Fourth grade students learning about the weather with Eric Pritchett!

Recently the students in Ms. Hendrix's 4th grade class were able to learn what a real meteorologist does everyday. Eric Pritchett of NBC 29 talked to the students about the water cycle, clouds, precipitation, and broadcasting. He encouraged them to learn as much as they could about earth science if they would one day like to predict the weather. Everyone had a great time learning with a great local meteorologist!

Fifth grade ocean ecosystems

Fifth graders are creating murals as a way to demonstrate their knowledge of the ocean  ecosystems.  

 Artistic interpretations of real creatures, whose habitats are within the Sunlight, Twilight and Darkness (Abyssal) Zones, are being creatively painted in the fifth grade hallway. 

In addition, our fifth graders fabricated imaginary creatures  which included many common physical and behavioral adaptations of successful ocean creatures. 

 

Come check out their work and progress each week in the fifth grade hall!

Jump Rope for Heart and Duct Tape!

This year our students participated in the Jump Rope for Heart event, which is a popular school fundraiser for the American Heart Association.

Students learned about taking care of their hearts through a healthy lifestyle, including physical activity.

We challenged the students to raise at least $10, 000 for the American Heart Association. If they achieved this goal, then they would get to duct tape Mr. Saunders and Ms. Eckerle to the wall.

We are excited to announce that our students raised $18,700, shattering both their goal and the last amount our school raised ($6,000)

.

Here is a link to the NBC29 story about the event and the students duct taping their principals.

Congratulations again to the whole school on this tremendous accomplishment!

Virginia Festival of the Book!

We always enjoy celebrating the Virginia Festival of the Book and taking advantage of the great authors who are in town. 

On Friday March 20th all of our 3^rd and 4^th grade students thoroughly enjoyed a memorable presentation by Newbery Award winning author Kate DiCamillo.  In addition, 45 copies of Flora and Ulysses, her 2014 Newbery Award title, were donated to our school.  Other favorite titles by DiCamillo include the Newbery Award winners Because of Winn-Dixie and The Tale of Desperaux, the Mercy Watson series, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, Bink and Gollie, The Tiger Rising and The Magician’s Elephant.

Recently, Steven Weinberg, author and illustrator of Rex Finds an Egg! Egg! Egg! delighted our 2^nd graders, sharing the start of his writing career in kindergarten, answering all of our questions and emphasizing the importance of reading lots of books and writing lots of stories.  He left us with lots of writing ideas and pictures of dinosaurs.