Earth Day- April 22nd

 If you log onto Google today, you will see a special animation celebrating our home: the Earth. 

This year´s Google video talks about bees! They are some of the most important pollinators. Click through to watch the video and play the game where you pollinate flowers. 

On Earth day, we remember to appreciate the environment, but we should take care of our planet every day. 

Climate change is the biggest factor that is impacting the Earth. This is when the air gets polluted due to greenhouse gases.

What happens inside of a greenhouse?

Greenhouses heat up, so pollution like excessive carbon dioxide are trapped in the Earth's atmosphere and keep heat in. This affects the weather, not only by heating up the Earth, but by also making it extremely cold too. 

This has an impact on animals' habitats and on humans too. 

Read about some animals that are affected here. 

What are some things we can do to protect our planet? 

What happens after a forest fire?

 In evergreen or "coniferous" forests, which are forests full of gymnosperms, some trees have adapted to only "mature" or let their seeds out when exposed to heat. 

This means that during a fire, it will release its seeds from a cone.

These are called "serotinous cones". Read more about them below:

"In environments where hot, fast moving fires are frequent, some pine species have developed very thick, hard cones that are literally glued shut with a strong resin. These “serotinous” cones can hang on a pine tree for years, long after the enclosed seeds mature. Only when a fire sweeps through, melting the resin, do these heat-dependent cones open up, releasing seeds that are then distributed by wind and gravity."
(National Forest Foundation)

Watch this video to see how the cones open up with heat to release their seeds.

First Day of Spring- March 21st

 

St. Patrick's Day in San Diego

 March 17th is St. Patrick's day or "St. Paddy's Day". It is given that nickname because the name "Patrick" is the English version of the Irish Gaelic name "Pádraig", and the nickname for Pádraig is Paddy.

This is an Irish celebration, because St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland, like the Virgen de la Almudena is the patron saint of Madrid. So why I am talking about the way we celebrate this holiday in the USA?

More than 30 million people in the USA are of Irish descent-- this means that someone in their family came from Ireland. This way, the Irish community gets to celebrate their heritage and traditions, and share their culture with other Americans. 

Some traditional food is corned beef and cabbage: 

The shamrock is a symbol of St. Patrick's Day. Nowadays, the holiday focuses on the green color of the shamrock.

Today, in the USA, it has turned into a cultural celebration. Some companies give away free "green food" and in Chicago, the water in the river "turns green" for the day. 

Watch this video about the celebration in San Diego, where I'm from:

HOMOPHONES

 Here is our Jamboard. Add your homophones to this page: 👉    jamboard

Carnaval in Spain, Mardi Gras in the USA

 Today we talked about Pancake Day in the UK. Here's a poem about pancakes:

Pancake Poem

by Shel Silverstein

Who wants a pancake, Sweet and piping hot?

Good little Grace looks up and says,

"I'll take the one on top."

Who else wants a pancake,

Fresh off the griddle?

Terrible Teresa smiles and says,

"I'll take the one in the middle."

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 In the USA, we celebrate "mardi gras" or Fat Tuesday. 

This festival is from New Orleans, Louisiana. It is only an official holiday in Louisiana, but people have parties all over the United States to celebrate Mardi Gras. 

The Mardi Gras colors are gold, green and purple, which represent power, faith, and justice. There are special foods, like beignets (fried dough with sugar), and cakes shaped in ovals with a plastic baby inside, similar to Roscon de Reyes. 

Here is a video explaining some of the Carnival/mardi gras celebrations in New Orleans. You can see some of the floats that make up part of the parades:

Watch this video about New Orleans culture surrounding mardi gras. So we've seen that people join groups with themes for the parade, or "krewes"

 It has a very different culture than the rest of the United States, due to the mixing of African and French cultures in the area and the geography of the city. This celebration is not only marking the beginning of the Catholic month of fasting called "Lent", but is also part of Voodoo culture and beliefs, which Louisiana is known for. 
You may have heard of Voodoo before in movies like Princess and the Frog, which is set in New Orleans. It is stereotyped as dark magic, but it is a culture that is part of the festival and its history. 

Black History Month

 February is Black History Month in the United States.

This means, during February, students in the USA learn about Black history in the country. 

Every year since 1976, the president chooses a theme. This year, it is "Black Health and Wellness".  We celebrate the knowledge and contributions of the African diaspora by learning about important figures. 

For example, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was an important figure that advocated for peace and equality.

Does he remind us of someone that we learned about for Peace Day? 

Every week, I will post an activity that has to do with what we learn in class related to Black history. 


This week, I want you to read along with Misty Copeland, the first African American Female Principal Dancer with the American Ballet Theatre. 

She struggled to become a ballerina because of the way her body looked, even though she was healthy and talented. 

This video is her reading a book about how she started dancing, and the first ballet performance she ever gave: