Alpha

We always start a new quarter off with our traditional round of Barnyard Babble, where Alphas discover who is on their new table team! This quarter we’re extending our study to the entire state of Texas, so we began by orienting ourselves by making a compass rose and learning about cardinal directions. Once we were familiar and resolved to Never Eat Soggy Waffles, we introduced the directions to our beloved peeps. They’ll be joining us on this tour of Texas! We started with Austin, and our hometown backyard – the Blackland Prairie. Next we traveled north and west, into the …

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A note about next week: We’ve got lots going on! Our first field trip (to a neighborhood fire house) after lunch on Wednesday and a picnic at Shipe Park on Thursday! Please wear walking shoes and be sure to pack your water bottle… In Our Big Backyard… We learned about another landform: plateaus! We built some using teamwork. Next, we looked at the Edwards Plateau specifically. We learned that it was uplifted by tectonic plates ~100 million years ago – when the area was covered by an ocean. It’s composed largely of limestone, which forms in shallow water when water …

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This week in Our Big Backyard… We know we need air, water, and food in order to live and all our food depends on SOIL. We know soil is a mix of living and nonliving material – so – how did the Earth’s Crust go from solid rock to teenie-tiney rock and minerals? WEATHERING! Weathering can eat some rocks away because rain has a little bit of acid in it. Over many years, it can eat holes in to rock. There are many rocks in Texas that have been weathered! Ryan’s fossil bubbled wildly when we dropped it in a …

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