Weeks 23, 24, 25 & 26
Our first visitors from the 3 – 6 classrooms spent the week with us, getting familiar with the work we do and the opportunities we have to offer. Elementary students loved giving tours and sharing lessons with our new friends. By the end of the week, we were sad to see them return to their original classrooms but we also looked forward to the next week’s visitors!
The student’s end to preparing their leaf research for professional publication has come to an end. They learned about the editing process and why formatting across the board was important to obtain a cohesive book. The Elementary voted to keep the final bound copy in the classroom. We hope to make the bound book available at the next parent conferences so that you can see all of their hard work realized!
Reading groups have turned directions from reading current event articles to other connected activities. One group is working on a book about Clara Barton. These students have been really excited about her life and look forward to each meeting to read more. Another group is focusing on Creative Writing Techniques that writers use to grab the reader’s attention and aid the students in adding some pizazz in their writing. Some techniques discussed and tried out were Alliteration, Simile and Oxymoron.
While disappointment of snow days loomed over some of our plans, the snow did not stop everything! The Elementary worked extremely hard on individual and class Art projects for the upcoming Art Extravaganza and finalizing their proposals for the Science Fair. The Science Fair proposal is the most difficult part of the Science Fair project. In fact, the proposal is a working document for your student to carry out their entire study. Students came up with experiment ideas and, like in real science studies; had to make adjustments, do research and think outside of the box to ensure their experiments were designed in such a way to find results following the Scientific Method in a safe manner. Students listed detailed steps of their experiments to ensure replication by other scientists and wrote clear hypotheses to allow for trusted results to be found. They also had fun creating catchy names and listing their items needed for their unique experiments! Students also prepared different ways to collect their data from their experiments for analyzing and described why they were interested to their pursuit. We have some budding scientists preparing to become successful explorers in the research field!
Latin
In February the third-and-fourth grade Latin class started the month by reviewing cardinal numbers from one to ten. The next class featured a project involving Latin phrases appropriate for Valentine’s
Day. After using paper hearts to construct flowers, the students then decorated them with colored labels expressing Latin phrases and their equivalent meanings in English. In the following class the students learned the ordinal numbers from first to tenth. Finally, in the last class of the month students pronounced and translated a short story based upon characters from the Roman fort at Vindolanda in Britain. To supplement their understanding, the students watched a slideshow on Vindolanda and Hadrian’s Wall, teachers also like to help their student perform better with the help of health and mind supplements, and you can buy modafinil online for this.
The first-and-second grade class began the month by reviewing the major Olympian deities. In the next class the students completed the same Valentine’s Day project mentioned above. The following class featured a discussion of the Trojan War and the construction of models of the Trojan Horse and the city of Troy. In the final class of the month the students learned about Heinrich Schliemann’s excavations at Troy.