Field Day {5/29/14}
Field Day = Fun Day! What a great way to end the year. We love having it the last day of school to close out the year. Have a safe and wonderful summer!
3rd Grade Wetlands Adventure {5/23/14}
Again, the third grade amazes us! We had a full day of wetland activities and fun completely planned by the third graders. They were the teachers and facilitators. Small groups of our students went around the stations on 15 minute rotations to complete 20 amazing activities.
High School Orchestra Visit {5/1/14}
The High School Orchestra paid us a pleasant visit to share with us the string instruments and to play some very fun songs. We recognized many of the tunes such as Spongebob and the Pink Panther. The HS Students are amazing and at the end, they spread out among the elementary students so they can see up close and even feel the instruments as they are played.
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Shakespeare at the PAC {4/15/14}
It is always fun to see performances at the Performing Arts Center at Summit High School. We are so lucky to be able to become more cultured by taking a simple walk across the parking lot!
The Summitarod - our version of the Iditarod {4/14/14}
For one culminating activity for the Iditarod Fusion Unit, we built our own dog sleds and held our own race. The top 4 from each class were put in the final competition and through a bracket, Leo placed 2nd and Tyler placed 1st! We also took the red lantern thanks to Carter's slowest time!
Force and Motion Extravaganza! {4/10/14}
Learning through doing wins again! Our Force and Motion Extravaganza was a big hit! Thank you to all the volunteers that were able to help out. We truly couldn't do the activities without all the help! The kids enjoyed shooting teacher's pictures with marshmallow catapults, building balloon jets, racing cars, and making different types of paper and foam planes. So much fun!
Harlem Wizards {4/8/14}
The Wizards came to get us pumped up for their game at the high school and it was a very entertaining assembly! They are not just talented, but very funny as well and we always enjoy seeing them when they visit.
Shakespeare of our own - Tempest {3/21/14}
Mrs. Gaughenbaugh (Mrs. G) always does a wonderful job, not just with creating great thespians, but with preparing the school to know and understand the Shakespeare stories. Bravo!
Third Grade Science Carnival {3/21/14}
Thank you third graders for another fabulous share-out of your units! We can tell the amazing things you are learning in school and applaud you! We had a great time learning science through carnival games and activities. We are very anxious to try create these things ourselves next year!
Communities - Summitville {3/21/14}
Our Community Fusion Unit was a great success! The students created awesome residential houses and commercial businesses. Combined with the other 2nd grade classrooms, we had an extraordinary city! Classes from other grade levels were able to come to visit our city with our students being the tour guides. Map skills, economics, government, citizenship, and engineering were all a focus of this unit.
February STEM Challenge - Valentine's Day Boxes {2/14/14}
February's STEM Challenge was to create a box for Valentine's Day cards. It needed to to represent a real world object, place, or thing, and have moveable parts. They turned out adorable!
The First Thanksgiving {11/26/13}
We spent time learning and rehearsing the reader's theater "The First Thanksgiving" so that we could share it with our school community. We were able to invite one class from each grade to come see our performance. The kids did an awesome job!
How to Eat Fried Worms
After reading the book and watching the film, we made "fried worms"! Its amazing how 2 Tootsie Rolls and some crushed Vanilla Wafers look so realistic! The kids loved posing like they were eating nasty worms! What fun!
Veteran's Day {11/11/13}
Veteran's Day {11/11/13}
On Veteran's Day this year, we spent time honoring those who have given their time to protect and serve us. We listened to Lee Greenwood's "Proud to be an American" and Toby Keith's "American Soldier". While listening, the students envisioned a picture and made drawings.
Ballet Met Performance {11/7/13}
We were privileged to go see a performance of the Ballet Met at Summit High School. There were a variety of dances and routines that the children really enjoyed. It is great to be cultured!
Fall Foliage Festival {11/1/13}
This was our fall party with costumes created for our October STEM Challenge. Each child needed to create a costume that represented the S, T, E, or M in Stem and then do a presentation of the costume. The students did a fabulous job!
3rd Grade Living Museum {10/25/13}
We had the fun opportunity to visit the third graders as they did their living museum. They had different projects they completed about famous inventors and scientists from history. Then they dressed up and told us a few things about the famous person as we came to them. Outstanding!
