From Nancy Locatelli’s 5th-grade class at Rio Del Mar Elementary School
Isaiah Hague
Stars
As the space shuttle launches you into space
Closer and closer you are to the stars
You’re weightless
There is no gravity
As you exit the atmosphere your bones get deficient and brittle
As you unbuckle your seatbelt you start to float out of your seat
Next thing you know you’re flying across the shuttle
Like an eagle soaring
Through the sky
There you are closer to the stars then you’ll ever be
Inspired by and taken from “Mae Jemison Space Scientist” by Gail Sakurai
From Teacher Susan Nunes’ 5th grade students at Pacific Coast Charter School
Andre G.
Food Chains and Food Webs
Food chains and food webs are part of the ecosystem. For example, a food chain is when a mouse eats grass and a snake eats the mouse. A food web is when a rabbit and a mouse eat grass. Food chains and food webs also help the ecosystem that way one of the populations does not over grow or one of the populations does not become extinct. If one animal population grows too big, other populations will grow too small, and some animals will not have any food to eat and that population will become extinct too. When the animal dies then it will go back in to the ground and the grass will get food and the food chain/web will start all over again. — The End
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Anela Mendoza
Four Steps of Food Chains
Let’s learn about food chains! A food chain has four steps. First, a producer, a plant or plankton, gets energy for the sun to make food. Then, an animal, called a consumer, such as a deer, eats the plant. If the deer lives a full life, we go on to step four. But, on to step three. Soon, a second consumer, like a wolf, eats the deer. Now to step four. When the wolf dies, its body is decomposed by decomposers, like mushrooms, worms, and germs. And it repeats over again! So that’s a simple food chain. There are many more examples all over the earth!
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Cameron J.
Composting
What is composting? Composting is when you put decomposable things like veggie, fruit, egg shells or starch scraps and mix it with water and soil. Did you know a worm will eat twice its own body weight each day? And that you need to put egg shells in your compost because the worms need the calcium in the egg shells? This mix will break down and become a soil rich in nutrients and vitamins that makes bigger, better, healthier plants that you grow at your home. Composting can help keep food scraps out of landfills and conserve space. Did you know that around 60 percent of the trash that goes in the landfills is decomposable things like food scraps? Composting happens both naturally and with the help of humans. It happens with the help of decomposers, such as mold, fungi and worms that eat the food scraps and break it down; when the broken down material mixes with the soil and water it becomes compost. I hope you found this article as interesting and informative as I did.
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Coco F.
Food Chain
The food chain and food web are vital to all organism life. Producers are plants that make their own food and are eaten by consumers. Consumers are animals or plants that eat other animals or plants. For example, it’s important to have sea otters because they eat sea urchins and not many animals can eat them because of their spikes. Sea otters are smart enough to use tools to open the sea urchin. If there weren’t any sea otters the sea urchins would eat all of the kelp. Without kelp there wouldn’t be much oxygen and people would die. So sea otters are an important part of this food chain. There are many food chains and they are crucial to all organisms.
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Grace Katharine Hurley
EcOsYsTeMs ANd bIoMES
In all ecosystems there are many different plants and animals. An ecosystem is a community of plants, animals, and abiotic objects, all living together in harmony in a particular biome. The definition of abiotic is ‘’not alive, inanimate.’’ For example, a rock is abiotic. A biome is an environment with different plants and animals within it. Some different biomes are: desert, tundra, grassland, forest, and aquatic. In the desert, cacti use their spikes and thorns to protect them from animals that want their stored water. In the tundra, bunnies, penguins, polar bears, and other animals have thick fur coats to keep them warm. This is called adaptation. Some animals from the aquatic biome are: octopi, seals, otters, dolphins, sharks, whales and fish. In the forest, there are many different types of plants and decomposers. A decomposer is an organism that helps break down dead plants and animals. Here are some decomposers: bacteria, fungi, earthworms and slugs. A fun fact about ecosystems is that the word ecosystem was created by a British botanist named Arthur Roy Clapham. To conclude, ecosystems are home to all plants and animals.
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Johanna E.
Marine Life
Food chains and web chains are important to us and to the marine life. We’ve got to help them!
They’ve got enough predators. Are we going to help them? There are many endangered animals in the marine life and I’ve got a plan to help them.
My plan:
- Lets eat less marine animals.
- No littering!
Littering can hurt sea animals. I once heard of a seal choked to death because of it!
Here is a small list of things not to litter:
- Plastic bags
- Taps
- Cans
But anyhow let’s not litter anything. I am determined. Are you?
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Shawn Enright
Rainforest Layers
Did you know that the rainforest is one of the most unique ecosystems on our planet? An ecosystem is a community of plants and animals that depend on each other. What makes the rainforest unique is that there are 4 different layers. Each layer has different plants and animals that live there. The top layer of the rainforest is called the Emergent layer. The trees reach 200 feet, and get most of the sunlight. Insects, bats, and eagles inhabit this layer. The next layer is called the Canopy, and trees reach 100-150 feet. Lemurs, sloths, toucans, parrots, spider monkeys, and orangutans find most of their food in the trees. The Understory is the next layer, and the plants and trees have very large leaves. This layer gets a very little amount of sunlight and is dark and humid. Many species of insects live in this layer. The Forest floor is the last layer, which gets 1%-2% of sunlight. There is little plant life on the forest floor because there is hardly any sunlight. The ground is covered with layers of decomposing vegetation. Termites, millipedes, beetles eat the rotting plants and animals. Also, large animals such as the tiger and jaguar live on the forest floor. In conclusion, the layers of the rainforest ecosystem are different, but they all depend on each other to survive.
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Steven Laws
How we can affect and protect ecosystems
Humans can affect the ecosystems. People can do this by using cars that pollute the air. Oil can get spilled from cars and somehow get in the water. Animals could get covered in it and freeze. Animals could breath it through their gills and die because of the bad chemicals in the oil. Throwing trash on the street can be bad in many ways. The trash could get carried by the wind and go into an ecosystem or get taken by rainwater through the storm drains and in the ocean. Animals could possibly eat this trash and starve until they die. You can protect the ecosystem by not throwing trash on the street finding other uses for plastic bags and last try your hardest not to use plastic.
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Theresa Martin
Ecosystems
What is an ecosystem? An ecosystem is a community of living and nonliving things. For instance the Amazon rain forest is a biome in our ecosystem. The Amazon has animals, plants, rocks, water and dirt. Put that together and you have an ecosystem.
You may not like some animals but remember every animal is important in an ecosystem. For instance, flies are annoying, but some plants eat flies so we actually need them. Biotic and abiotic are both components. Biotic is a living thing and abiotic is a nonliving thing. Here is an example of how living and nonliving things share an environment: animals eat plants and drink water, dig in dirt, and hide under rocks. Also, plants need dirt to dig their roots in.
You may not know this, but there are many tiny parts in an ecosystem. Habitats are very important. They provide homes and other things an animal might need. A habitat includes living and nonliving things. For example a bird lives in a tree. That is a habitat. There can be many different habitats in a forest. Another habitat is a gopher living underground.
As you can see, the ecosystem is a community of living and nonliving things. It is a very important part of a plant or animal’s life.