Dump Tour

My kids are in love with the garbage man. Last week he was here to pick up our garbage and I brought out the wrong can. I asked him if he could wait while I got the other one. He said yes and dumped it for us. The kids had been watching out the window and came running outside. They said, "Was that so cool to talk to the garbage man?" I said, "Yea!" He's basically a celebrity around here, so a trip to the dump was a great place to go.

tour vests on


grass clippings and wood


writing assignment
I had the kids draw pictures and explain to me where garbage goes. They drew our garbage can, the garbage truck, the dump, the semi, and the landfill

We learned
-each garbage truck has to come and dump the garbage four times a day.
-four semis carry the garbage out to the landfill every day
-the trucks are weighed before entering the dump, this is how they determine how much to charge residents
-we are not required to recycle, but should
-paint cans, computers, tires, metal, and car oil and encouraged to bring and recycle ourselves
-grass clippings and wood are broken down and shipped off to be made into compost

Cheese Factory

We want to know
-how much milk does it take to make cheese
-what is Grandpa's favorite kind of cheese

What we did

toured the cheese factory

the cows


the milking room


the cheese making room


ice cream


writing assignment
I put four different kinds of cheese on the kid's plates. They had to taste each one and write about it or draw pictures to describe it. They then had to order them from their favorite to their least favorite. Some words they used to describe them- lots of holes, yellow, white, good, sharp. We used mozzerrella, swiss, ramano, and cheddar.

made mozzerrella

it was hot


stretching it


We learned
-it takes 8 lbs of milk to make 1 lb of cheese

Fish Hatchery

What we did
-we visited the fish hatchery and had a fun and interesting tour.
-talked about why we have fish hatcheries

watched video on fish hatcheries
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZlTJno8Of0

Writing Project
wrote stories, "If I Were a Fish in a Hatchery" was the prompt

Ezra
If I was a Fish I would live in a fish hatchery they would feed me there. They would clean the water there. They would give me food there. They also put me into the lake like a big waterslide. Like "Woo Hoo!" then splash and I'd be in the lake.

Livi
Once upon a time there was a fish named Livi. She was swimming in the water. She got put in the oldest fish hatchery. She got hurt when she got caught because they were not careful. When she got born she had a little fin so she could not swim. So she did not get any food for a day. She was very very hungry. The next day she found out that she could swim and she was very very happy. She ate and she ate and she ate and she ate. The next day she was great at swimming. When she came back into the lake she was so so happy. The end.

We learned

Noah

We saw the big hatcheries and the fish. We got to see bottles with eggs in them. When they cracked that's what they looked like. Then we saw the bigger fish. The one in the fish hatchery's fence, they showed us the biggest ones. The big ones were scared of us. After the fish get big they take them to the lakes and we won't see them unless we go fishing.

Ezra
The man showed us 6 fishes. He showed us pictures of whirley disease. It could be really bad for fishes. Once they all got whirley disease and they had to close the hatchery for 5 years. That's a lot, huh? Would you like if you had to close your job for 5 years? I wouldn't like it. Think about all these pretty rainbow disease that got it and it was sad. Humans can't get it.

Next we went to a big big big building. There were buckets full of teensy fish. In the next fish they were getting bigger. Then we went to the big one. The man caught a fish and showed us. He lives by the hatchery and his kids get to see the fish. He showed us this cool thing and the room was really loud and he showed us his tractor and pump. There was a big hose he connected so the fish could go through. All of these fish love water. When they are up on air, they can hold their breath longer than you can.

When the fish grow up they go to lakes. Next time we come almost the whole thing will be filled up. It's cool there's a waterfall that dumps it in. Sometimes the fish can jump over the cage.

Livi

At the fish hatchery we saw 6 fishes and they were not rainbow fish. They were a different kind, but I forgot what they were called. He said that some of those fish had died because they weren't in warm water. The whirley disease is when their body gets twisty.

Then we saw some rainbow fish. There were 1500 in the baby fish tank. When they got bigger they were rougher and wiggly. They were three months old. The rainbow fish were his favorite. Then we saw bigger fish. He caught one. He sometimes caught them with a net. The first one he caught by hand.

He showed us the pump that goes into the truck, then they take it to the lake. In the loud building the UV rays killed the germs.