We're going to GREFA!

On Wednesday, June 1st, we are going to visit GREFA, the wildlife rehabilitation centre. It's a hospital for wild animals!   We afre going to learn about the work they do, what kind of animals they help, and lots more.

Here is a link to their website.

 
What do you think this animal is?  Why is it a problem?


Topillo campesino  Common vole

It is a species that has invaded the northern meseta (Castilla Leon),  creating problems for farmers. The population grew very quickly, so to control it, poison was used. But, this had some bad effects on other animals, too.


GREFA has helped to control the problem using natural predators:








 You can read about it here.

While we are there, think about:

--Were any of the animals there affected by changes to their environment?  What type?

Natural changes: seasonal changes, naturally-caused fires in the chaparral ecosystem….

Changes due to human activity: pollution, overfishing, forest fires, deforestation….

--What ecosystems and habitats do we learn about?

--What do the animals eat? Where do they fit on a food chain?

The Black vulture (buitre negro) is an animal that is in danger of extinction. Humans crowded it out of its habitat.   The population of this animal is very low, but GREFA is working to protect it.

What other endangered animals are being helped?

How can we help wild animals?

What is a food web?

We talked about food chains, but what is a food web?





A song!

Biosphere to organism

Here is a graphic representation of some of the concepts and vocabulary we have been studying.




Upside down!




World biomes:

Ecosystem art

These paintings represent different ecosystems.

Joan Miro, The Wagon Tracks

Paul Gauguin, Tahitian Landscape

Henri Rousseau, Surprised

Georgia O'Keefe, Black Mesa Landscape, New Mexico – Out Back of Mary`s II  

Rockwell Kent:   May, North Greenland, 1935-37

On Friday you are going to paint an ecosystem. You have to choose one and think about the non-living things (biotope) and living things (biocoenosis) that you are going to paint. Think about what types of colours you will need: warm colours, cool colours...

More ecosystems!

In our book we learn about pond, woodland, coast, prairie, and city ecosystems, but there are many more. 

Warm Desert Ecosystem:



Webpage for kids about desert ecosystems



Taiga:

IB Geography - Ecosystems. Biomes - Taiga aka Coniferous forest from karoliine




Cold desert (tundra) ecosystems:





Rainforest ecosystems:




Which one would you like to visit?

Paper weaving

For Art we are going to do this:




You will need a ruler and scissors and glue.

A coastal ecosystem

Dunes (non-living: biotope)  and dune grasses (living thing: biocoenosis)






Image credit

A pond skater

Here is a picture of a pond skater.



Have you ever seen one?

Our city ecosystem

Check out this webcam of the stork's nest on the City Hall building!

English test

You will have an English test on Friday, 27th of May. On the test will be:

Gerunds  

--I like travelling

--He avoids washing the dishes.

--It won't stop raining

  To study, use the exercises and examples from the book, workbook, and your notebook

2nd conditional  

--If I had  money, I would buy a guitar. 

--f it wasn't raining, we could go outside.

Questions

--With do/does/did  and is/are/was/were

Reported speech
--She said that she was interested in animals.
--He said that he didn't have enough money

and also possibly some vocabulary, reading comprehension, listening...  I will tell you soon.

Trophic relationships

The relationships between organisms that eat and organisms that are eaten are called trophic relationships.

A food chain shows the trophic relationships between different organisms.

What do you know about food chains?  

Where you see the arrow, substitute the words "is eaten by."




The maize is eaten by the locust. The locust is eaten by the lizard. The lizard is eaten by the snake.

What happens to the snake when it dies? It is broken down by decomposers (fungi and bacteria).

Try this game.

Learn about terrestrial ecosystems and play a game.

Make some food chains.




A song!

Money Money Money!

That's right!  In Social Science, we are going to study....Money!!!




What would you do if you had a lot of money????

Remember the Second Conditional...

If I had a lot of money, I would...

Second conditional

Let's practice the second conditional!  Remember the form:

If + past tense / would + verb

Second conditional from maypulido

Exercises:

Poor William!

Choose the correct form

Song

Grid drawing enlargement method

In the Renaissance, artists used grids to keep proportions accurate. We are going to practice using the grid method to enlarge a drawing.




Here is an example:


From: Free-for-kids.com

Experiment time!

You are going to do an experiment at home using the Scientific Method. Remember:

1. Make an observation.   Apple slices turn brown when exposed to air.

2. Question: What is the best way to keep apple slices from turning brown?

3. Hypothesis: I think the best way to keep apple slices from turning brown is to cover them with ......

4. Experiment: Cut six apple slices and cover each one with something different. 
    --Slice one: control. Nothing
    --Slice two: water mixed with 1 spoonful salt
    --Slice three: water mixed with 1 spoonful lemon juice
    --Slice four: plain water
    --Slice five: water mixed with 1 spoonful honey
    --Slice six: your choice! vinegar, milk, baking soda (bicarbonato) etc.

   Leave the apple slices out for 1 hour.   

5. Results. After 1 hour, take photos of the apple slices or draw them.  

6. Conclusion. The best way to keep apple slices from turning brown is:

 
Image credit: Left Brain Craft Brain


If you want, you can invent your own experiment.  Just be sure to use the steps of the Scientific Method!

You need to complete the Experiment Report that I gave you in class and also hand in a second paper with photos or drawings of your results, before and after the experiment.

Social Science test

Here is what you have to study for your test:

--Important events and characteristics of the 17^th century

--Spanish Golden Age 1580- 1660

--The Renaissance: characteristics and artists

--Baroque: characteristics and artists

--Baroque literature: two important writers

--Important events of the 17^th century

--Important events of the 18^th century

--Kings and what they did

--validos

--absolute monarchies and enlightened despotism

-- War of Spanish Succession

--Age of Enlightenment

Good luck!

Visit the Prado with your computer

If you want to see some of the amazing works from the Prado Museum (built during the reign of Charles III) you can do it on your computer or tablet.

Here is the link to the online collection. Enjoy!

We are going to look at some of the Renaissance portraits in the Museum.


Murillo, Nicolas Omazur


El Greco, Caballero con la mano en pecho

Here is one that is not from the Prado (it is in the National Gallery in London.)



We can see many objects in the painting that are symbols. Can you see the skull?

About the painting    More

Our experiment

After you left today, look what happened!  This picture was taken at 14:30 pm:

The balloon with the sugar, water, and yeast inflated, but the other two did not. So our conclusion can be:

Yeast needs sugar and water to carry out the function of nutrition.

Galileo!

Watch this video about Galileo Galilei, an important scientist and astronomer of the Renaissance.

The Scientific Revolution!

The Enlightenment was a cultural, scientific and political movement that developed in France in the 18th century and spread throughout Europe.

The Scientific Revolution gave us new ways of studying science, such as the Scientific Method.



Here is a short (and a bit silly) video about the famous story of Isaac Newton. Can you identify the steps of the Scientific Method?

A walk in the mountains

Yesterday I went for a walk in the mountains, and guess what I saw!

Some fungi!  A mushroom: you can see the stem and the gills.

I also found some mosses. In some of the pictures you can even see the spore capsules.

And I saw some ferns, but they are still very small because they are just starting to grow in the spring. They don't have any spore capsules yet,  There were also some old, dry ones from last year.

I hope you had a nice break!