Do You Know Why Flamingos Are Pink?

DeSandies, ManYee. flamingos9.jpg. 11/01/2003. Pics4Learning. 19 Apr 2011

This morning I had the pleasure of visiting Ms. Linhart's 5th grade class. We talked about Wonderopolis. We visited the very first Wonder of the day, "Why Are Flamingos Pink".  We watched the short video of the flamingos and then went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium web cam to see flamingos walking around in their pond. One of the things that impressed me the most was the immediate questions that students asked as soon as we started talking about flamingos.

The students knew that what the flamingos ate caused them to be pink. They came up with several very good questions. One of the questions was, "How does a gray shrimp turn the flamingos pink?" The students knew that when we boil shrimp they turn from gray to pink; but, since flamingos don't cook their food, how does eating gray shrimp turn the feathers of the flamingos pink? I thought this was a great question. Ms. Linhart told the students to write the questions down in their journal so they could research and find the answers. I told them that they could put a comment in the comment section of the Wonder of the Day and Wonderopolis would answer them back. 

After we looked at a few more Wonders of the Day, I handed out tee-shirts to the students. Here is a picture of them with Ms. Linhart.

The students loved the tee-shirts and they put them on right away. What a great looking group!

One of the students wrote the website down right away. Ms. Linhart said she would put the website on the SMART Board for the students to take home with them. Another of the students said, they didn't need to write the website down, because it was on their shirts!

I definitely saw how this could become a family time discussion and also how this could introduce a new unit in the classroom.

Thank you to Wonderopolis for sending me the tee-shirts to share with Ms. Linhart's class.

Thank you to Ms. Linhart and your class for allowing me to come and share Wonderopolis with you. I hope you have a lifetime of wonders!