Welcome to our class BLOG for 2014-15! This year, our Grade 4/5 class will engage in a variety of projects that fulfill curriculum expectations, while providing outreach that benefits the community and beyond.
Our first outreach project is a "food drive" to assist three local wildlife rehabilitation centres, by providing natural food for orphaned wildlife that will be overwintering with them before being released back into the wild. Orphaned animals need to be provided with the food they will eat in the wild, so they know what to look for after they are released. Our food contributions will go a long way toward educating and sustaining baby animals throughout the winter months.
Our class is taking the lead in advertising and organizing Rama Central's 2nd annual food drive for wildlife. Students from Kindergarten through Grade 8, as well as school staff, are encouraged to collect and contribute items such as acorns, pine cones, maple keys, apples, sumac, black walnuts and corn to the cause.
On October 6th, the deadline for bringing in food, our class will begin a multi-faceted math project that will involve estimating how many of each item we collected, based on weight and/or volume, and calculating how long our food will last if fed to particular types of animals.
When the math project is complete, Mrs. Black will drive our food contributions to Aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary, in Rosseau, Shades of Hope Wildlife Refuge, in Pefferlaw, and Woodlands Wildlife Sanctuary, in Minden.
Here are some images of students counting flyers and preparing announcements, posters and our hallway display, to advertise our food drive. (Click any photo to enlarge it.)
Here are some of the beautiful posters students created, to decorate the school. (Click any photo to enlarge it.)
Day 1 of our food drive, and the contributions are already coming in! Today we received a bucket of acorns and several dozen pine cones. (Click any photo to enlarge it.)
Thank you for visiting our class BLOG. If you have any questions or comments, feel free e-mail me (Margaret Black): mblack@scdsb.on.ca or to add a comment to this page.
Way to go students of Mrs Blacks class! We are so happy to be the recipients once again of your hard work in collecting all these delicious foods for our over-wintering wildlife. You cannot imagine how much time and effort you save us with your contributions. Each and every acorn, maple key, pine cone, walnut etc is so important to their diet and is relished by our squirrels, whitetail deer fawns and other juveniles that have to spend their first winter with us. Thank You, and wishing you all great success and a bountiful collection. The animals thank you too!
Monika Melichar
What a fabulous project!!
Thank you Students of Mrs Blackl!! All of the animals here at SOH will eat well this winter. It is so important to be able to give them the same nutrition that they would normally be looking for in the wild. This will help them get strong and well. Our porcupine and ground hog especially thank you along with lots of young squirrels!
Good luck with your collection!
Gail Lenters