Not-So-Lazy Days of Summer: Oceans week 1

Friday, June 17, 2016

Oceans week 1 | snapshot

Many of you may remember at the end of the regular school year we held Dollars for Libby where we raised $80 to help Libby Hankins with her lung transplant journey. We received a thank you note from Libby last week, which is pictured below!!! J

To catch everyone up:

Some of you are already familiar with Lungs for Libby for Libby Hankins who is a 22 year old senior at The University of West Alabama in Livingston, Alabama, where she is majoring in special education. She is also a member of Phi Mu, a UWA ambassador, and the 2015-16 cheerleading captain. Libby was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis at age two and was treated at Children's Hospital of Alabama and later UAB hospital in Birmingham, Alabama. In February of 2016 she was sent to Duke University Hospital in Durham, North Carolina, where she was waiting for a double lung transplant. Recently, Libby was blessed with her “new” lungs.

A COTA account was created to raise funds for her ever-rising medical bills which could reach $500,000. Recently we learned through Libby’s words what CF is and how it affected her daily life as well as others. After watching her video, each class made cards, and we participated in fundraising effort as well. We believe strongly at the Campus School in supporting one another and reaching out to those in need in our community and especially in our UWA Family. We decided to have Dollars for Libby Day and help raise funds for her new lungs.

If you would like to follow her story, please visit the official “Lungs for Libby” page on Facebook.

Last week we went to see Lew-E, the Clown and his Reading Olympics show at the Ruby Pickens Tartt Public Library. We have seen him in the past and he never fails to entertain!

The second session of swimming lessons started this week and finished without a hitch!

I've heard nothing but great things from the students (and my son) so that makes us all happy!

This week we learned that water covers 72% of our Earth. The oceans hold 96.5% of all of Earth’s water. We looked at a globe to see that it is covered with oceans rather than land. Then we played a game where the students close their eyes while I spun the globe. With their eyes closed, they put out their index finger until they touched the globe. At that point, they opened up their eyes to see if they landed on land or water. We eventually saw that fingers hit water more than on land. We made a chart showing how often they touched land vs. water.

We also looked at our Scholastic Let's Find Out Weekly Reader titled "How Would It Be...To Live in the Sea?"

We watched videos about ocean creatures and learned a song about ocean animals.

Then we played a game recalling what some ocean animals eat.

The students enjoyed playing an ocean game on the smartboard using their position words to complete the puzzle.

We also learned about how some animals live near the top of the ocean where the water is warmer (fish, etc) while others live lower where it is cooler (whales, etc). And we made a chart of animals we knew of that lived in the ocean. They are smart!

We learned that not all of the creatures that swim in the sea are fish. Many of these animals are actually mammals. Tell them that fish can breathe underwater through their gills and lay eggs. Whereas, marine mammals give birth to live young, have hair or fur, and must surface to breathe in air.

There are five groups of marine mammals:

· pinnipeds (seals, sea lions, fur seals, and walruses)

· cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises),

· sea otters

· sirenians (dugongs and manatees)

· polar bears

Thank you to all the dads and special men that could make it to Danishes for Dads Friday. I had to scoot out to the playground, so I didn't get to capture everyone's pictures :( The students enjoyed making your gifts for you!