November 19, 2010

Above are pictures from our trip to the circus and a science activity called "Seed Olympics." We looked at different ways that seeds travel, then students used felt, marshmallows, styrofoam, and feathers to create their own seed. The seeds were tested in three events: floating in the wind, clinging to animal fur, and floating on water. Students tested their seeds on Day 1, observed what worked and what didn't, then redesigned their seed to compete on Day 2. There were many improvements. On the second day, the seeds went 30 cm farther in the wind, clung to the animal fur longer, and many of them are still floating in the water now, three days later! Instead of a test, students are creating their own animal and describing the adaptations it has. This project is due on Tuesday.

We've also finished reading How to Eat Fried Worms. We had to stop reading only five pages from the end because it was time for recess, and I've never heard students want to not go to recess so badly before! They are practicing skits right now to share different scenes from the book with the class. There is a test on Monday on the book, and it would be helpful if they reviewed the vocabulary words from the unit beforehand. The sequence worm is also due on Monday.

Advent is quickly approaching, and with it comes one of my favorite religion projects: creating a Jesse Tree. Each student will be in charge of reading one Bible story, writing a summary, and creating a symbol of that story to share with the class. By doing this, we will trace Jesus' ancestry from Adam and Eve to his birth.

November 7, 2010

Thank you everyone for coming in to conferences! I appreciate having the opportunity to sit down and discuss each student's progress and goals for the upcoming quarter. As always, if any questions arise, please do not hesitate to contact me either through a call, note, or before or after school.

For the last spelling unit, I gave the students two weeks to study and complete activities with the words. As the words have grown more challenging, I am going to continue to do this, so they will have a test every other week. This week, though, the words will be vocabulary words from How to Eat Fried Worms. The students will take a pre-test on Wednesday and write their own list of words down in their assignment notebook. They will then complete spelling contract activities of their choice that week, and the following week will complete sheets from the vocab packet. The test will be on Friday, November 19.



Our Day of the Dead celebration was very successful! The altars looked beautiful, and I know that the students enjoyed sharing their own ofrendas and paragraphs, and looking at the ones created by other students. Our project was featured in the parish bulletin this Sunday, too.

Our art classes, sponsored by Big Shoulders, have sadly come to an end. The students' projects look wonderful, and they will be bringing them home soon to show you (as soon as I'm done displaying them for the rest of the school to see).