Category Archives: Middle Level

On Wednesday, September 29, we listen and learned about bees. Our speaker’s name was Chris McDonald. He brought in an observation hive of about 1,000 bees out of a hive of around 8,000 bees.

We learned that if a bee larva is not fertilized it becomes a male bee, if it is fertilized it becomes a female. With that being said the males will get kicked out of the hive at the beginning of winter because they don’t work and can’t feed themselves.

After hatching, the larva automatically becomes a nurse bee. A nurse bee feeds all of the baby bees royal jelly. Then they become a worker bee, who puts the honey in the honeycomb which is in the shape of a hexagon. Finally, they become a field bee which gets the pollen and nectar from the flowers.

Our favorite part about the bees was observing what they do in the observation hive and watching the baby bee pop out of the holes. We also thought it was cool when he showed us pictures of the bees.

In conclusion, it is pretty incredible that all those bees can have that whole thing running and making honey and it was awesome learning about it!

By the 6^th Grade Class

When our teacher said we were going to a potato farm we didn’t know what to think. Maybe it would be fun or maybe it would be boring, but after going to it we learned a lot more about potatoes. We first had to drive there and once we got to the farm there was more potatoes than we have ever seen in our lives! After picking up some potatoes the farmer who was disking with his tractor told us how they harvested the potatoes and what they did with them afterwards. First, they spray the potatoes to kill the foliage. Next, a machine would go through and pull the potatoes out of the ground and chop up anything that was left. He also said that a second machine would take them up on a conveyor-belt to shake all the dirt off, then it would drop it into a truck. When the truck starts to get loaded the driver lets some air out of the tires to make them wider, so they don’t leave such deep tracks. (More surface area) When they are loaded and at the end of the field they fill the tires back up and drive to the cellar (It’s a place that keeps them cool and dry until they can sell them). Finally, he told us that they would get used for French fries at places like Hardee’s and McDonald’s. It was really neat learning about potatoes and picking them too.

When we arrived at the field we were surprised to see how many potatoes were on the ground and couldn’t wait to pick them up. There were small ones, big ones, and weird looking one too. It was fun to go out and find the potatoes like it was a big Easter egg hunt. We ran out of bags and buckets to fill, so we started to fill the back of the bus. We all got to take potatoes home. But best of all we got to eat the potatoes which were delicious mashed, fried or baked. Thank you for letting us salvage those wonderful potatoes!

Mrs. Matthews sixth grade class has created some special seasons greetings using the Scratch programming language.  Click on the link below to view them!

https://sites.google.com/a/hshawks.com/mrs-matthews/sixth-grade