Look…Who Is That NEW Mandarin Teacher?!….
Posted by Carina Blackwell
In Mandarin class, one of the 7th Graders was chosen to be The Teacher Of the Class. Ms. Maximin practiced Mindfulness with the class at the beginning. She did an excellent job speaking to everyone in Mandarin. Everyone was also engaging in the class. They wanted to show off how much they knew in front of the “new” teacher. 7th Graders were thrilled to be the next “New Mandarin Teacher”. We will reveal the name and photos next month…
A Culinary Tour of Africa
Posted by Ariel Warshaw
Work First, Play Later? …Nah
Posted by Sarah Raggio
In Grade 5 we have been talking about learning styles in class and the students took a quiz to see which style suits them best. The quiz identified the Visual, Auditory and Tactile learners and suggested study activities based on their identified style. For an upcoming vocabulary quiz, we played Bingo, filled in a crossword puzzle, played a guessing game, a memory game, made a Quizlet and played Blooket, touching upon all three learning types, all while having fun! The high quiz scores demonstrated that we can learn and have fun at the same time!
4th Grade Writers in Action
Posted by Karen Engelke
Grade 4 worked hard to create their first piece of writing for the school year. The first part of the process invited children to “live like writers” and collect many small moment stories and ideas in their writer’s notebook. Students used story mountains to plan out ideas and then they rehearsed their ideas through oral storytelling with partners to help see where their story is going to go before sitting down to write it. Then, students focused on developing the characters in their story, including his/her motivations, struggles, and so on. Students focused on their story arc to get to the heart of the story. Fiction stories create scenes rather than summarize, so students were encouraged to ‘show don’t tell’. Finally students were asked to focus on revision as they finalized their realistic fiction story. The process paid off as the stories were fantastic!
Park City Composting: Mesophilic vs. Thermophilic
Posted by Joshua Bartosiewicz-
- Churning out the compost pile!
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- Mixing in more leaves (the Carbon source!).
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- Finding porosity.
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- Determining the porosity percentage.
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- Being introduced to the Tumbler or Mesophilic style of composting.
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- Students are discussing and recording observations from the Tumbler.
Lately with Park City Composting, the 8th graders have been learning how to measure and record different properties of the compost pile such as temperature, porosity, weight, bulk density. The students compared their results from past weeks and were asked to analyze the causes that may have played a role in these changes. Some examples included; the high activity of the actinobacteria caused more of the compost material to breakdown and released more heat into the pile, the breakdown of the material caused the pile to condense more thus reducing the porosity and much more. After data was recorded from the initial compost pile (also referred to as the Thermophilic pile) students were then introduced to the tumbler (also known as the Mesophilic pile). Students were asked to try to identify the ‘pros’ and ‘cons’ of having each type of pile. They concluded that the tumbler is great for people who don’t have a lot of space for a traditional compost pile such as on an apartment balcony or small backyard. The traditional compost pile is ideal for those with the available space. In addition, the tumbler stays at lower temperatures than the traditional compost pile. Therefore, both types of composting methods are suitable for different situations and utilize different types of bacteria. We are excited to see the quality of compost these two different methods will produce, which will be used to help mend the school garden.
Democracy in Action
Posted by Karen Engelke
Grade 4 had a great start to the school year, working on a Social Studies unit of a study entitled “Democracy in Action.” The Storypath curriculum involves creating a fictional town in which students play adult characters living among each other in a community. We began by creating a mural of our community which we aptly named “Gatorville.” We then created characters who assumed various roles within the community, such as Mayor, council person, and planning committee member. Students, within their various roles, worked on the community identity, problems and celebrations. By the end of the unit, students were sad to say goodbye to their beloved town of Gatorville, but we are committed to revisiting it at the end of the school year once we have explored the greater USA.
