very scarce, and only found in India, but it spread throughout the world. The price and use of diamonds are depended on the four Cs, carat, cut, color, and clarity. That's all I have to say today, but I couldn't have explained everything, because diamonds have too big of a history! If you're interested and want to learn more, go to the link at the bottom.
                           http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond_%28gemstone%29

                                              Thank you so much for reading!!!

This week in science

This week we used the Jenga blocks and some had green representing dead plants, red representing air pollution, yellow representing toxic waste, and blue representing dead animals. It was fun but it was mostly about the damage to our ecosystem and how much of it is caused by use humans.This is what we cause, is a poor bear our on its own and has to swim as soon as that ice berg melts and will freeze. This is all from driving cars to much and burning oil which eventually creates the image above. Now they are highly endangered. They are the top of the food chain in the Arctic and if they aren't there then a whole bunch of things will be laying on the ground dead.

Mud skippers

Mud skippers are amphibious fish that can use their fins to walk on land. Mud skippers are very active out of water, feeding and interacting with each other. they are found in tropical, subtropical, and temberate places. they have many amphibian traits, like: the ability to breathe through their skin, and being able to live on land and in water. These are strange but ver cool fish!!!

-savanah

This week in science

In Session 1 we had a great presentation on the food web then a test on what we learn from a Bill Nye video. This is a food web that is really explained to who eats who. We stay alive from looking at the food pyramid. This is how other smaller thing stay alive. Its really amazing.