Fire Safety House {10/25/13}
The Fire Department joined us to talk about fire hazards and ways to stay safe. They brought the safety house to show different scenarios and have the children talk about the dangers and ways to avoid them.
Wetlands Weather {10/18/13}
We went on an adventure into the wetlands to take observations on the weather and find evidence of autumn. The children were great investigators and scientists.
Vermicomposting and Worm Observations
Today we had a fun filled fusion day! The entire day was dirty, messy, and a little stinky! First we deconstructed our living worm bin (vermicomposting bin) and then rebuilt it. We did observations of our red worms and were very curious. We listened to the book Compost Stew and watched the Dragonfly TV episode about a worm farm. This is just the beginning of our green classroom and the start of creating awareness in our building!
Dramatic Inquiry {9/13/13}
During Dramatic Inquiry with Mrs. G today, the students listened to the story "Michael Recycle and Litterbug Doug." This story is about Michael Recycle, a hero that teaches about conservation through recycling and the villain Litterbug Doug. The students did some fabulous activities with Mrs. G, one of them being "frozen pictures." In this activity, the students are given an idea that they need to show with their body language and freeze like statues. Then, Mrs. G chooses some to reanimate and say something for their scene.
SWACO Landfill Field Trip {9/11/2013}
Part of our conservation unit involves understanding what trash is and where it comes from. Once the students know this, they can start to help reduce it and create solutions to problem areas within their own communities. Now that we have done Garbology and have visited SWACO, we can begin the process of problem solving using collaboration, complex thinking, and communication. We will continue to learn about ways to help, put plans into action, and then share our knowledge with the school community as well as our homes.
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Wetlands Animal Adventure {9/5/13}
We went to the wetlands today looking for signs of animals and their prints/tracks. Single prints were easier to find than tracks, but we found some great things! We were able to make plaster molds of deer, goose, and (questionable) other prints. It was interesting to see what kids thought were prints or to see them excited about what was just a boot print! In the afternoon we went on a "search and rescue" mission to retrieve all the plaster prints. It will be great to clean them up, identify them, and write about them! Thank you to our helping hands from fabulous parents with this adventure!
Second Grade Brainstorm Session {8/30/13}
We joined with the rest of the second graders to discuss our Garbology findings and to begin the process of finding a solution to our waste problem. We calculated the total amount of sorted trash from 20 bags of trash (10 from Monday and 10 from Tuesday). We discussed different things this information could mean and then broke into groups to brainstorm ideas. The students were very involved and interested in fixing this problem. Some ideas included bringing washable containers instead of plastic sandwich bags, have recycling for different materials, proper use of a share table at lunch, and announcements/posters to make others aware of the changes that need to happen.
Carbon Footprints {8/30/13}
In order to help make Summit a better place, our students need to understand what a carbon footprint is. We watched Brain Pop: Humans and the Environment and reviewed the book The Lorax by Dr. Seuss. These 2 things helped us decide what positive and negative carbon footprints are. Using that information and our data from Garbology, we will be able to make a plan that will impact our decisions here at Summit.
Garbology {8/27/13}
Garbology, the study of garbage, can be a very messy job! Good thing we had the help of 2 fabulous moms, 1 dad, and some great staff members! Mrs. Martindale pulled the students together and explained what we were doing and why. Then the children were put into small groups. They literally dug through the garbage and sorted the items into groups. All food and liquids went into a bucket. They were amazed at the amount of waste found in one trash bag, including unopened milk, Doritos, and cookies!
Friday Wetlands Exploration {8/23/13}
We were able to do our first deep exploration in the wetlands. We noticed that the rain the yesterday made the water deeper. We also realized that when we look closer, we see more things. It was great fun dipping nets and filling containers with what we found!
Wednesday Wetlands Walk! {8/21/13}
Wednesday (8/21/13) we took a wonderful wetlands walk to observe and explore. We wrote in our journals and drew pictures of what we saw. This is the beginning of a year long unit about weather and the wetlands!
Birthday Days Photos
This year in our class, we have the months above our whiteboard. Each month that has a birthday in it will have a photo of the child with the day of their birthday. Here are our photos!