Classifying Aliens

Scientific classification is the fourth grade's final science unit. Here Sophia M. and Kyle J. from our class discuss various traits of their "critter cards" to help them devise a classification system. This unit was assembled by Mr. Lee and leads to an exploration of dichotomous keys. The fourth grade will use their newly acquired knowledge when they visit Lowry Park Zoo in a few weeks.

Go Vinny Go!

The fourth grade rocks out....ending "Celebrate the Arts Week" with their rendition of "Go Vinny Go" a song about Vincent Van Gogh.

Hot Ice?

Yes, an Icelandic glacier has a volcano underneath. Mariah who is studying global ice forms and Sophia who has been working on volcanoes learned that their landforms combined to make dramatic news this week. The ash and steam cloud caused by the volanic eruption under the glacier brought about by week's end a near total halt to air traffic to and from Europe. See the link to the left to see what normal global air traffic for 24 hours looks like.

Now can anyone pronounce "Eyjafjallajokull" and say what it means? And can you explain how a volcano can be under a glacier. Or why it's so dangerous to jet planes? I bet students in my class know.

Students Doing More of the Instruction

I've mostly turned over the morning feature "Daily Holiday Quiz" to volunteers from the class. Mitchell Greene started it off and now coordinates the program with me. You may recall that we learn about a holiday or celebration going on somewhere on the planet. The students hear a short passage about the holiday and answer five listening comprehension questions. They are encouraged to take notes. Both listening and notetaking skills are essential and practiced in this way daily. Last week the celebration was close to home, as it was Shorecrest's Teacher Appreciation Day."

Recently Melanie (shown in the photo) brought in her "Martenitsi" dolls which are part of an annual Bulgarian rite of spring. She readily agreed to compose and read an explanation of this holiday and the five question quiz. It was a holiday tradition unfamiliar to me that I'm pleased to add to my list. By the way, Melanie got the dolls from her new neighborhood friend who visits her Bulgarian grandparents annually.

Starry Night Project

Celebrate the Arts Festival at Shorecrest kicked off this week with class parent Mr. Brandon Vesely introducing the class to the subject of the fourth grade public art project, Van Gogh's "Starry Night." We learned about the artist's life and watched a sound slide show on the subject.


This morning students took turns adding images and designs on a school picnic table in the style and spirit of the masterpiece. All the children signed their names as well.

Feeling Appreciated

A save-forever door decoration, armfulls of flowers, chocolates, personal messages and cards today and a special lunch on Thursday for Teacher Appreciation Week....Shorecrest-style. Thanks.

Rays Opening Day

Rays Day at Shorecrest. I let everyone get a head start on homework.....so we can catch some of the game. Go Rays!

A Writer's Life Discussed

Meredith Sayles Hughes, my wife, talked about her career as a writer recently. While she has authored a dozen books with several more in the works, the class learned about all the other kinds of writing she has done to earn a living. These include writing speeches, advertisements, magazine articles, news and feature reporting, editing newspapers and other author's book manuscripts. Mrs. Hughes has also written plays, poetry, musical comedy scripts and greeting cards. Her current project is writing all the scripts, signage, captions and activity publications for an exhibition at the United States Botanic Garden in Washington, DC. When asked by students what was her favorite thing to write, she told them about her novel. "Writing fiction is a lot of fun, because you don't have to worry about the facts since everything is made up," she explained.

Field Day

Did "Field Days" get started when kids who had to come out and hang around while their families worked in the fields started games and races? So how did the term "field trip" come to mean a school outing? If you figure any of this out, let us all know. You can leave a comment.

In the meantime, our field day colors for tomorrow are:

wearing green: Elia, Harsheen, Jasmine, Julia and Meghan
wearing gold: Kyle J, Melanie, Sarah
wearing blue: Danny, Mariah. Maxx
wearing rfed: Evan S.
wearing white: Gunther, Kyle M., Mitchell G
wearing black: Sophia M, Matthieu, Nicklas

The photo above is from my food history collection. This is an early 20th century scene of potato planting in England.

Baseball Opening Day

Wearing Rays shirts with school uniform pants or skirts is permitted on April 6th, the opening game of the new season. We're all Rays fans, right?