January Update

I have finally gotten back on here and boy is there a lot to report! I have been attempting to teach the students how to update on the blog. This is a work in progress and the goal is to have more frequent posts! Clearly, I am not good at this! :)

We have been up to a lot! We finished out Hangar Theater play with great success! They children did a tremendous job and I am very very proud of them. On Fridays we have been working with students from LACS. The project has been centered around indigenous people of New York State - primarily the Iroquois or Haudenosaunee people. As you might remember, this was also the topic of our Hangar Theater Play. We have been learning about the regions they originally inhabited and are comparing them to the regions they live in today. It's shocking! We are learning about their oral tradition and their Law of Peace. Check out the You Tube Video of the Peacemaker's Tale at the link below.

We have been studying the oral tradition and thinking about our own family traditions around stories. Talk with your child about any traditions you remember as a child. Was there a story that was passed down from your "elders"?

We have been learning about the Iroquois Confederacy, clan animals, wampum belts, and how the Iroquois had a matriarchal society.

Get into a discussion with your child about these topics with questions like:

• How is our society different from the Haudenosaunee?
• What is the purpose of the clans?
• Describe the Law of Peace and the story of the Peacemaker
• What is wampum and what was it used for?

Some important dates to keep in mind:

February 14 - Valentine's Day Party 1pm

February 20-24 - NO SCHOOL: Winter Recess

March 4 & 5 - 1/2 Days (Parent Teacher Conferences)

March 16 - No School

November UPdate!!!

We have been busy studying electricity and magnetism. As we are wrapping up our unit we are doing a cool experiment on electromagnets and different types of circuits.

Some important things to know about Magnetism:

• Magnets are attracted to iron or steel.
• If a material sticks to a magnet then it is made of, or partly of, iron or steel
• Magnets have a North poled and a South pole (also shown as + or -, respectively)
• "Opposites Attract" - If you put two positive ends or two negative ends of the magnets together they will repel. If you put a positive end with a negative end the magnets will attract.
  
• Induced Magnetism: the influence of a permanent magnet's magnetic field on a piece of iron, which makes the iron act like a magnet

We learned that the wire had to touch certain spots on the battery (power source) and the lightbulb (receiver) in order for the lightbulb to light. We built many different types of circuits. Some had motors for the receivers, some included switches for us to turn off an off, others had two batteries, and some had multiple receivers.

We learned about the difference between a series circuit and a parallel circuit.

A series circuit has more than one receiver that is powered by the same power source. In our case, we built a closed circuit that had one battery and two light-bulbs. With a series circuit the electricity comes out the positive side of the battery and into the first lightbulb and then the second. Because there is a constant flow of electricity from the battery, both bulbs stay lit; however, if one bulb burns out the flow of electricity is interrupted and the other lightbulb will turn off.

Here is an example of a series circuit:

The important thing to remember with series circuits is that the electricity enters

the first lightbulb and then the second. The second would not light without

the first. I relate it to a series of books. One comes out after another.

The second type of circuit we explored was a parallel circuit. In a parallel circuit both receivers share the same power source. The difference with this kind of circuit is that each receiver has it's own electric flow from the power source. The result is that if one bulb goes out, the others stay lit. This is how they finally learned to make holiday lights! I remember how many strings of lights would go in the garbage simply because one bulb went out, causing the rest to go out, and we had no replacements. I'm glad they switched from series circuits to parallel circuits!

Here is an example of a parallel circuit.:

Our latest Scientific process:

Question: How can we turn a steel rivet into a magnet that can turn on or off?
Hypothesis: We think we can add electricity.
Experiment: Using a battery, a switch, a special wire, a short wire, and a steel rivet we will create a magnet that can turn on and off
Stay tuned for the results!

Here are some photos of our material bins and us trying to conduct our experiment:



There is some really great information and some cool interactive activities on the Delta Education Foss website. We get our Science materials from this company. Have fun visiting it.

www.fossweb.com

Some Important dates:
November 20th - PTA Flapjack Breakfast
November 23-25 Thanksgiving Break

First Day of School!

What a wonderful first day of school! It was great to meet all of my students and to start learning about all of their unique and fabulous attributes. My digital camera was acting up, otherwise I would have a bunch of pictures of the happenings of the first day. We starting the day by organizing our desks and choosing our coat hooks. We learned many different routines that are present everyday like morning meeting, snack, hall-walking, recess, lining up, and end of the day procedures. I truly believe that clearly establishing these behavior expectations and practicing the behaviors allows students to be successful. I am very excited to continue building our classroom community and fostering a caring, respectful environment to maximize our class's social, emotional and academic growth. Have a great night and I will see you all tomorrow!

Back to School

Hello everyone! I cannot believe that it is the weekend before the first day of school.. I have been very busy setting up the classroom and am anxious for the space to be filled with fun and learning. This summer has been so wonderful, but I am always excited to get back into the swing of school. This year I have a new fourth grade colleague, Mr. Graham, who will be in Miss Coffey's room. Miss Coffey has taken a position as a Special Education teacher at Caroline. I am very happy that she will still be in the building! Anyway, I look forward to meeting all of my awesome students on Tuesday! Can't wait! :)

Crayfish and Beetles

We love our crayfish and our Bess beetles. We've been learning about their structures, their life cycles, and their behavior.  We learned a Bess beetle can pull up to 20 times its own weight!! Our crayfish is beginning to have eggs. We will post more as they mature.

Nathan's Family Share

We had the pleasure of hosting Nathan's dad, Rob, in our room today. He shared some really interesting facts about his career as an ear, nose, and throat doctor.  He also brought in some animal and human skulls to show us what he used to learn what he knows.  It was very interesting and we learned a lot.  A big thank you to Nathan's dad and Nathan for sharing with us!

Important Dates

  New York State Tests

    ELA Test: April 26, 27, 28

    Math test: May 5, 6, 7

    Science test:

            Performance: May 26

            Written: June  7

You can help your child on the test days by encouraging them to have a good night’s sleep and a good breakfast!

   8 square Schoolhouse Field Trip – May 24^th

A  permission slip will be sent home in the upcoming weeks.

Flag Day – June 14^th 

Last Day of School / Field Day - June 24th