Waste Management Field Trip

Friday we visited the new visitor center at Waste Management. We were actually the first class to visit the facility. It is a beautiful visitor center and we were even able to see the recycling taking place through windows. I even learned a lot!

Rock On! Coding our Guitars

We are nearing the end of our computer science lessons on building a guitar and coding it to play similar to a real guitar. The projects have turned out great. Perhaps one more day and then off to another project.

Modeling Dividing Decimals

We spent time in class on Friday really understanding what it means to divide a decimal by a whole number. Using manipulatives, students worked through division problems using base-10 blocks. We then transferred this physical model to a paper and pencil model.

What is Photosynthesis?

This week, students learned the in-depth process of how plants make their food, a sugar called glucose. The learned that plant seeds have enough chemical energy to sprout and do very well, even in total darkness for several days. In fact, our seeds in total darkness even out-performed the ones in light (due to less evaporation). However, yesterday we observed that our wheat plants in the total darkness, although growing still, look sickly. Students learned that they are not green because the chlorophyll isn't able to take the CO2, water, and light to produce glucose. We decided to take some of the plants in darkness and put them in the light, while also taking some from the light and putting them in darkness. We will see if over a few days we see changes.

Fall Art

Friday involved an afternoon of art. After analyzing photos of aspen and even paintings of aspen by Bev Doolittle (the neat ones where she blends in hidden pictures in the aspen), our class used painters tape to help paint a fall aspen scene. The final projects came out great.

Marco........Polo......

Today a visitor from the past visited our classroom to provide background knowledge about the Silk Road its impact on trade in the 1200s. Marco Polo, the famous merchant who traveled the Mongol Empire for 24 years, spoke to the class of his adventures and his time with Kublai Khan. Following the short visit to our class, the students found supporting information in their social studies books and then completed questions using information from the book, the visitor, or both. Perhaps, due to his great adventures and his impact on the world at the time, we still use his name in swimming pool games today.

Pie in Face and a Guitar!

Today we had a student who was selected to smash a pie in Mrs. Fischer's face. Since our school sold over 1,600 books at book fair, the deal was made last year that a pie would be smashed in her face. The student selected was selected based on checking out the most books from the library. The photos came out great, as Mrs. Fischer barely got to a count down of 1 before the pie went in her face. Additionally, following the pie in the face, Mr. Weed visited and taught the kids a lesson about how an electric guitar works. This connected great to the guitars kids are building and starting to write their code for in computer science.