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Mrs. Valerio's Science Class |
Classroom News
Mr. Jonathan Duda visited our science classes this week. He presented a program called “Let’s Drum” to students in science classes 4-7. We set up our classroom so that we were all seated in a circle. Everyone was handed a drum. The fourth graders, because they are studying animals and adaptations, talked about adaptations and how it aides in survival and how music has adapted to changes over the years. The fifth and sixth graders, because they are studying the human body, practiced the heart beat to simulate blood and oxygen flowing through the circulatory system, neurons traveling through the nervous system and the rhythms of breathing. Everyone enjoyed this special program funded by the Arts in Education as a result of a grant written by Mrs. Valerio and Mrs Valenti
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The weekly newsletters are written by the Trout Checkers of the week.
Week of 1/14
Trout checkers: Kali, Tori, Chandi, Baily and George
Mrs. Valerio had to put the insulation back on the tank to keep the trout cool. The trout are okay now that the insulation is cooling them off. The water is clear. The trout are getting their parr marks. They are a little bigger. No more have died. There is one really big fish. It is bigger than all of the rest. The temperature today was 10 degrees C. The pumps are all plugged in and working. The trout are getting bigger.
Week of 1/21
Trout Checkers: Brandi, Tori, Kali and Devin
The temperature of the tank is 50 degrees F. The water is clear. There are no dead trout. The water is clear and the correct level. The trout go big. The trout got longer. The trout are getting bigger every day, We did a chemical test. The pH level and the dissolved oxygen levels are fine. The trout are almost to the next stage
Trout Checkers of the Week: Halley, Sonam, Morgan and Nick
The trout are a little bit bigger. No more of the trout have died. They now have their parr marks. We love the trout! There are a lot of trout. They are getting bigger every day. The average temperature for the week was 10 degrees Celsius. We saw one of the bigger trout eat one of the smaller ones!
Week of 12/20
There are about 63 trout. The temperature is 14 degrees Celsius. Now it is easy for them to eat fish food. It is easier to see the trout's fins. The trout can swim faster. All of the pumps are all working well. The water is clear and at the right level. The trout are swimming better now. Some of them hide in the rock beds. They are black. No more died this week. They are in the early fry stage now.
Week of 12/10
Trout checkers: Jeffrey, Taylor, Isaiah, Morgan and Sonam
The trout with the crooked spine died on Monday. The temperature of the tank is 14 degrees C and 53 degrees F. About 20 of the trout have died so far. They are now in the fry stage. All of the equipment is plugged in and running fine. The water is clear. We can begin to see the stripes on the trout. They are parr marks.
Week of 12/3
Trout checkers: Aiden, Jeffrey, Isaiah, Taylor and Morgan
We have approximately 84 live trout in the tank. They are getting a lot bigger. They are getting much darker. They are eating their food. You can see the fins on their sides. The temperature of the water is 55 degrees F. That is 18 degrees C. Everything is plugged in and working fine. The trout with the crooked spine is still alive. They are eating all of the food that we feed them. They can swim a lot faster now. You can begin to see their stripes. We hope that all of the fish live.
No more of the trout have died this week. They are changing colors. They have a different color on the top. They all are a lot bigger. They are all swimming a lot. 84 trout are alive. Everything is plugged in and working well. The water is clear. They have been eating their food. The temperature is just right. It is 50 F and 15 C. They are swimming a lot. All of them are about the same size. On Friday we will do the chemical testing. We are happy that the trout are alive!
Aiden Cohane, Jeffrey Vining, Jordan Baran, Isaiah Chura and Taylor Treece
Week of 11/12 Anthony Y, Jordan, Aiden, Taylor, Jeffrey
Today none of the trout are dead. Mrs. Valerio put fish food in for the first time and they were eating it. The trout have their fins and they are a lot bigger. Their yolk sacs are almost gone. They are all swimming around. They are darker colors than they were. They have stripes on them. The stripes are on the top and sides of them. We hope that all of the trout will live. We checked all of the trout. They are almost frys.
11/16 TODAY THEY ARE FRYS! They are swimming all around the tank. One of them has a crooked spine. No trout are dead-YEAH!
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 The Alevin have been growing. They are bigger and they are now brown. We did the water (chemical) tests today. The pH was 8.3 and the dissolved oxygen was 10ppm. |
We got our trout eggs on the 12 th of October. One week later, some began to hatch. Everything has been good. On Monday we found 3 dead eggs. Mrs. Valerio took them out and showed them to us.
This week we have seen some differences. Some of the alevins have gotten gibber. Today approximately 85 alevins are alive and 1 more died this week Everything is plugged in and running well. Some of the alevins still have their yolk sacs. All of the alevins are out of their eggs. Some of them are using up their yolk sacs. There are now 85 alevin alive in our tank.
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junior Science Club News
On November 3 members of the Junior Science Club participated in a stream restoration project with Greene County Soil and Water. We went to the Conine Reach of the Batavia Kill outside of Windham where we helped to plant nearly 2000 trees! As you can see by the pictures, we all had a great time.
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The Junior Science Club had it's second meeting on October 23, 2007. We were very lucky to have 6 members of the Columbia-Greene Chapter of Trout Unlimited. They showed the students how to tie flies and cast a fly pole. The weather did not cooperate so we casted in the gym! While one group was busy with the guys from Trout Unlimited, the other group was busy working with Mrs. Valentine creating some fabulous wall hangings of fish painting! We came up with the idea of fish painting after trying the technique at the Batavia Kill Stream Festival this past summer. Mrs. Valentine had them paint with fish onto a placemat then add the background for their creations. They are really awesome!
HOMEWORK
Mrs. Valerio’s notes: We have started out Catskill Connections Binders with a section for trout. We will be adding to this throughout the year. The 4 th graders have taken home the outlines for their trout projects that are due on April 25.
Check current homework assignments at
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4th Grade
RESOURCES
