Peter and our adventure!

This week was very fun!  Peter Stortz, a teacher and natural resource and youth development specialists working for UAF, came to our school.  He taught us many things like how many people live in the world by using rice.  It would take 45,500 gallons of rice to equal 7 billion people in the world.  We also learned about how fish go back to their natural habitat called the natal stream after they come back from the ocean.  He also showed us a presentation about the time he went to Mongolia.  He said it is better to ask more questions than worrying about the right answers.  After he taught us all the names of the fins and the internal organs, he taught us how to dissect a fish.  When we were dissecting the fish we had to cut it open from the anal fin to the pectoral fin.  We took out all the organs he taught us about.  We made fish prints using the fish we had just dissected.  To make a fish print we sponge painted the fish, then put a paper on it and pushed down on it to get a print of the scales.  After we pulled the paper off we painted on the lateral line and the eye.  The lateral line is like GPS for the fish.  It is a horizontal line across the middle.   The most important thing he taught us was despite our differences we should accept everyone for who they are.  We had a busy week!

Meet Peter!  He visited us this week.  He taught us lots of stuff like how to dissect fish, all of the scientific names of the fins and internal organs of fish, and you don't need a camera to take a picture.  In this picture Peter is showing us his puppet fish.  He is demonstrating the milt sack.  Peter is really energetic and fun!   

Team A with their string writing poster, clockwise from back left: Dolly, Colleen, Loretta, Sheryl, Kaylee, Benise, Keilan, Bobby

While Peter was here we did a teamwork strengthening activity.  We were string writing.  That means we used a marker attached to yarn to write "we can make a difference in Igiugig".  Team 1, clockwise from left: Kiara, Caleb, Josephine, Blaise, Charmaine, Kaleb, Aiden, Jolynn, Katelyn.

Kiara pretending to eat the liver out of the rainbow fish she was dissecting.

Katelyn having fun making her fish print!

Peter and Kaylee working together to make a fish print.

R.I.P. Salmon

Hello! My name is Katy Jurney Scrivo and I'm one of the teachers at Igiugig School.

Katy Jurney Scrivo and Andrew Scrivo, teachers at Igiugig School

I know this is a blog kept by our students and not our teachers, but if you'll be patient and keep reading, you'll get to the students' part of this entry.

When we returned from spring break, we learned that all of our salmon had died. Igiugig School has a lot of copper in the water, and even the tiniest amount of copper will kill salmon. Because our continually changing weather made the lake ice unstable (we normally get water for our fish tank from Iliamna Lake), we had been using water from the faucet and treating it with special chemicals to make it fish-safe. Unfortunately, it turned out not to be fish-safe. Even though we were planning to kill the fish at the end of the project (we can't release them into the wild), it was still a disappointment to come back and see they had all died.

During spring break, Andrew and I attended a teaching conference where we learned about writing using RAFTS--that is, Role, Audience, Format, Topic and Share. This morning, three students completed quickwrites using the following RAFT: Role-Igiugig School fish; Audience-Igiugig students; Format-a letter; Topic-"How could you just let us die?!?". For the S, we decided to post responses on our blog. They're very silly and entertaining and we hope you enjoy them!

Kaleb:
Dear Kids from the Igiugig School,
How could you let us die? We weren't even one yet and we only got to the stage of fries. I should have known that you guys were so young so you thought that we were actual french fries. We were terrified when you guys sucked us up into a bucket and when we were burying our dead all you did was scoop us up and throw us in the sink.
Sincerely,
Your Dead Fish

Dolly:
Dear Igi Students,
How could you kids just let us die?!? We were so young and you just left us to die! We were going to die anyway some other day, but we didn't want to now. Now you students have no pets. You guys lost your snake and now us. What kind of students are you? Well, yeah, so write back soon...as soon as you get this "How could you just let us die?!" letter, and if you don't, you will get another "How could you just let us die?!" letter! And you wouldn't want another "How could you just let us die?!" letter, would you? No, I'm sure not.
Sincerely,
Your Dead Fish

Blaise:
Hello people of Igiugig.
How could you just let us die in that small, little, dirty fish tank? You are evil. Remember me, Scoliosis Fish, with the messed up back? Well if you do, then run and hide. It does not matter; I will find you.
Sincerely,
Scoliosis Fish