New School Year - Ecology

We are off to a good start this year. We will be studying Ecology during the first trimester. We have been outside getting to know our local ecosystem. We have begun constructing model food webs and have been developing our science vocabulary to help understand what keeps things going in the natural world.
We have had a small amount of homework, reading from "Decay and Renewal" the small textbook of sorts that we will be using as a reference this fall. We have been looking at photosynthesis and respiration, food webs and how energy flows through an ecosystem while matter cycles through.
We played a card game that simulates the structure of food webs and the interdependence of different types of organisms and their various roles, or niches, in a temperate forest ecosystem. After playing the game, students modified the game to make it more realistic and detailed.
The reading due on Thursday, September 5 was to read pages 3-5.
The reading due on Tuesday, September 10 is to read pages 6-9, stopping half way down page 9 where the new section "Classification of Living Things" begins.