Earth Day

Earth Day is fast approaching and second grade created these wonderful posters for our hallway.  We used KidPix for the writing.  Students practiced writing "I can" and "I will" statements.

The students loved creating their handprint Earths.  After painting our planets the second grade teacher had the great idea of adding a little glitter to their projects.  She said, "Everything is better with glitter."  Although I disagree, she was correct in this case. 😀 

Bot Building

The third graders had their first experience with building bots today.  This opened up great conversations about circuits, insulators/conductors, vibration, and friction.

We cut the head off toothbrushes, added batteries and vibrating motors, and off they went.  Spontaneously, the students created tracks from old cardboard.  They also used the chalk ledge to help give the bots direction.  We tried to have our bots vibrate through paint, but we concluded the paint was too thick.  Next time we will water down the paint and create bot masterpieces.

What a fun day!

Maker Day

"Wow"...

"Look what we made"...

"Can we do this again"...

"We figured it out"...

Maker Day- a day to celebrate innovation and creativity by emphasizing STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math). 

 

All students in grades Pre-K through 12 spent the day problem solving, building, brainstorming, calculating, and collaborating.  Whether constructing greenhouses in our Upper School,  building wooden benches in Middle School, or making small boats in Lower School, the students worked together.  

Our fourth graders rotated through five different STEAM projects.  They made marble mazes, musical instruments using recycled materials, floating boats, electric circuits and contributed to a large art mural made with bottle caps.

Students were quite creative when they were presented with LEDs, battery pack, insulating playdough, and conductive playdough.  

Car with Working Headlights

Airplane with Lights

Octopus

Maryland Blue Crab

Days like this prove that you don't need textbooks and pencils to learn. 

Door Decorating Contest

Every year the lower school classrooms decorate their doors for Book Character Day.  On this day we dress up like our favorite book character from any book.

This year we decorated our door like "Read Box".  Instead of renting movies, you can watch book reviews.  We used the app called Educreations and recorded our voices giving a summary of any chapter book we read.  We also included who we think would like to read this book.

We took our digital reports and turned them into QR codes.  You can scan the QR code and watch our book report videos.

We also drew the front cover of our chapter book.

You student bloggers, 

The Fantastic Fourth

Pinwheels for Peace

Pinwheels for Peace is a national project created by a school in Florida.  It is celebrated each year on September 21.  The whole point is to write your wish on your pinwheel and as the wind blows it blows your wishes into the world.

This our Pinwheels for Peace.  Our art teacher, Miss T., asked the whole lower school to make pinwheels.  Fourth grade and fifth grade choose their favorite artists and copied their paintings on to pinwheels. Pre-K through third grade made their own designs on their pinwheels.

On our pinwheels we each wrote a wish for the world.

Sydney- I hope there are no more wars.
Alex- Stop murder
Brice- I hope there are no more wars.
Olivia- I hope people stop fighting.
Grace- I wish bullying would stop.
Brooke- I hope the whole world is in peace.
Jacob- World peace
Hannah- I wish there were no more bad people in the world.
Ayush- I hope there are no more wars.
Kate- I hope there were no wars and no one would get hurt.
Aidan- I hope there are no more wars.
Marshall- People need to stop fighting other people in their countries.
Hugh Thomas- I hope to bring peace to the world forever and ever and for all eternity.
AnnaMarie- I wish the world would be a better place.
Carter- I hope there is no more child abuse.
Kat- I wish for no more bullying and everyone would be nice to each other.
Puja- I wish everyone would get along.
Gavin- I wish for peace for the world.
Pranay- I wish the war in Syria would stop.
Sumira- I wish the world was a better place.

This is a short video we found on YouTube to tell you a little more about Pinwheels for Peace.


Your student bloggers,
The Fantastic Fourth