Today the 1st graders learned about what a wildlife biologist does for work. The started the day defining the word "wildlife" and breaking the word "biologist" into its Latin morphemes of "bio," "ology," and "ist."

They then played some reverse charades acting out the movements of different animals for their classmates to guess.

After morning recess, they learned about the famous wildlife biologist Jane Goodall by reading a book and watching a video of her discussing her work with primates and conservation.

In the afternoon, they explored the Creaturepedia section of the Wild Kratts PBS site to learn about new animals. 

The grand finally of our day was to chat with real life wildlife biologist Rachel Stein, a researcher at the University of Idaho! Rachel told us all about her work with pygmy rabbits, shoeshoe hares, and red squirrels. The students had tons of questions to ask her about her work and the animals she studies, such as "What is the difference between a rabbit and a hare?" and "Do you ever have to camp like Jane Goodall did?"

As usual, we finished the day with Free Choice, where students used their maker boxes, explored the Wild Kratts site, and played classroom games.

UPCOMING: There will be no GATE the week of November 29-December 3.