Eitan's Blog  

In third grade we have been learning about endangered species. My animal is the Florida manatee. It is a mammal which means that it has hair, drinks it’s mothers milk, and uses lungs to breath. It’s skin is dark gray and it is two inches thick. It has very little hair and algae grows on its back so it has to rub itself on a rock to get the algae off. The average weight for both male and female is one-thousand lbs. . The average length for females is 6-7 feet and the males is 6-8 feet. The females are actually bigger than the males.

They live in Florida in warm waters because if they live in cold waters they would die. They can live in the cean but mostly in rivers and lakes. They live in fresh and saltwater and they will live anywhere where there are water plants and the place is warm. They migrate to warmer waters when their waters that they were living in get cold and it could take weeks or even months for the water to get cold. They group together to find a warmer place and that is one of the only times that they group together. A group of manatees is called an aggregation. They live in waters that can get up to 10 feet in depth.

The Florida manatee has one young at a time and when the baby is born the mother pushes the baby up to get its first breath. They have 2-3 years in between having babies . Their mothers teach their calf how to do things and then they go off on their own. The calf needs to stay with their mother. They guard their young but don’t attack to protect them. The fat in the mothers milk help the calves grow faster. Newborns weigh about 70 pounds. The mother will scream underwater to call their calf. They eat water plants from the bottom of their habitat but sometimes  they eat leaves from overhanging trees.

My next category is adaptations and what that is, is something that helps them survive in the wild. One of their adaptations is that they have flaps of skin on their their nostrils so when they want a breath the flaps go up and they can breath but when they are underwater the flap goes down and they don’t get water in their nose. They only breath through their nostrils! They have nails on their flippers so they can stay in one place and move in the current. Their flippers pull out the water plants and push it into their mouth which I think is really cute!

The Florida manatee is listed on the Threatened status list. The reason is people and motorboats. People are hunting them for game and for their skin. Scientists are putting chemicals in the water and hurting or killing the manatees. One of the reasons is that they swim into lock gates and get crushed. The propellers spin fast and the manatees are slow moving creatures so when they swim into the propellers they get killed or the luckiest thing that could happen to them is they get scarred for life. The scientists identify manatees by their scars. They have a huge loss of environment because people are hunting them and putting buildings on the water

There are 13,000 of them left in the wild. They have been making reserves and what reserves are is a protected area that you cannot hunt them in. Since people are helping them their environment is totally changing and their numbers are increasing.One thing that I can do is I can not pollute. They have been making laws like you cant touch a manatee with two hands but you can with one only if it touches you and a no wake manatee zone sign.

Did you know that Columbus thought that they were three mermaids but it was actually just three manatees and they are called sea cows because they eat grass from the bottom of the sea. They are related to elephants and their snouts are like stubby elephant trunks.they are the largest kind of manatees in the 4 kinds of manatees.Thank you for reading my blog today.

R: I chose this blog because I loved researching the Florida manatee. I learned some really cool facts like they are the largest kind of manatees.

We went on a field trip to Mount Vernon. We had a tour of the outside, house, and his tomb. First, we toured the outside and we saw where the farm animals were. They had two stalls and they actually had sheep. The sheep were grazing in their little pen.They had the smokehouse where they smoked the meat. The way that they smoked it was they set a fire and when the smoke came up it smoked the meat.There was a river and it was the Potomac River. They got supplies from boats like food, water, and weapons. In the house they had the key that Lafayette gave George to symbol freedom from the British. Since with keys you can get in and out if you want freedom you can get out of being a subject. They had the kitchen and it was outside because they didn’t want the house to burn (the house was made of wood). The farm was big and they used to have farm animals like horses, cows, and pigs.We did the tomb and I said the special prayer for the ceremony. My favorite part was when I did the prayer because I loved when my heart jumped because I felt so good. Our field trip was awesome!

R: I chose this blog because I had loved the Mount Vernon field trip. I loved learning about George Washington and his family and I learned that his teeth were made of ivory.

We have been talking about Matter in class and I wanted to share some of our experiments with you. My first experiment was with pop rocks and Coke, and I got the job with pouring the pop rocks inside of the Coke and the balloon blew up! The second experiment was with Vinegar and baking soda and the balloon blew up even faster! With the Diet Coke and Mentos Mrs. Anderson put one packet in and only 5 got in but the Coke still blew up like a volcano! Also I have a note for you! Warning: Never try this at home because your whole house will be Blown up with lots and lots and lots and lots of coke and gas and liquid + your house would smell like Coke for the rest of your house life and you probably would have a horrible time with selling your house that’s covered with Coke and gas and liquid.   Another experiment was awesome because we were trying to make Whipping butter into real butter and we got through all of our class shaking the Whipping butter and then finally it was ready! I had eaten not one , not two, not three, not four, not five or six but I had seven! Seven big crackers full of butter! I loved our experiments so much I would hug them!!

R: I chose this blog because I had so much fun shaking the glass jar and I totally didn’t know that you could make butter with a glass jar. Also, I loved seeing the coke bottle exploding liquid.

We went to the SPCA on the bus at 10:15. We took a picture in the front of the SPCA.We went inside and looked at the cats and kittens. We went in the dog area and the dogs were really barking. We went into a area that a dog was in. We pet that dog and he licked me and Knox’s face, I think because we were calm!? We went back to the front and asked questions , then we left.

It was a drizzly May 16 when we went on a 20 minute bus ride to FOR. We went to the pavilion and talked about pictures and talked some more before heading to the heart of the Rappahannock. We walked South to the canal  and we saw some turtles and I drew some pictures of them. We ate lunch and I ate peppers , yogurt, a bottle of water and a couple of other things. We talked about the Water Cycle and then we played a game where you had to roll the dice and whatever you got you would either stay at the place or go to somewhere else. I feel like my favorite was the canal, turtles, and making the journals. And also after we went to the bus since me and Levi were partners we sat in the back of the bus and we showed each other our journals and played a game. It was a great day at the Rappahannock River of Fredericksburg, Virginia.

Reflection: I chose my FOR field trip writing, because I thought it was neatly written, had good describing words, and it was the most pages I’ve written on any writing.

I found my pet reindeer in my woods. It’s name is Ned, His last name is Shneeblee. I keep my reindeer in my basement because he sometimes is crazy. his favorite food is cookies because he is crazy about chocolate chips.My reindeer and I like to play with my table-top desk bowling set, I don’t know why he likes it. I take care of my my reindeer by giving him his food and all the stuff that he needs. The only thing special about my reindeer is that he likes to cuddle on the carpet.

Reflection:

I chose this writing because I think I did a very good job on the writing. Also I named Ned Shneeblee Because my dad’s like obsessed with him. I chose that he liked chocolate chip cookies and I just liked the choice I said I found it in the woods because I have a huge woods.

My favorite learning activity this year was Space because I learned that there is a lot of galaxys and it can get up to -257 degrees on Pluto. I am most proud of my report because it was fun doing facts.

I felt really happy about my space report because I got to learn all about Pluto. I was really proud of my chalk drawing of Pluto.

I feel spectacular about my owl project because I worked really hard. I am the most proud  of my teaching because I got to teach everyone about my owl.