4. I had the challenge of trying to keep us on topic, but also making sure that we had fun. I had to get through the story and activities without doing it like I was checking things off a checklist, and keeping it going smoothly from thing to thing. I didn't want Kate to think I was all business. I tried to flow through the river of things to get done without too many waterfalls. I think that I did this pretty well, and I'll keep on improving too.
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 6. I do think that Kate enjoyed the PeekaPak stories. I know this because we laughed about the faces, and what they did that was funny or "stupid." We both had fun reading and talking about it! If I were her, I think I would enjoy reading a book with an older kid, and chatting, and having fun in general. It was super fun!!!​

 1. The KinderPals program is something that older students or people use to help teach smaller students about essential virtues. Using the website www.peekapak.com helps a lot with teaching our buddies! If our they already know the virtue, we give them more examples of how to use it in their lives, and why it's important to use and notice! If they don't know the virtue we're teaching that time, we do our best to teach it to them in the simplest way possible.

 2. It helps them learn about what the right thing to do is. For example, today we are teaching our KinderPals about honesty, and we'll try to teach our KinderPals that lying is almost always bad. It's 'almost' because sometimes you lie for the safety of someone, like if there is a storm and the kindergartener wants to go out to explore, you could say, "The reason you can't go  outside is that it's bedtime." They might say, "but it's not bedtime yet!" and another lie for their safety would be "It is, it's 7:30," when it's only 7:00. If you hadn't lied to them, they might have gone out and gotten hurt, lost, or worse!

 3. The KinderPals program gives me the experience of teaching a younger student, and having fun with them. I got the fun and happiness of learning and playing with someone who was still learning. I'm glad I got to know what it feels like to teach, and I'm glad I know my buddy Kate! She laughed and learned with me, and I hope she had as much fun with me as I did with her.
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​ 5. I think that there should be more time to play with and get to know our KinderPal, so that when we learn the lesson, we are more comfortable with each other, and it doesn't seem like the fourth or fifth grader is all business and learning all the time quite as much. If we got to know each other more, it would be easier to teach the kindergarteners because we would know each other better and be more comfortable talking to each other.

1. Plants need energy and matter to grow. Where do plants get their ENERGY?
2. Where do plants get their MATTER?
3. Where do plants get their FOOD (be careful - this is a trick question)?
4. Why are plants called Producers?
5. What would happen if plants didn't have a way to get energy?
6. What would happen to animals if there were no plants to eat?
7. What are some of the LIVING components of a plant "system"? (A plant "system" is everything that a plant needs to survive and everything it produces.)
8. What are some of the NON-LIVING components of a plant "system"?
9. In what ways do the components of the system interact?
10. What matter is transported in and out of the plant system?

 10.   Oxygen, a gas in the plant system, goes in and out out of plants, and so does Carbon Dioxide, another gas in the plant system. Water goes into a plant, and it's one of the ingredients that makes glucose, the sugar that plants use for energy and mass, or matter. Carbon Dioxide and a small amount of Oxygen also help make the sugar, and the sun's energy - but that's not matter.

1. Plants get their energy from the sun, use most of it, and store some. The stored energy goes to the animals that eat the plants. If they die from disease, the bacteria that caused the disease get 
2. Plants get their matter from the water, Oxygen and Carbon dioxide they get from the ground and air. They make these ingredients into a sugar called glucose, along with energy from the sun - but that's matter!
3. Plants get their food from nowhere - they don't eat! They make a sugar called glucose out of the sun's energy, carbon dioxide, a tiny bit of Oxygen, and water (it has nutrients). 
4. Plants are called Producers because they produce their own matter (not food). Unlike other organisms, they don't need to hunt eat.
5. If plants didn't have a way to get energy, they would die. Every living organism needs energy to live, breath, work, etc. of anything didn't have a way to get energy, it/they would die.
6. If there were no plants to eat, then the 1st consumers would have no food to eat and would start dying away. After a while they would all be gone, and the 2nd consumers would have nothing to eat, and so on, until almost nothing had anything to eat. I say "almost nothing" because there are some non-plant producers, and they could continue growing and getting eaten. Some plants use trees to grow on.
7. Flowers need pollinators, grasses need to be grazed, some plants need other animals to move them around, lots of plants (roses in particular) need ladybugs to eat the aphids that eat them, and most plants need worms to aerate the soil. Worms also eat and pass dead leaves and compost that plants can use to grow, and as fertilizer. Another living part of the plant system is the plant it's self.
8. Plants need the sun for energy, water for their sugar, and some plants use wind to spread their seeds instead of animals. They also need the soil to hold the water in the ground where they can reach it, carbon dioxide to make photosynthesis, and a little bit of Oxygen that they use. Some plants use walls or fences to grow on.
9. The plants take the water from the soil, use the sun and the Carbon dioxide and Oxygen,  and grow in and on things. The bees get nectar, while also carrying pollen from plant to plant, which helps them reproduce. Ladybugs eat aphids, which are tiny bugs that eat plants. By eating them, the ladybugs feed themselves and save the plants - a win-win situation! Worms fertilize the soil by eating and pooping it. Cows, bunnies, and other grass-eating animals shorten grasses, which is good - it helps it grow.

On the human food label:

1. First, you find the "amount per serving" category, and then you look right below it to "calories"
2. You look in the "% Daily Value*" section
3. Near the bottom, where it says "INGREDIENTS:"

On the pet food label:

1. We can locate the list of ingredients at the top of the label, where it says "INGREDIENTS:"
2. We can find the percentage of different types of matter in the food at the bottom, where it says
   

         "​GUARANTEED ANALYSIS:" 

Answers:

1. I didn't learn anything about food from the labels. I did, however, learn about food from the lesson!
2. The food I chose was tomato soup. The ingredients that came from animals are: there are no ingredients that came from animals.
3. The ingredients that came from plants are: tomato puree and  wheat flour.
4. The similarities I saw between the human food and pet food labels were: they both have lists of ingredients and they both have percents of things.
5. My animal is a worm. It eats the soil, and gets nutrients from it. Then it poops it, and plants use the poop as fertilizer. It gets energy and matter from it's food (the soil).

​Between Living and non-living things

1. The living things (organisms) I see in both pictures is lake plants. There is nothing else I can see that they have in common, except for non living things.
2. Other living things that might be here even if I can't see them in the photo are: Microscopic organisms, small fish, and hidden algae. You never know what could be in there!
3. The living things in these photos might interact with each other because one (#1) might give another thing (#2) something that #2 needs, but #1 doesn't need. There is also that the power of a group in stronger than the power of a single.
4. In picture #1, the ducks eat fish, plants filter out germs, some fish that might be there might eat algae, and more!

          In picture #2, the fish eats smaller fish and algae, the plants filter the water, snails eat the plants, and more!
I said 'and more' because I can't see all of the ecosystems! There are tons in that picture that none of us can see.