Rainforest Populations and Communities

population: all the members of a single type of organism in an ecosystem

Last week, to help with an art project we started with Mary Lou, we researched and sketched plant and animal species that live in the rainforest. After we learned what a population was this week, Miss Payne challenged us to try and sort all of our plant and animal sketches into populations that live in the rainforest.

First, we sorted our sketches into 2 categories: plants and animals. We decided those 2 groups weren't exactly populations, so we tried sorting them into 4 categories: plants, insects, mammals, and birds. Still, we realized that populations are made up of only a single type of organism. Hmmm....

Finally, we sorted our producers into 3 populations: trees, ferns (we're not quite sure if the trees and ferns are all exactly the same species...but we're pretending they are!), and orchids. Below you'll see a populations of skunks, three-toed sloths, tree kangaroos, and leopards.

community: all the living things in an ecosystem

After organizing our plants and animals into populations, we tried to organize them into a community, showing how the energy passed from the producers to the herbivores (three-toed sloths, tree kangaroos, and skunks) and then on to our one carnivore - the leopard!

Orchid population

You'll see here that the energy passed from the orchids to the butterflies, then from the butterflies to the macaws and the chameleon. Come by our room if you'd like to see the WHOLE rainforest community on our window! 

Hiking

By Kristina

A post card came in the mail saying that some men were going walking on the Rocky Moutains.

So then the men got their stuff together and  they all started  to walk.

Then they got tuckered out  and slept on the cold snow.

Lost in Antartica

by Ginger

One day 8 people were sent to Antartica to find interesting stuff.

The next day they got lost and needed to find shelter to survive.

Luckily they had big backpacks filled with food and supplies and one day they finally found their way back looking hideous.

Lots of Flamingos

By Mallory

All the flamingos gatherd up one of them said we need to go to the forest now.

All the flamingos  went to the forest and they found a pound and Billy the youngest flamingo spotted a little spot were they could go eat.

All the flamingos agreed on going to the spot so they did go to the spot and they had a awesome party!

The Snow Day

By CJ  

People are going gliding across the snow to get to the mountains.

The skiers made it to the mountain and the first person who made it there saw hard, snowy rocks.

When they skied down the mountain they were so fast they couldn't stop so they crashed into a gigantic snow pile.

Pink Birds

By Lainey

Many flamingos all in a row flew down to have some shrimp.

While they were there some fought over shrimp, some sat on an egg, some played in the water, some looked at the red wild flower.

They flew off when a Jeep came by.

Flamingos

By Max

A bunch of pink and orange flamingos flew south for the winter. 

 They saw a small a clump of land in the middle of a pond.

They were feeling kind of tired so they went to rest; after that they went flying again.

Butterfly

By Ella

I was working in the garden and I saw a treasure chest!

I opened it and I saw MILLIONS of beautiful gems then something really weird happened!

My mom caught a butterfly that looked like it had eyes on it then its two real eyes winked at me so I think it seemed magical (and it was, well, that's what I thought).

Exploring Antarctica

By Henry

Lots and lots of men were lost in Antartica.      

They had not eaten in weeks.

Many died, a few lived, but the survivors came to many ENORMOUS mountains that were covered in slippery ice that was impossible to climb but the men who were left tried to climb them.

Eight Men

By Ty'onte

Eight men were traveling from home to see a new country to see different things.

When the eight men got to the new country they saw a lot of different things like snow and giant rocks in the mountains.

Finally they went home to eat some more fish and get in the covers.

The Girl That Found a Bird

by Jamaine

Nine-year-old Jessie moved to a new home and she saw this animal path.

Jessie went in the path and saw this reddish robin. Jessie said "Why isn't it flying?" but then Jessie saw why it wasn't flying.

It had a broken wing so Jessie's mom drove her to the Wildlife Center where they gave him some x-rays and bird food.

One Interesting Day

by Samantha


One interesting day me and my group set off to go and ski and just then we all froze as the wind goes by.  

I was still walking in the bright white snow not knowing what happened.  

So I kept and kept walking until I found out I was lost and I was never heard about again.

Flamingo Flock

By Macy

There was a weird looking bird that was magic and he was spying on the flamingos.

The flamingos did not notice the bird and the bird made the flamingos do crazy stuff like poke each other and make the birds get mad at each other.


The flamingos figured out that there was a mystery.

Annnnd the official Strongest Structure from Room 21 is.......

The low-to-the-ground triangular prism built by Max and Ty'onte! Max and Ty'onte's triangular prism successfully held 260 grams before it leaned and sent the weights tumbling to the ground. You can take a look at the picture below and tell that Ty'onte and Max thought about supporting the vertices of their structure by wrapping the pipe cleaners around the tape holding the vertices together.  

Max and Ty'onte's structure held 260 grams

You can also tell Max and Ty'onte thought about making their structure short because "if it was tall it might bend over more easily, but it couldn't be too short or else it wouldn't be 3-dimensional!" said Max. They both worked hard on making their structure the best it could be. Check out the other designs from the talented architects and builders in our class: 

Dylan and Macy's triangular prism 180 grams

Lainey and Jamaine's structure held 24 grams

Ella and Henry's fortified structure held 127 grams

Unfortunately, Ginger and CJ's structure had an accident!
(0 grams held)

Everyone thought this would be a BREEZE! Many groups built a structure they thought would be super strong, but - dun, dun, dunnnn - they found out the hard way it wasn't as strong as they thought. Everyone deserves a good pat on the back for determination with this challenge.