Welcome Letter

Dear Families and Caregivers, 

Our fifth grade science class is starting a unit called How does a nurse log help other things live and grow? as part of the OpenSciEd elementary science curriculum. This unit develops science ideas about how matter and energy transfer through an ecosystem. 

Nurse logs are fallen trees that provide a home for many organisms in forest ecosystems. They help forests regenerate. To begin the unit, the class will observe pictures and videos of nurse logs. They will begin to ask questions about what they observe and will then observe a small nurse log and its parts in class. The students’ questions about this phenomenon (such as how the plants are growing on a nurse log) will drive their work in the unit.

During the unit, students will figure out ideas by: 

• Planning and carrying out investigations related to what plants need to grow and how animals use their energy,

• Exploring places they see producers, consumers and decomposers interacting with their community,

• Reading about the plants, animals and decomposers that live and grow on nurse logs and the scientists who research them,

• Developing models that explain how matter and energy move through an ecosystem.

In your discussions about the work your child is doing in science, hold off on providing answers for them. Instead, support your child in making sense of the world around them by asking your own questions and listening to their thinking.

You can help your child make sense of their learning by asking questions like these:

• What question(s) are you trying to answer right now about nurse logs?

• What have you figured out about how plants get the matter and energy they need to grow?

• Can we find other examples of plants, animals, or decomposers interacting in our own community?

• How did you (or your classmates) share ideas in science today?

• What new words have you been using to talk about what you’re doing in science?

• How has your thinking changed as you’ve figured things out?