Northview — Third-graders across the district started the school year learning about Michigan’s official state symbols.
In Amy Schelhaas’ West Oakview classroom, for instance, Shayla Macon can tell you that the state fish is a brook trout. She chose to research the colorful freshwater dwellers because, she said, “it’s just fun going swimming with fish and seeing them under water.” She added that brook trout eat insects and worms, and that “I’m pretty sure they can survive, like, three weeks without food if they have to.”
Jack Barecki focused on the state wildflower, the dwarf lake iris. “It just looks like a cool flower,” he said of the threatened purple flower that grows only along the northern shores of lakes Huron and Michigan.
Schelhaas said the project aligns with third-graders’ geography and social studies unit.
“They have many options to choose from, and when they have the choice they take ownership,” she said.
Read more from Northview:
• It’s all about the mitten state
• Figuring out problems, not just learning about them
