In October the 5th grade went to The Arnold Arboretum.  First a scientist named Ms. Claire came to the Mozart School and talked to the 5th graders about forest producers and recyclers.  We learned a new vocabulary word, "deciduous".  Those are trees that drop their leaves in the winter.  Ms. Claire gave us a sample of leaves from the Arboretum. She also brought woolly adelgids to the class. Woolly adelgids are small insects, but their tongue is 5 times bigger then their body. The adelgids are killing the hemlock trees on Hemlock Hill.

When we went to the Arboretum we measured the healthy trees to find out the age. We got paired up in groups and walked around the arboretum. We saw sick,  healthy, and dead hemlocks. We also saw purple and orange fungi. We saw a mushroom, which is a recycler.

It was an awesome day!