Meet FDR

Summer Edition ~ By Lexi

Do you know who was the only four-term president?

If you guessed Franklin Delano Roosevelt, you are right! This interesting man was born in 1882, in Hyde Park, New York. As a child, he collected stamps, birds, and bird eggs. Franklin was an only child, and when he grew bored, he entertained himself by riding his horse. In his early life, Franklin attended Groton, an all boys’ school. There, he tried out for basketball, football, crew, boxing, and High Kick, but most of all he adored giving and attending speeches and debates. Debating is a discussion in which two sides state different points of view. He shared this skill with his cousin, President Theodore Roosevelt!

As a young adult, Franklin studied at Harvard College. He married Eleanor Roosevelt in 1905 and became a lawyer. In 1910, he became a democratic state senator for New York, and then he was elected again in 1912. Soon after, President Woodrow Wilson appointed Franklin as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, and he held this position during World War I. Unfortunately, in 1921 he lost the use of his legs from a terrifying disease named polio. He was only 39 years old when he became ill, and it took a lot of strength and courage to gain back the use of his arms.

The next political position that Franklin Roosevelt held was governor of New York in 1928 and again in 1930. The Great Depression devastated the country while he was in office. During this time, he enjoyed his job so much that his dream was to become President of the United States.
On March 4, 1933, he accomplished that dream! While he was President, his main job was to fight the Depression. His famous quote, “the thing we have to fear is fear itself” inspired people with hope and courage. President Roosevelt passed bills to help farmers and people who were about to lose their homes. He was elected President again in 1936, which was during World War II. He created “fireside chats” to speak with Americans over the radio. These were talks he would have with the American people to tell them what he was doing to fight the Depression. In 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and President Roosevelt declared that the United States would enter the war.

Other than fighting the Depression, another success came while he was President for the fourth time. With his great friend, Winston Churchill from England, he established the United Nations. It was President Roosevelt’s dream to have countries work together for peace. This was another dream he achieved!

Sadly, on April 12, 1945, Franklin D. Roosevelt died while getting his portrait painted. Even though he died, we still honor him today. In my opinion, he made the world a better place.

Here is a hyperlink to FDR on The White House website.

Here is a video presentation of my sculpture.

What do you think of President Roosevelt?

What was his greatest achievement?

See an Opossum and a Desert Tortoise

By Alasia, Amanda, Bethany, Garrison, and Lexi

On Monday, Wildlife Experience returned with two amazing animals.

First, we learned about footprints. You can figure out if an animal has been on a nature trail by looking at the footprints.

We got to hold rubber footprints from five different animals.

Here is Awesome the Opossum! Opossums are the only marsupials that live in North America. A marsupial is an animal that lives on land and has a pouch.

Awesome the Opossum has an amazing adaptation that she uses when she meets a predator. When an opossum is scared of something or someone, it tries to run away. If it can't outrun what is scaring it, then it will bare its 50 razor-sharp teeth and will snarl.

If that doesn't work it goes into a catatonic state. That means a chemical is sent to the opossum's brain that makes it fall asleep, and it releases a scent that smells rotten. The dead smelly opossum is "playing dead" and that can save an opossum's life. Minutes later, the opossum wakes up, but does not know what happened. It did not even know it was playing dead!

Wildlife Experience also brought a desert tortoise!

These reptiles are an endangered species because some people take them out of the desert to keep as pets. Those people might have pets that have parasites which could spread to the tortoise. Sometimes, they return them back in the desert and that virus can spread to other tortoises. When that happens, sometimes a tortoise dies or it could get extremely ill! If that happens, the animal control could come and rescue the animal. That is what happened to the tortoise picture above. This tortoise no longer has the disease and is used for classroom events.

Have you ever seen either of these animals in the wild?

Have you ever played dead? When and why?

Please leave us a comment!

Cheerful Chumash Assembly

By Taylor S., James, Lexi, and Jonah,

At our school, we experienced a fabulous assembly about the Native American tribe, the Chumash. In this assembly, we smashed acorns into flour, made string with yucca leaves, helped grind a Chumash bowl, tried to make fire, and created a rock art necklace.

Smashing Acorns

At the acorn station, we cracked acorns to make acorn flour. First, we took an acorn and cracked it out of its shell with two rocks.

Then we smashed the inside of the acorn into a powdery mixture.


Finally, we reached our goal… FLOUR!

(Warning: DO NOT EAT ACORN POWDER WITHOUT LEACHING IT. It's bitter!)

Yucca String

At another station we pounded yucca leaves.

After that, we soaked them in water for two minutes.

Once that was done, we separated the fibers and put them in a stack.

Later, we sat down all together and rolled the fibers together which made a sticky, but strong yucca string!

Beautiful Stone Bowls

The Chumash made their bowls by scraping sandstone with another rock. This was harder than it sounds though. A Chumash Native American would work on one bowl for a few years before it was finished!

They would start by searching for a round piece of sandstone. With another rock, they would scrape and scrape the sandstone until it was a deep bowl.


That’s a very long, but easy process. The powder from the rock looked like this.
Can you imagine having to do all that to have one small bowl?

Fire Station

At this station we used a spindle and a fire board to build a warm, cosy fire. First, we took the spindle and placed it in a hole in the fireboard. Next, we spun the spindle between our hands.

The friction caused the point of the spindle to heat up.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, no one was able to create a fire.

Rock Art

The Chumash were famous for their rock art. We were able to create rock necklaces using red berries (a red Sharpie) and coal (a black Sharpie).

Everyone drew their own unique design.

We even got to taste a few Chumash foods like chia seeds.

The terrific Chumash assembly was not only fun, but educational too!

Science: Lovely Light

By Lexi, Clementine, and Chloe

In science, our class was learning about light. We specifically learned that objects can be translucent, transparent, or opaque.

Translucent is a science term that means only some light can pass through an object.

For example, this blue plastic T lets some of the light pass through it, so it is translucent.


Another term we learned is transparent.

If an object is transparent, all the light can pass through it. The cylinder above is transparent.

I can see Pelly the Pelican inside the object.

If you have a window at your house, notice that it is transparent.

If NO light passes through an object then it is opaque.

Opaque objects create a shadow. Your body is opaque. No light will pass through it. Shadow puppets are a fun way to show an opaque object. One shadow puppet you can make with your body is a bird.

How do you do it?

First, go outside on a sunny day. Make an X with your arms, hook your thumbs, and spread your wings.

See the opaque bird that you made with your hands?

Here are some other shadow puppet animals you can make.

Now you know about lovely light!

Circling the Sun

By Lexi

Mrs. Yollis’ class was talking about how the Earth orbits, or goes around, the sun while spinning itself!


That topic interested me, so I made a model at home to help inform the class about how this system works. I researched using books and the Science links on Mrs. Yollis’ Website.



Here is what I have learned. The sun is approximately 4 billion years old and is a star made of gas. In fact, it is made up of 70% hydrogen and 28% helium. The Earth is one of eight planets that make up the Solar System. It takes a year, or 365 days, for the Earth to travel around the sun.

On my model, the Earth is colored blue and green. Blue stands for the oceans, and the green is for the continents. There are seven continents on our planet: North America, South America, Asia, Europe, Antarctica, Africa, and Australia. I made the sun small so it looks far away.

I love the solar system, and I hope you do too!