Study Update

We are beginning our study government and watching the primaries.
Here is a source for results:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/02/10/delegate.map/index.html

This week students thought about laws and continued our studies of the states. Students created national maps showing the primary results they were interested in.

Update for FEB 11th

Look in your email for a health update from Dan and Steve Middlebrook soon

What a great job the Inventors did in performance on Friday! Nearly all the parts of our complicated high tech/low tech hybrid project come together as Dan had planned in what we sincerely hope was as enjoyable for audience to watch as it was for us to perform. Students were happy to share reflections on their learning during the process of creating the show and had an ice cream party, compliments of Toscanini's and Norah.

In the past week, in addition to practicing for our performance, in math we worked on perimeters and converting feet to inches then to centimeters which dovetailed nicely into our previous study of multiplication of 2 and 3 digit numbers. We also studied spelling, grammar and learned about the Western states. All students did very well on their geography test although the spelling of state's names will need some work. This past week in science we studied 3 states of matter and evaporation, sublimation, condensation using CO2 in solid form. We then made a dry ice fogger.

Copies of the Green 13 video segments will be available . Some parents made a video of the actual performance which I will try to edit ASAP. We may decide to reschedule our visit the MIT museum. Please look here for info.
See you soon, norah

Our performance this FRIDAY FEB 8th

Back to work...JAN update

We are working on our Rock Opera performance and the students have been creating Punk Newz reports and these scenes will be performed "live" along with singing, dancing and the video of 7 vignettes that the students filmed in late December.

We need the kids to find an outfit at home that fits the punk theme.
Please bring these in by JAN 25th.

Students have been researching, writing and rehearsing and some have been working on building a ramp and other pieces for the set. We are using recycled material and computer projections whenever possible.

More December notes...

We finished our personal narratives and published them as a CD. Each family should have a copy. Your CD may look like this or may have a custom designed cover, illustrating your child's story.

Solstice performance and some rehearsals

Dismissal on DEC 21st,2007








Sitting with our 1st grade partners at the Solstice assembly DEC 2007.




We helped them to make our visual props and sang together.






Dan, Christian and Cole worked the pulley for the Sun in our Solstice assembly. Simone was the voice of the Sun and Cole delivered a line or two as well.

Learning Update and Recording Our Personal Narratives

Students worked really hard on revising and polishing their work. The recording process helped some find new words and images for their stories.




Students worked really hard on revising and polishing their work. The recording process helped some find new words and images for their stories.
This has been a busy week for all Inventors as we finished props, practiced songs and staging for our Solstice Assembly while continuing our academic work and finishing some of our projects before the winter break.

Students worked in partners to finish a back drop with non-verbal symbol for our Rock Opera video. They practiced and memorized lines for their scenes. Then we filmed the 6 scenes and were able to do 3 - 6 "takes" of each.

Students were challenged by the limerick form and wrote funny and some touching poems.

Students worked on our Time Line researching and writing about Inventions & Inventors.

We continued our study of Fairy Tales. Each student read at least 10 Fairy Tales and identified themes in each. Then students wrote their own fairy tale with an eco-friendly theme. As an assessment, students watched scenes from Star Wars and identified fairy tale themes in the story and characters.

Students worked on an illustration for a CD cover for their personal narrative or poem.

We worked on multiplication and the standard algorithm for subtraction.

We reviewed the food chain on line.

Some students were able to finish all the above and take the Inventor's Challenge: Looking at pictures and sketches from many sources, they built a paper and dowel model of Leonardo DaVinci's canvas and wood parachute.