Final Week of April

Just a math box quiz on Friday of this week. We are concentrating on finishing our Phantom Tollbooth literary essays and story sequels. Scientific classification is our final unit in Science. We will be doing several engaging investigations and projects each week. We'll have another History assessment on chapters 1 to 10 but not for another week or so. We will be starting a project to research the various events that led up the the American War of Independence. Next week we begin our final book study of the year. More about all this later.

Human Impact Noticed Just Beyond Our Door

Our Land & Water science unit is complete. Our last investigation was to run the same amount of water through the stream table bins (above) after grass and mustard plants have firmly rooted. The results were clear. The water sank into the soil instead of running off. The water when it did emerge was not muddy as it had been every other investigation. The roots of the plants held the soil in place and kept the moisture near the roots.



Besides water changing the land, humans do too. Evidence of this is just outside our classroom. Since our door is directly in line with a sidewalk leading to Guidance, the clinic, learning center etc., people over the past seven years have "beaten" a path of sorts down the berm. Evidence of this can be seen in how the soil is several inches shorter opposite our door than next door (see photo below). And the plant cover is well worn away too. People "cut" through our classroom to reach the hallway and beyond. We take this route to get wherever we are going all day.

Celebrate Singing & Recycling

Visiting Artists: Karen Porter & Charlie Parker

Charlie Parker shares his humor and enthusiasm for pottery making with the class. They all fashioned turtles and then helped him produce some bowls and bottles. What an artist! What a showman!



First off today was a lesson in illustration from Karen Porter. You can see some of her decorated elephants on the counter. She guided the class into "seeing" then drawing a sailfish. She encouraged everyone to relax about their art...if you mess up, it can be fixed or transformed.

Celebrating Shorecrest's Artists

All this week we've been touring various divisions of the school checking out the various student art displays. Here we're "smelling" our soda bottle recycled flowers and (below) visions of the future. We also toured the art on display in the Middle Division.

Celebrate African Drum Traditions

Malian Bahikoru Kouyate gave an African drum demonstration Wednesday that enthralled us all. Young and old were drumming and dancing.

Celebrate Jazz

The music room was really swinging with this jazz quartet made up of drummer Peter, bassist Jen, Ben on keyboards and Vicki on violin and vocals. They all started in classical music but soon discovered the fun of jazz. They explained how a quartet works by comparing their individual roles to a table with a painted canvass on it. Ask a Shorecrest student to explain further.