Friday, October 14, 2011

Kiara's Blog

Hi, my name is Kiara. I'm seven years old. Halloween is almost coming! I'm going to be a ninja for Halloween. I don't have my costume but we're going to get it in Anchorage on the 18th. I'm gonna have so much fun in Anchorage! I'm gonna go visit my dad. We're gonna go to H2Oasis. It's a water park that's mostly with water then land. I'm gonna go on the master blaster. It's like this really crazy ride but you need floaties and if you're ten years old you can go without one. We're gonna go shop for my costume at Wal-mart. Shealayla is going to be a monkey and my mom is going to be a crazy witch.

My mom and Alicia saw a fox yesterday. Alicia is my babysitter. She lives with us. She's from Kokhanok and she's always funny at me. She always teases me and makes me really mad but in a funny way. I was crying because I was laughing so hard; I was about to go to bed and then she came on the bed and pushed me off and I started laughing really hard.

At school we're going to make chalk today with toilet paper rolls. It's gonna be so much fun. My favorite parts of school are PE and math. I like doing worksheets in math and exercising with Betsy at PE.

Thanks for reading.

These are the gastroliths from a spruce hen and the intestines.

This is me holding the spruce hen's heart.

This is me and all my friends at school.

These are berries inside the spruce hen's crop.

Andrew telling us where to get things in order during the dissection.

This is Junior trying to catch a pollywog. This is an old picture.

Andrew, Katy and Jolynn trying to catch pollywogs with some sticks.

Pollywogs we're going to bring to the school on a sunny day. This is also an old picture.

Friday, October 7, 2011

Porcs, Hens and Preschoolers...Oh My!

Hi, my name is Kaylee.

On Saturday, my brother Kaleb killed a porcupine. He went down to Ole Creek in a boat with our dad and Terek and then he spotted it and he said it looked like a bear. Then he went over to shore and got it. Then they brought it home and gave it to Terek. Terek gave it to his mom to eat.

Yesterday we went and got gastroliths. A gastrolith is a little pebble inside a spruce hen. The spruce hens pick them up off the ground and grind up their food with the pebbles 'cause they don't have any teeth. We were studying inside a spruce hen and how they grind up their food and the digestive system. Today Andrew's going to bring over a dead spruce hen and we're going to dissect it. Then Andrew and Katy will eat it.

And preschool started on Monday. We have one preschooler right now. Her name is Shealayla and she is Kiara's little sister. Our preschool teacher is Tanya and Tanya never went to preschool but she loves teaching it.

I have to go. Bye!

The boy who killed the porcupine.

The class (l-r: Kaylee, Jolynn, Kaleb, Kiara, Andrew, and Aiden) looking for gastroliths. 

Dolly found a gastrolith!

Andrew holding gastroliths from a spruce hen that Kaleb shot.

Tanya, our preschool teacher, and Shea, our new student.

Shea-shea matching shapes.

The gastroliths

Jolynn staring at the board.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Look Out Caribou

Hey I'm back! You do remember me don't you? I knew it! You already forgot, didn't you? Well I'm back with something that I have done for school, and my teacher wanted me to put it on the blog so I am.
I think that you will like the sled, if you're interested in buying it you can contact our school and we will discuss the price... Just kidding, it is not for sale, you can make your own with the directions below. Well school's out and I'm heading home.

Caribou (Jaw
Bone) Sled
  Daniel Decker      

I have made a Caribou (Jaw Bone) Sled for cultural awareness, it is a model, and I am going to tell you how you can make one for yourself by yourself. First of all; you are going to need a jawbone from a caribou. Once you get a jawbone you should let it sit for a while and let it dry out; after it has dried put it into a pot and boil it until all of the meat and whatever else might be on there is ready to fall off. Take the jawbone and a knife or something sharp and finish cleaning whatever is left on the bone. The jawbone is clean and you are ready to start building the sled.
After you have completed task one you can start task two. Task two requires a drill, brush cutters, some kind of really thin twine or thread and a razor knife. Take the brush cutters outside and cut some small alders up; it doesn’t matter how much you get because you can always go back and get more if needed. Bring the alders back to where you are working on the project, then take all the leaves off of the alders. After you have taken all of the leaves off the sticks you should try and smooth them out, and you can also skin them (take the bark off). It will not be perfect but it doesn’t have to.
Now you are going to drill some holes (anywhere you want or need them) into the jawbone for the alders, which will help hold up the bottom of the sled, and keep the side rails from sliding all over the place. This will also create stability, which will make the sled stronger. Now you should be ready to tie the alders you stripped down on to the sled with the really thin twine or thread. You should have all of your pieces present so that you can choose the one that fits the best into the spot that you are working on. Patients is needed for this part of the sled as well as many other parts to making the sled, but I found that this particular part is the most frustrating part of the project because of all the small pieces and the tying.
Finally, when you have finished the tiny tying, you can use some kind of industrial strength glue to help keep the knots in place. If you use the glue from your school you will have to retie a lot of knots, and you don’t want to do that. I do not remember the exact type of glue I used but I’m pretty sure it was industrial strength glue. The good thing about the type of glue I used is that it made it look like there is snow and frost on the sled, which is really cool. There is something about the glue you should know; it smells really bad when you are applying it to the sled, this is because of all the fumes it is giving off. The fumes are really dangerous because they can kill a lot of your brain cells, so you can’t do the whole sled at one time. You have to divide it into sections because the glue will seep down and you will glue it to the table.
Once you are finished you can do whatever you want to with the sled that you have just built. You can put it in a case at your school to be viewed by everyone or you can even sell it depending on how high the price is for the amount of work you put into the sled. Now you know how to make your own caribou jawbone sled and you don’t need these instructions anymore.