Arctic Tale [Class Response #2]

Recently in science, we watched a movie called "Arctic Tale". Although the Arctic is home to hundreds of animals, this movie only follows Nanu, a polar bear cub and Seela, a walrus pup through their life in their natural habitat. The movie captures the two young animals as they grow up and face life and its many problems. As the world around them gradually melts away due to Global Warming, the two animals must find a way to survive and adapt to their changing world. Nanu and Seela encountered difficult situations throughout their lives, but in the end they both learn and adapt.

This movie is touching as well as informational. It gives us a glimpse of Nanu and Seela's tough life in the Arctic and shows us how our actions (Global Warming) greatly affect the Arctic and many other areas.

Weather Poem [Extra Credit]

Who Has Seen The Wind?
by Christina Rossetti

Who has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you:
but when the leaves hang trembling
the wind is passing through.
Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I:
but when the trees bow down their heads
the wind is passing by.

This poem is called "Who Has Seen The Wind?" by Christina Rossetti. It is a short poem based entirely on weather, specifically about wind and without the mention of wind in the poem, it simply would have no meaning. Through the poem, the poet tries to imply that wind may be invisible, but if you look around, you can easily see it. In regards to weather, personification, a literary technique is used. The line "..but when the leaves hang trembling" & "..but when the trees bow down their heads" both show personification as living/human qualities, such as trembling and bowing, are given to non-living things. This poem did not further my knowledge about the wind, but it was a very descriptive and well-written poem.

SOURCE:
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/education/primary/students/poems.html

Kites [Class Response #1]

Recently in science, we have been learning about weather. As an activity to help us learn some concepts in weather, we made kites and took it outside to fly. The first part was to make a kite, which we thought would fly, with construction paper that was at least 20cm on all sides. Then we decorated it with an original title for the kite that was related to weather and 5 weather symbols such as hail, rain, sleet, wind speed, etc. We also wrote a paragraph about why we think kites fly.The second part was going outside. During class, we went outside to fly our kites. There was very little wind so our kites did not fly very well. Afterwards we were given a worksheet and had to answer the questions. We learned how the local winds, mostly the sea breeze affects us and why kites fly better by the beach.This activity, which was fun and interesting, really helped us learn about the different types of winds and what it affects.