Friday, December 11, 2015

Thursday, December 10, 2015

Field trip to Grelen Nursery!



Mr. Spellman’s and Ms. Erdim’s classes went to beautiful Grelen Nursery this past week. Mr. Gregg taught them about trees and how to care for them.  In addition, our students got to see the type of tree that Grelen nursery is donating to our school before winter break. Everyone had a great time being outside and seeing a working nursery. Thanks again to Grelen Nursery for a great learning experience as well as for their generous donation of a tree to our school.






Monday, December 7, 2015

Weekly math vocabulary videos


We are excited to share that some of our 2nd grade students have recently begun creating videos that explain and explore math vocabulary.

First they select words used by all our of students in Kindergarten through 5th grade. These students then create videos that we show on Wednesdays on our school-wide morning announcements, and after they've watch the video each classroom fills out brief exit slips about what they've learned. We're excited to share the first video that they've created, which is about the math word "digit." Check it out here below:

Thursday, December 3, 2015

Squishy Circuits!



Fourth graders in Mrs. Whitenack’s Extended Learning Time (ELT) group have been exploring electricity and circuit design using everyday materials combined with batteries, bulbs, and wires. 

Now that they know the basics of series, parallel, and short circuits, they are using conductive and insulating doughs to create creatures whose LED eyes light up. Check out some of their creations below!





Sunday, November 22, 2015

Students creating paper circuits!



Fourth grade students in Ms. Wright’s class learned about circuits this week.  Mrs. Harman led them through a training session using copper tape, LED stickers and button batteries. The stickers lit up when the circuits were correctly completed and all students were able to create a working circuit. 





These students will become the mentors to second grade classes when the younger students create illuminated illustrations to go along with the original fairy tales they will write next month.

The materials for the training session and the ‘brilliant’ fairy tales are being funded by a K-12 Education Partnership grant from the Dominion Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Dominion Resources.  More information on paper circuits and materials can be found at http://chibitronics.com/