Wilson K-8 School, Tucson, Arizona

 Our class chose Greenville Elementary School in Scarsdale, New York to compare squares because they lived on the other side of the country. Even though both schools are on opposite sides of the country, we found many of the same kinds of things in our squares. 

• Animals:  We both found fire ants, flying bugs, and beetles.

• Plants:  We found trees, weeds, grass, sticks, and pinecones.

• Non-living: We found rocks, dirt, sand, feathers, and plastic trash.

 We found many different items in our squares.

• Animals: We didn’t have a worm or a spider and they did. They found a lady bug and we found a roly-poly.  We had a nest of quail eggs next to one of our squares.

• Plants:  They had live grass and we had dead grass.  They had moss and mushrooms.  We had cactus and desert shrubs.  Even though we found a pinecone, we didn’t have a pine tree and they did.   

• Non-Living Objects: They found a bike reflector and we found a tennis ball.  We had rabbit poop and they had bird poop. 

The reason we had different plants and animals is because the school yard in New York is in a wetter and cooler area than our school in the desert. That’s why they can grow mushrooms and moss.  Worms live underground in moist areas.  Our desert is too dry for worms to live in.  We can’t figure out where our pinecone came from unless someone carried it to school and dropped it.