Sunshine State Books Vote

Students who read at least three of the specially selected books for ten year olds known as the Sunshine State Readers voted for their favorite.  We had many more students reading these award winning books this year on their eReaders.    Erin W. read all fifteen.

More Recycled Backgammon Games

Puppets, Comics, Glogs, iMovies, iWebs, Animations, Prezi, and more

Our colonial food project moved to the computer lab to create technology applications that reflect what has been learned.

Artful & Playable Recycling: Our Backgammon Project

All recycled materials including pizza, cereal and other packaging; bottle caps; used masking tape; carpet and many others.  Also used are found objects such as pebbles and palm fronds.  Themes included: baseball, pizza picnic with ants and The Hunger Games.

Colonial Project Continues

Top to bottom: Mrs. Baralt met with all students helping with their technology application planning;  working on the report bibliography; preparing puppets for an iMovie production and creating a talking potato with Frames.

Celebrate the Arts? Check

 

 

 

Top to bottom:  potter Charlie Parker and his assistant and his assistants to his assistants; singing "She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain;" rocking with "Noisemakers;" and good ol' bluegrass.

Decorah (Iowa) Eagles

Back for a second year live on the worldwide web, this eagle pair are raising three chicks this spring. The whole world is watching.

http://www.ustream.tv/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/ctt.jpeg

The Three Sisters: Corn, Beans & Squash Explained

Lauren explains what she's learned about how Native Americans grew corn, beans and squash together. Some Colonial Americans later adopted this system known as "the Three Sisters."




This US dollar coin shows a native American woman planting bean seeds as part of her "three sisters" garden.

Math: Sometimes Symmetrical

In math class, ten year old today, Mikey uses a transparent mirror to explore lines of symmetry and the concepts of translation, reflection and rotation. Ask a fourth grader what this all means.

Celebrate the Arts: Lower Division Display

We toured the Lower Division art show in our two breezeways. Here Tyler poses next to his landscape which had a distinctive southwest look that I admired.




You all need to get out and view these fabulous artistic creations on display all week.




Kudos to Mrs Rowe and her art students.

Shuttle Discovery Over Washington,DC

We watched a Washington Post slide show of the shuttle Discovery over Washington, DC as it was being transported today from Kennedy Space Center to its new home at the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum in Virginia.

photo source: http://msnbcmedia1.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/g-tch-120417-shuttle-921a.grid-6x2.jpg

Wear jeans and solid colored shirt Friday

For the Celebrate the Arts Performance on Friday, April 20th all Fourth Grade students should wear jean bottoms and a solid colored shirt. Please make sure this information is communicated to all.





Thank you!

Anne Healy

Colonial America Research Project Underway

One of the more important but overlooked subjects in school is how humans have sustained themselves. We study kings, weapons, wars etc. but seldom address the foods that fuel us all. So building on our activities in the school garden all year, students are each investigating an important food source in Colonial America. Subjects include: pigs, cows, small and large game, turkeys, beans, cabbage, sweeteners, cod and other fish, clams and the grasses (wheat, rice and corn). Students were able to select their subject and later which technology application to use.

Students practice many of their research and note taking skills learned over many years at Shorecrest.




One important researching skill is to listen and take notes from a presenter. Here my wife, Meredith, talks about the various methods Colonial Americans used to preserve their foods. One of the project's essential questions focuses on the differences between how we get and preserve our food now as opposed to our ancestors. Mrs. Hughes began her talk by asking the class if they ate breakfast and then talked about what Colonial Americans would have had to do to eat the same things.




Later each student got to interview Mrs. Hughes one on one about his/her specific topic. Here Zach learns about his subject cabbage by asking about the different varieties. They are looking at a book about leafy vegetables written by my wife. Her ten book series on the plants we eat is an important reference material for many in the class.



Once the interviews were over, each student wrote up what he/she learned and continued research.



Students are using a note taking method first taught to them in Mrs. Baralt's technology course. Their source citations are each kept carefully too.

Once the research phase is complete, students will write a five paragraph report with bibliography. At the same time in Computer Lab they will be planning and producing a technology application which will demonstrate in an electronic form all they have learned.

Art Homework Tonight Explained

From Mrs. Rowe:

The children will have their folk art paintings displayed next week, but I am trying to put up their story quilts as well if at all possible. Their quilts are finished, but I wanted them to hand-write their stories as well. We talked about this today and some of them have finished their stories. I think the written stories will really help everyone to understand the artwork.

Please ask your students to do this for homework tonight if they have not already completed it. I have parents volunteering who will hopefully be able to type up the stories.

It should be a story...not a description of the quilt square. For example, instead of saying "I made a basketball because I love to play basketball" say something like "One day when I was playing basketball with my cousins......"

Thanks so much for your help with this. I really thought they could get this done today, but many of them spent the entire class sewing.

Natural Disasters: wildfires

We looked at this map of Florida wildfires causing smoke in our area. It fits in with Mrs. Baralt's unit just finished on natural disasters. Students all made comic book pages about one hurricanes, tornadoes, hailstorms, earthquakes etc. Link to PDF file: Map of Florida fires

Our Eaglet Soars

And check this live stream of the Decorah eagles' nest.

Honk Your Nose If You Love the Ringling Museum

Zach's Mom got these for us at the museum gift shop. John Ringling, who started his circus career as a clown, would have loved this photo.