SIRS Discover

The animal I chose was the Woodchuck in honor of Groundhog's Day yesterday :)  Woodchucks hibernate through winter. In summer and early fall they put on weight by eating lots of leaves, twigs, and fruits. They hole up in underground burrows. Their body temperature drops, and they may breathe at a rate of only once every six minutes. That lets them save energy. Can you imagine if we breathed only every 6 mins - wow!  They come out in the spring (and seem to always see their shadow-lol) and begin the yearly cycle again.

Woodchuck: Hibernating

The article I got my information from was a Highlights for Children Magazine 2006.  There are many different articles you can choose from that are provided for you. I thought that was interesting.














The country I picked was Australia - I want to really go there sometime.  Love the accent of the people and want to see the animals...Koala Bears and the Kangaroos.  Wow that gives you lots of information -- you get facts, economy, population, weather, history and government.  Lots to choose from.



I checked out the US map and looked at Minnesota -- you get to look at a picture of the state and lists some of the cites - more of the larger cities. Then I looked at Nations map and looked at Australia -- again you get a picture and lists the different Territories and Regions.  I can using this in a classroom if studying a particular state, region or country - gives some information and you can print of the picture to use. Plus it also gives you the time zones of the world!


I went into the Activities section and clicked on read aloud plays -- it gives you the names of different plays to pick from - which I picked The Case of the Watery Popsicle.  It gives you the list of characters and then the scenes.  That is kind of cool - homeschooling, teachers and librarians can use this for an activity or a story time.  This is the first time I have used SIRS and find it very interesting and helpful.  I might have to play around with it some more another time  :)